TCM ran a programming tribute to director William Friedkin, who died in August, back in September. I mentioned then that there was actually a second part to the tribute coming up in November. That half is tonight, a double feature of the documentary Friedkin Uncut at 8:00 PM and The Exorcist at 10:00 PM.
With that in mind, I decided to watch one of the Friedkin movies that I had recorded from the first night of the tribute in order to be able to do a review on it today, figuring that would be appropriate. The movie I picked was To Live and Die in LA.
After opening credits that look fairly firmly planted in the 1980s -- the movie was released in late 1985 -- we get an establishing scene. Richard Chance (William Petersen) is a youngish Secret Service agent partnered with Jim Hart, who is nearing retirement. President Reagan is coming out to Los Angeles, and Chance and Hart are part of the team providing the security, since that's what the Secret Service is known for these days. Chance finds that there's a terrorist with what looks like dynamite strapped around his chest, and chases the guy to the roof. But unfortunately, the guy falls off the roof before Chance can apprehend him and remove the explosive belt.
In order to get away from the stress of having to defend the President -- and obviously, dealing with a guy with explosives strapped to him is stressful -- Chance and Hart are reassigned to what was the Service's original duty, that of rooting out counterfeiting. And they're about to get a doozy of a case.
It's about this point that we first see Eric Masters (Willem Dafoe), who has learned how to counterfeit and is pretty darn good at it, although there's always the question of how to offload the money and pass it into general circulation since that's the real point in counterfeiting. Masters is working in an old abandoned warehouse out in the desert, and the pickup is going to be in one of the dumpsters. Hart goes to investigate, but he's caught out in the dumpster, and for his trouble gets shot to death. At least he was obviously on the right track.
But Chance also needs a new partner, so at this point he's assigned young agent Vukovich (John Pankow). It's also about this point that we learn that Chance is corrupt, as he's bound to take down Masters even if it kills him. He's got a girlfriend Ruth, which is totally normal, except that Ruth is an informant who seems to be on probation or something so could get sent back to prison if she doesn't cooperate. And Chance has no compunctions about exploiting Ruth to get information.
As the movie goes on, we also learn that Chance has no qualms about taking evidence and even taking large sums of money to use to try to get at Masters. Vukovich is worried by this, but Chance being manipulative, he uses Vukovich's desire to be loyal to get Vukovich to remain silent about Chance's breaches of protocol. Vukovich at least tries to do the right thing in other ways, like getting an attorney to turn state's evidence. But things spin further and further out of control....
To Live and Die in LA is reminiscent of The French Connection in many ways, only 15 years later and on the other coast. It's a fairly complicated movie, one that really demands the viewer's attention, but it's also a pretty damn good movie. If you haven't seen To Live and Die in LA before, it's definitely one you should seek out an watch.
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