Hi everyone! Since I have looked at The Indiana Jones Series, now it will be fun to look at another classic action series: The Lethal Weapon Series. Lethal Weapon (which is a Christmas action movie) came out in 1987 and it was written by Shane Black, who came up with deep characters about a suicidal cop and a partner who thinks he fakes it. He made it action packed, gave it a thick plot and deep themes, and although he was a new writer, the studio was willing to take risks and buy his script, as it seemed good, as studios did that at the time. They paid him 1 million dollars. Imagine how that must have felt being a new writer and making a million overnight. Joel Silver became the producer, and he was an active action producer that would produce all 3 Matrix Films, as well as the 2 original Predator films, and the first 2 Die Hard Films. He had Shane Black make some rewrites, deepening character development and working action into the story. And then they got Richard Donner as director, a great director who had already directed Superman: the Movie and The Goonies. He wasn`t just a director for hire. He had Shane Black add humor to the script, better action, made Riggs even deeper, and strengthened the plot and themes. He got a low budget of 15 million dollars, but he was such a detailed director on the camera work and special visual effects, it barely showed. He got Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the lead roles, he is a detailed director on actors also, and helped them act the character parts, but also let them improvise lines when he thought it worked. This is how Lethal Weapon came to be a truly brilliant film.
The film has a thick plot, with a mystery of how the drug dealers tie into the police and how to find them. It is a more sophisticated action film, and it has deep characters. Riggs is suicidal, and also violent, yet he’s also scared and lonely. He is a caring person, and he grows more relaxed and happy when Murtaugh is supportive and understanding of him, Murtaugh grows to be more open to people outside his family, and to be more proactive when needed. They both grow as a team, and this is all well developed. Murtaugh is more cautious, and calm, yet controlling, and also a loving father. Then we have the villains. Joshua is loyal, yet violent, and extreme, and his boss (played by Mitchell Ryan) is abusive, threatening, and manipulative. All of the characters are deep, the film has great heart and emotion, and all the actors portraying them are great. Mel Gibson is intense, and can really get the sadness across. Danny Glover has the calm and wisdom, and Gary Busey is menacing, and very violent.
Also the film has great themes. It really comments on the dangers of getting in a corrupt business, as Murtaugh’s old Vietnam War acquaintance, Michael Hunsaker, played by Tom Atkins, tried to protect his daughter, Amanda’s (played by Jackie Swanson) reputation, but she got murdered, and he later on also gets murdered. They even kidnap Riggs and Murtaugh, there is no way out, and also Riggs finds the importance of family and support in them, and they risk their lives for them, as they are what give them purpose. The criminals used them as hostages, it made them vulnerable, but it also gave them their strength. The film also has funny and deep dialogue, and it has great action with shooting but also grenades and cars crashing against buses, and shooting through cars and shooting through glass, with fast fluent direction and editing. It has detailed special visual effects, realistic glass, explosion, and crashing suits, the film has really emotional and exciting music, and dramatic direction that focuses on the characters moving with them in a fluent fashion. It has great production values and acting, and a great script.
This is a classic, it was a big box office hit and critically acclaimed, and has a huge fan base to this day. I give it a 10, go see it, it's another one of my favorite films.
Danny Glover told James Lipton when he was interviewed on Inside the Actors Studio that Roger Murtaugh was 50 and was White in the original script, but when they read the script at Richard Donner's house and there was some chemistry going on at the time between the two of them. Danny even remembers one of the Warner Bros. executives asking, "When do we shoot?" Danny said, "It's so special. Certainly African Americans have middle-class aspirations: the idea of having a house, a boat, there are not always aspirations which find themselves mired in a inter-city setting or a rural southern setting. So this is an opportunity to use this as a vehicle to talk about or highlight those aspirations. Then you have this other wacko White guy. It has perfect sense where this African American humanizes this White guy in a different way." The roles were really reversed and the central love story is between Murtaugh and Riggs. Danny has said, "Mel has such a generous heart, it is generous as an actor and very accessible as an actor, and you can feel vulnerable around him. Most of the time we play with vulnerability, like in real life. But to feel vulnerable around someone, and to really care about someone is something that you don't often get to do as an actor. There's a great deal of real vulnerability that is happening between the two of us" (Glover). Danny says that the racial factor in casting never goes away, but if it did, then we would embark on new territory, but because we begin to have another dialogue, let's talk about the racism in a real sense and what we feel. We begin to talk about that instead of something we keep as a distance, but realize it becomes a part of who we are, our understanding, our healing, then we would embark on whole new level, a whole other place.
