Behind the Scenes With My Favorite Actors: Sylvester Stallone in Cop Land

"They just keep their eyes closed and their mouths shut...just like me."

The Art of the Movie Poster: Stallone in '78 (A Double-Feature)

Keep Your Eye on Rashida Jones

A quick glance at the word "cool" in the dictionary should at least reference this delicious shot of Rashida Jones channelling Sylvester Stallone as Rocky. I first discovered the daughter of Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton on the American version of The Office a few years back and man is she delightful...plus uber talented and generous. A flat-out hilarious comedian, philanthropist, author, screenwriter, singer, compelling actress and all around well-liked human being Rashida Jones is one of the most enduring and extraordinary young artists that has come out of the past decade. She can currently be seen in David Fincher's universally acclaimed The Social Network and the wonderful series Parks and Recreation. Prospective members and fellow converts should also visit here.

Return To The Green Inferno

Sylvester Stallone’s RAMBO is the most entertaining, brutal, vicious, nihilistic and savagely bad-ass action film in almost 25 years. You would have to go back to the Italian cinema of the early eighties to find a more exhilarating and primal film than the one Stallone has delivered here.
RAMBO is the absolute opposite to pretty much any other film out right now which is one thing that makes it so incredibly refreshing. It’s a grueling, ugly, rain and mud soaked work that feels more like an authentic Grindhouse film from a few decades ago than any other modern film I could possibly imagine.
Stallone, directing as if he is channeling Ruggero Deodato, thankfully pulls the series out of the macho cheesiness that hampered Parts Two and Three and returns his iconic character to the downtrodden outsider that marked the masterful FIRST BLOOD twenty five years ago. If ROCKY BALBOA was a heartfelt haunting elegiac finale to his key series, then his RAMBO is a angry go for the throat attempt at reclaiming the action genre from the Michael Bay slick hell than it has found itself in the past two decades.
Beginning with some chilling real life news footage of modern day Burma, Stallone’s film centers on a group of Christian missionaries who seek out an American boatman named John Rambo to take them up the river where they can deliver medicine and supplies. After doing so, the missionaries are kidnapped and Rambo returns with a group of mercenaries to rescue them. That’s the plot of this lean and savage film in a nutshell. Like the best of Stallone’s work, the screenplay for RAMBO is a jewel of minimalism and simplicity. Stallone has always been a genius at taking the simplest of stories and transcending them into something unexpected and surprisingly complex, and RAMBO does just that.
RAMBO fits very nicely into the classic Hollywood mold that Stallone has always delighted into playing into. Here we have all of the stock characters of the genre…evil villains, a few key supporting characters and even a damsel in distress surrounding a lone isolated title figure. The genius of Stallone is that he values these standard conventions…he embraces them, and in his best work he finally transcends them.
Stallone’s new film is a triumph on nearly every front. Easily the best of the series since FIRST BLOOD, RAMBO works mostly as a tribute to just how powerful a figure Sylvester Stallone can be. Gone is the slender and musical vision that populated Parts Two and Three and in its place is a brooding beast of a man who casually tosses off lines like, “Fuck the world” and “Live for something or die for nothing” like a practiced mantra that he whispers to himself each morning upon waking up. Stallone’s Rambo is quite unlike any other character in film history…half hero and half horrific killing machine, John Rambo remains a terrifying and yet totally enduring creation.
Stallone's RAMBO might be the most violent film ever released with an R Rating in Hollywood history. It’s the kind of film SAVING PRIVATE RYAN would have been if Steven Spielberg had any real kind of film making balls, which he doesn’t. By the way, if someone like Spielberg’s name was attached to this film exactly as it is, it would be greeted as a revisionist classic by the same critics who are currently trashing Stallone. RAMBO is the kind of film that will invite disdain from the critical establishment, intellectuals and film snobs, but trust me, this film will last much longer than most of the ‘great’ film that will appear throughout the upcoming year.

