To Live and Die in LA **** (1985, William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, Debra Feuer, Dean Stockwell, John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel, Robert Downey Jr) – Classic Movie Review 9,612

William Petersen stars as reckless FBI man Richie Chance, chasing Eric Masters (Willem Dafoe), the bank-note forger who murders his FBI buddy, in director William Friedkin’s dazzling, terrifying 1985 non-stop action thriller To Live and Die in LA. 

William L Petersen is excellent as Richard ‘Richie’ Chance, a reckless FBI man chasing Eric Masters (Willem Dafoe), the bank-note forger who murders his FBI buddy Jim Hart (Michael Greene), in director William Friedkin’s dazzling, terrifying 1985 non-stop action thriller To Live and Die in LA.

Another agent John Vukovich (John Pankow) is assigned to work with Chance as his new partner. Needing funds to continue their obsessive pursuit, the two FBI men pull a heist that brings them into collision with Masters (Dafoe).

Director Friedkin, pulling all the stops out, scores a bull’s-eye in aiming at an Eighties LA update on his 1971 The French Connection. Unfortunately its extremes of amorality, violence and strong language seemed to put people off at the time. But this is a remarkable film. In this desperate view of people living on the edge of the world, everything and everyone is corrupt and ugly.

Capturing the essence of LA’s underbelly, Friedkin films in sleazy dead-end locations with a Miami Vice-style gloss and ensures it really does deliver as an action movie, and there is even a car chase to rival the one in The French Connection.

To Live and Die in LA is dark and scary, electrifying stuff, excitingly directed by Friedkin and brilliantly shot by Robby Müller.

Friedkin’s and Gerald Petievich’s screenplay is based on Gerald Petievich’s novel.

Also in the interesting cast are Debra Feuer, Dean Stockwell, John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel, Robert Downey Jr, Michael Greene, Christopher Allport, Jack Hoar, Valentin de Vargas, Dwier Brown and Jane Leaves.

To Live and Die in LA is directed by William Friedkin, runs 116 minutes, is made by SLM Production Group, New Century Productions and United Artists, is released by MGM/UA Distribution Company (1985) (US) and United International Pictures (UIP) (1986), is written by William Friedkin and Gerald Petievich, based on Gerald Petievich’s novel, is shot by Robby Müller, is produced by Irving H Levin, is scored by Wang Chung and is designed by Lilly Kilvert.

William Friedkin (August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) directed The French Connection (1971), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and for himself Best Director, and The Exorcist (1973), for which he was Oscar nominated as Best Director.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,612

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