If you liked this review, stay tuned for next week in the "Lethal Weapon Month" review, where I will review Lethal Weapon 2. Also, watch reviewreviewer1's YouTube videos, since he helped write this blog.
The film has a thick plot, with a mystery of how the drug dealers tie into the police and how to find them. It is a more sophisticated action film, and it has deep characters. Riggs is suicidal, and also violent, yet he’s also scared and lonely. He is a caring person, and he grows more relaxed and happy when Murtaugh is supportive and understanding of him, Murtaugh grows to be more open to people outside his family, and to be more proactive when needed. They both grow as a team, and this is all well developed. Murtaugh is more cautious, and calm, yet controlling, and also a loving father. Then we have the villains. Joshua is loyal, yet violent, and extreme, and his boss (played by Mitchell Ryan) is abusive, threatening, and manipulative. All of the characters are deep, the film has great heart and emotion, and all the actors portraying them are great. Mel Gibson is intense, and can really get the sadness across. Danny Glover has the calm and wisdom, and Gary Busey is menacing, and very violent.
Also the film has great themes. It really comments on the dangers of getting in a corrupt business, as Murtaugh’s old Vietnam War acquaintance, Michael Hunsaker, played by Tom Atkins, tried to protect his daughter, Amanda’s (played by Jackie Swanson) reputation, but she got murdered, and he later on also gets murdered. They even kidnap Riggs and Murtaugh, there is no way out, and also Riggs finds the importance of family and support in them, and they risk their lives for them, as they are what give them purpose. The criminals used them as hostages, it made them vulnerable, but it also gave them their strength. The film also has funny and deep dialogue, and it has great action with shooting but also grenades and cars crashing against buses, and shooting through cars and shooting through glass, with fast fluent direction and editing. It has detailed special visual effects, realistic glass, explosion, and crashing suits, the film has really emotional and exciting music, and dramatic direction that focuses on the characters moving with them in a fluent fashion. It has great production values and acting, and a great script.
This is a classic, it was a big box office hit and critically acclaimed, and has a huge fan base to this day. I give it a 10, go see it, it's another one of my favorite films.
Danny Glover told James Lipton when he was interviewed on Inside the Actors Studio that Roger Murtaugh was 50 and was White in the original script, but when they read the script at Richard Donner's house and there was some chemistry going on at the time between the two of them. Danny even remembers one of the Warner Bros. executives asking, "When do we shoot?" Danny said, "It's so special. Certainly African Americans have middle-class aspirations: the idea of having a house, a boat, there are not always aspirations which find themselves mired in a inter-city setting or a rural southern setting. So this is an opportunity to use this as a vehicle to talk about or highlight those aspirations. Then you have this other wacko White guy. It has perfect sense where this African American humanizes this White guy in a different way." The roles were really reversed and the central love story is between Murtaugh and Riggs. Danny has said, "Mel has such a generous heart, it is generous as an actor and very accessible as an actor, and you can feel vulnerable around him. Most of the time we play with vulnerability, like in real life. But to feel vulnerable around someone, and to really care about someone is something that you don't often get to do as an actor. There's a great deal of real vulnerability that is happening between the two of us" (Glover). Danny says that the racial factor in casting never goes away, but if it did, then we would embark on new territory, but because we begin to have another dialogue, let's talk about the racism in a real sense and what we feel. We begin to talk about that instead of something we keep as a distance, but realize it becomes a part of who we are, our understanding, our healing, then we would embark on whole new level, a whole other place.
No comments:
Post a Comment