Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Angel Heart (1987) - Parker's stylish devil-lurking holds limited punch

9/18/2013

Angel Heart (1987) - Parker's stylish devil-lurking holds limited punch

♥♥♥

Robert De Niro in ominous, omnipresent black surrounds Mickey Rourke's desperate protagonist on this dark poster for Alan Parker's Angel Heart

In 1955's New York, detective Angel takes an assignment from a man with long nails called Louis Cypher: He is to track down a lost crooner by the name Johnny Favorite. It leads Angel to New Orleans, where corpses start to get in the way in a case that entails a sombre relation to black magic.

Angel Heart is written and directed by great English filmmaker Alan Parker (Bugsy Malone (1976)), adapting William Hjortsberg's (Gray Matters (1971)) novel Falling Angel (1978). It combines an erotic detective thriller with mystery and religious elements.
The depiction of the 1950s milieu in New York and New Orleans is brimming with atmosphere, - especially the film's dirty South half.
Unfortunately, Parker's script doesn't keep up with the pleasures of the film's visual side: The copious yet sudden ending doesn't get the necessary clout to really stick. The film remains interesting but not truly successful. Mickey Rourke (The Crawl (2001)) is auspicious in another colorful detective movie, (though Michael Cimino's great Year of the Dragon (1985) is better), SPOILER and Robert De Niro (Ronin (1998)) is memorable as the devil in disguise.

Related post:

Alan Parker: The Commitments (1991) - 90's hole-in-the-wall Ireland gives birth to ... - A soul sensation!

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 18 mil. $
Box office: 17.1 mil. $ (North America only)
= Some uncertainty - but almost certainly a big flop (returned 0.95 times its cost domestically)
[Angel Heart was released 6 March (USA) and runs 113 minutes. Hjortsberg adapted his novel and wanted it adapted after its publication, but studios were wary of the dark property, until Parker became involved and secured financing through indie company Carolco International. Bill Cosby helped cast Lisa Bonet (Biker Boyz (2003)), star of his The Cosby Show (1984-91), - and panned the film as racist when it was released. Shooting took place in New Jersey, New York and in Louisiana, including New Orleans, from March - July 1986. The MPAA initially gave the film an X-rating, forcing Parker to edit out ten seconds of Rourke's buttocks from a sex scene to receive the R-rating. The film opened #4, behind fellow new release Lethal Weapon and holdover hits A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Platoon, to a 3.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America. The foreign grosses are regrettably unreported online: A likely final gross of 20-25 mil. $ would put the film in the big flop category. Roger Ebert gave it a 3½/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. Parker returned with Mississippi Burning (1988). Rourke returned in A Prayer for the Dying (1987); De Niro in The Untouchables (1987). Angel Heart is fresh at 77 % with a 7.16/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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9/18/2013

Angel Heart (1987) - Parker's stylish devil-lurking holds limited punch

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