I mentioned at the outset the Italian films of the early eighties and it is productions CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, THE NEW BARBARIANS and CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE that Stallone is clearly paying tribute to here. Fans of those films would be advised to check out RAMBO as soon as possible even if they have never admired the work of Sylvester Stallone. Even more than the works of more celebrated genre enthusiasts like Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Sylvester Stallone hits on an authentically brilliant and grimy feel with RAMBO that is incredibly seductive and hard to shake. With its many be-headings, severed limbs, stakings and stabbings, the carnage in RAMBO achieves an almost surreal and dizzying quality that is rarely seen in even the harshest of American or World cinema.
The difference between RAMBO and the Italian pictures that preceded it is a marked one though. Whereas Deodato had his cannibals, and Fulci had his zombies, Stallone has Stallone. Sylvester Stallone is his own greatest creation and as he did with ROCKY BALBOA, he return his second greatest character to an absolute grace with RAMBO.
I suppose it's not a perfect film and I am sure re-viewings will make its problems clearer but for now I just want to bask in the excitement of it. As the late Jerry Goldsmith's theme kicked in yesterday and RAMBO came to a close, I felt a real satisfaction that I rarely feel anymore in a theater. RAMBO will be a punching bag for critics and many film goers but I highly doubt I will enjoy or be more enthralled by another American film this year.

This Week at Harry Moseby Confidential.

Sandwiched between the most respected film in the Rocky series and one of the most popular, Sylvester Stallone's 1979 film Rocky II has never gotten the attention or respect it deserves. I will be paying tribute to this special film all week long starting tomorrow at Harry Moseby Confidential and invite everyone over throughout the week to give a look if they would like. I'll be focusing on different aspects of the film and offering some thoughts, exclusive screenshots and wallpapers...plus a look at the remarkable out of print novel Stallone himself wrote in 1979 to go along with the film.

Thanks to my readers here who came over for last week's Smokey and The Bandit tribute and left comments. It was a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate the week after graduation.

On a personal note, I would like to dedicate the upcoming tribute to Rocky II to my friend Casey who I just found out is expecting her first child. Casey is one of the only one of my old friends, that I know of, who visits Moon In The Gutter on a regular basis and she is also one of the only people I know who loves the Rocky films and Sylvester Stallone as much as I do. I hope she enjoys the posts and I wish her all the happiness in the world on her upcoming adventure.

Overlooked Classics: Nighthawks (1981)

Nighthawks is, by nearly all accounts, a film that should have probably been a failure. Plagued immediately by directorial problems, clashes between the actors, underwritten back story lines and on location difficulties, it is probably a miracle that Nighthawks got completed at all. It did get finished though and amazingly enough it is a successful film, in fact at its best Nighthawks remains one of the most exciting cop films to come out of the eighties which is no small feat by any means.
Scripted by The Warriors screenwriter David Shaber, Nighthawks tells the story of an international terrorist on the loose in New York City and the two cops who are out to stop him. Television director Gary Nelson had originally been attached to the project but was removed almost immediately and star Sylvester Stallone took over for at least one key sequence (although rumor has it that he actually directed more) before relative novice Bruce Malmuth took over the challenging project.
Malmuth’s filmography is relatively small with a few acting credits and just a handful of directorial titles to his credit. Nighthawks biggest liability is problems with its tone and this can perhaps be blamed on Malmuth’s inexperience and the fact that more than one man had their hand in directing the film.
Stallone, looking great here bearded and giving one of his best performances, plays Detective Deke DaSilva and his partner, Detective Matthew Fox is played by the sly and always cool Billy Dee Williams. Filling out the rest of the cast are legendary character actor Joe Spinell as the Lieutenant and the original Bionic Woman herself Lindsay Wagner as DaSilva’s girlfriend Irene.
Perhaps the films greatest assist though can be found in the casting of the role of the terrorist, Wulfgar. The incredible Dutch actor Rutger Hauer had just been known mostly for the amazing set of films he had appeared in for director Paul Verhoeven in the seventies. Nighthawks marks his earliest English language role and predates his legendary turn in Blade Runner by a year. Hauer is simply stunning in Nighthawks and his Wulgar is one of the most simultaneously chilling and charming terrorists in screen history.

