Sometimes an actor becomes a star with just one scene.
Roger Ebert noted in his review, “Jack Nicholson did it in “Easy Rider,”
wearing the football helmet on the back of the motorcycle.” It happened to Faye
Dunaway when she looked tiredly out of a screen window at Warren Beatty in “Bonnie
and Clyde.” With “48 Hrs.,” it happens to Eddie Murphy.
His unforgettable scene comes about halfway through
the film. He plays a convict who has done thirty months for theft and has six
months left – but he gets a forty-eight-hour prison leave because of Nick
Nolte, a hungover hothead detective who’s on the path of some cop murderers and
thinks Murphy can help. Murphy thinks there’s a bartender who may have some
information. Ebert noted, “The thing is, the bar is a redneck country joint,
the kind where urban cowboys drink out of longneck bottles and salute the
Confederate flag on the wall. Murphy has been jiving Nolte about how he can
handle any situation.” Nolte gives him a chance. Murphy, mocking a police officer,
walks into the bar, takes command, completely intimidates everybody, and gets
his information. Ebert credited, “It’s a great scene — the mirror image of that
scene in “The French Connection” where Gene Hackman, as Popeye Doyle,
intimidated the black regulars in a Harlem bar.”
Murphy has other good moments in the film, as does Nolte,
who gives a great performance as a skeptical, irresponsible, and immature cop
who’s always saying lies to his girlfriend and sneaking a sip of whiskey out of
his own flask. The two men began suspicious of each other in the film and end
up having a warm dislike. Eventually, grudgingly, a type of respect starts to
happen.
Ebert said, “The movie’s story is nothing to write
home about. It’s pretty routine.” What makes the movie special is how it’s
made. Nolte and Murphy and good, and their dialogue is good too – original and
funny.
James Remar makes a really evil villain, realistically
bad. Annette O’Toole gets the role of Nolte’s lover, but it’s another one of
those thankless women’s roles. Ebert said, “Not only could O’Toole have phoned
it in — but she does, spending most of her scenes on the telephone calling
Nolte a no-good bum.” The direction is by Walter Hill, who has never been any
good at scenes with women and doesn’t improve this time. What he is good at is
action, male camaraderie, and atmosphere. His movies almost always have at least
one wonderfully choreographed, unbelievably violent fight scene (Ebert asked, “remember
Charles Bronson’s bare-knuckle fight in “Hard Times“?”), and the fight scene
this time is tiring.
Where Hill grows in this movie is in his ability to
create characters. Ebert mentioned, “In a lot of his earlier movies (“The
Warriors,” “The Driver,” “The Long Riders,” “Southern Comfort“) he preferred
men who were symbols, who represented things and so didn’t have to be human. In
“48 Hrs.,” Nolte and Murphy are human, vulnerable, and touching. Also mean,
violent, and chauvinistic.” It’s that type of movie.
This is a great movie. If you haven’t seen this movie,
you’re missing out. You should definitely check this one out because it’s a
classic and everyone will love it. This is currently streaming on Paramount+,
so if you have that, see it and have an enjoyable time. This one is for the
Nolte and Murphy fans, as I believe this was Murphy’s film debut.
I don’t think it comes as a surprise that this film
was so successful that it had a sequel. However, if you want to know how that
one is, stay tuned next week to find out in “Nick Nolte Month.”
