Walter Hill
1984
Universal Pictures
93 minutes
Streets of Fire is a pretty okay movie by the director of the greatest street gang film of all time, The Warriors. Many of this film's features are similar its predecessor: the urban setting dominated by criminals, the emphasis on nighttime, travel by subway, dirty buildings, empty concrete spaces, large congregations of gang members. Streets of Fire is fun to watch but it lacks the constant pressure and intensity of The Warriors. Instead the film has this mix of punk and faux-50s noir asthetic of gritty streets and 'Nighthawk' type diners and Marlon Brando style bikers.
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| Nighthawks by Edward Hopper (1942) |
The film is about a nearly famous nightclub singer and her ex-boyfriend returning to the city from somewhere where he got really good at fighting people. They become entangled with an outlaw biker gang called The Bombers, based on the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club from The Wild One. They go back and forth until a big fight scene with sledgehammers at the end of the movie between the boyfriend and Raven, the leader of The Bombers, who dresses like a Nazi officer.
Probably the best feature of the movie is a minor element, the small role played by Lee Fing, frontman of Fear. He does the cheerleading in support of Raven during the final fight scene, shouting out words of encouragement in his Fear voice.
Oh, also the film ends with a soul group performing called The Sorels, who I suspect are named after Georges Sorel.
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