Nighthawks works best in the action sequences that are spread throughout the film. From the thrilling opening on foot chase by Stallone through the streets of New York to the Battle Of Algiers like introduction of Hauer’s character, Nighthawks gets off and running immediately. The film is filled with many impressive sequences, almost all of which are helped immeasurably by Stallone’s insistence at doing as many of his own stunts as possible, with special note going to the brilliantly shot Roosevelt Island sky-lift scene. Special mention has to go to the late Stunt Coordinator Dar Robinson who sets up some of the most chilling and memorable work in his career here. Robinson would deliver another one of his finest achievements the same year with Burt Reynold’s incredible Sharky’s Machine. He would be killed tragically just a few years after both films were first released.
While Nighthawks best moments can be found in its action sequences, it also works well as a tough buddy cop movie and the chemistry between Stallone and Williams is a really nice and balanced one. Williams might be a little too slick at times but he has an undeniable charisma and works well here for the most part. Stallone on the other hand is just awesome. His performance as the bitter and fed up DaSilva is one of his great creations and the images of him walking through the streets of New York exuding the kind of superstar charisma rarely seen anymore are some of the most iconic and unforgettable shots of the period.
The rest of the supporting cast is fairly solid as well. It is always a pleasure to see Joe Spinell and his scenes are splendid. They also have a bit of sadness to them as they mark the last time he would work with his friend Stallone. The two would have a falling out after Nighthawks and the talented Spinell would be dead in less than a decade after Nighthawks.
Lindsay Wagner is the most troubling aspect of Nighthawks. She does the best she can with the role but the part, and the relationship with DaSilva, is so underwritten that one wishes the unnecessary love story would have just been removed from the film. Still it is always a pleasure to see Wagner in any role and she does have a couple of nice moments with Stallone and the relationship does at least allow the key concluding set up in the film.

Nighthawks is a nicely shot film and television cinematographer James A. Contner gives it a suitably grimy and downtrodden feel. The film also benefits heavily from the cutting styles of Stanford Allen and Christopher Holmes. Allen had worked with Stallone previously on the gripping Rocky 2 and Holmes had cut his editing teeth on some of the mid seventies best exploitation films, including Dirty Mary Crazy Larry.

Prog rock legend Keith Emerson provides Nighthawks with one of its more debated aspects, the score. His work here seems to be either a fan favorite or one of the most despised aspects of the film. I like it for the most part even though it does suffer from the same overcrowding and overbearing aspects of most of his work. Emerson had just scored the more successful Inferno soundtrack for Dario Argento and while Nighthawks is nowhere near as good as that it actually isn’t that bad of a soundtrack. One does have to wonder what a subtler composer might have brought to the table for Nighthawks and how it might have affected the film.
Nighthawks came out in the spring of 1981 to mixed reviews and so-so business. It wasn’t the smash Stallone had hoped for although it was a solid hit. Within a year though Stallone would score huge with both Rocky 3 and First Blood, both of which cemented him as one of the biggest stars of the eighties.

Nighthawks would become a solid hit on VHS and is now available on two very distinct DVDS. The original Goodtimes version features all of the original songs used, including The Rolling Stones Brown Sugar, but it is unfortunately a full frame VHS port. The newer DVD does have a nice sharp widescreen presentation but it is has replaced a couple of the songs due to copyright reasons and the film suffers from it. The often-rumored deleted scenes have still not surfaced, as both discs are unfortunately free of extras of any kind save for the trailer (where some of the deleted footage can be seen).
Nighthawks is a great imperfect film that has often fallen in the shadow of some of Stallone’s other more financially successful work. Its introduction of Rutger Hauer alone to American audiences make it an important work, but the film has proven extremely resonate and can now be viewed as one of the classic cop films of its day. One wishes that the original version would surface as Stallone had this to say to Ain’t It Cool News just over a year ago:
“NIGHTHAWKS was even a better film before the studio lost faith in it and cut it to pieces. What was in the missing scenes was extraordinary acting by Rutger Hauer, Lindsey Wagner, and the finale was a blood fest that rivaled the finale of "Taxi Driver." But it was a blood fest with a purpose.”