A Synopsis Of Streets Of Fire
Walter Hill is one of the most incredible directors of the last thirty or forty years
, always capable of banging out a great, unpretentious, action packed flick. In the mid eighties, he sat down with a notebook and wrote a checklist of everything he wanted to see in the greatest movie ever, and the result was Streets of Fire, one of the all time cult eighties movie downloads.
The film takes place in a city trapped somewhere between the nineteen fifties and the nineteen eighties, following Tom Cody, a war hero returning to his hometown upon hearing that his old girlfriend, Ellen Aim, has been kidnapped by Raven, the leader of the local biker gang. The film takes place in a beautiful, glitzy, rainy, neon lit city.
Something that really helps to define the movie is the music. Again, it blends the style of the fifties with the eighties, so you have those great old Doo Wop dance rock songs treated with a layer of synth rock and roll and dramatic female vocals. Ellen Aim's band, The Attackers, features prominently in the film. One of these songs, I Can Dream About You, actually climbed up pretty high on the charts.
The story is fairly stock, but because of the setting and music, it's really elevated to something more than just cliche. Rather, it's archetypal, the film is elevated to the level of fairy tale or legend by the stock characters and situations. The girl is kidnapped, the hero saves her, the end, sure, but it really does play out as a Rock and Roll fairy tale or fable.
Walter Hill has remained one of the great directors of the last few decades, but rarely gets the respect he really deserves as such. He continues to knock it out of the park with more recent films like Undisputed, and earns acclaim with each new film, but is rarely mentioned alongside Scorsese or Brian dePalma, which is truly a shame, as he's certainly one of the most entertaining directors alive.
Besides the rock and roll, the film also has a score written by blues legend Ry Cooder. The earthy, bluesy feel of his slide guitar offers a contrast to the glossy feel of the rest of the soundtrack, and drives home the "down to earthness" of Tom Cody, the character most frequently accompanied by Cooder's guitar score.
If you want a great double feature, watch Streets of Fire alongside The Warriors. The Warriors is, similarly, a sort of Rock and Roll, street fable, but takes the concept in a rougher, tougher, more gritty direction, while Streets of Fire is a little more glossy, a little more pretty and colorful in comparison to The Warriors and its title street gang heroes.
There was to be a pair of sequels to the film, but, sadly, they never panned out, as Streets of Fire didn't exactly set the box office on fire. Today, the film has become a major cult classic, but it wasn't easy to market twenty odd years ago. Check it out and see why it's one of the all time coolest action flicks.
by: Gail Mcfadden
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