Film Reviews

Posted: Sat., Dec. 31, 1983, 11:00pm PT

Streets of Fire

Universal/RKO. Director Walter Hill; Producer Lawrence Gordon, Joel Silver; Screenplay Walter Hill, Larry Gross; Camera Andrew Laszlo; Editor Freeman Davies, Michael Ripps; Music Ry Cooder; Art Director John Vallone
Michael Pare Diane Lane Rick Moranis Amy Madigan Willem Dafoe Deborah Van Valkenburgh
Assembled by the team that created 48HRS. [1982], pic is a pulsing, throbbing orchestration careening around the rescue of a kidnapped young singer. The decor is urban squalor.

Movie has 10 original songs and musically the movie is continually hot, with lyrics charting the concerns of the narrative line, simplistic as it is.

Film also has undeniable texture. Smoke, neon, rainy streets, platforms of elevated subway lines, alleys and warehouses create an urban inferno in an unspecified time and place.

Diane Lane, whose singing voice is dubbed, looks great and is cast expertly. So are Willem Dafoe and Lee Ving.

Briefly seen as a stripper-dancer in the Bombers' hangout is Marine Jahan, who was the uncredited dancer in Flashdance.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1984. Running time: 94 MIN.

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