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Streets of Fire
Streets of Fire is a 1984 American action crime neo-noir film directed by Walter Hill, from a screenplay by Hill and Larry Gross. Described on the poster and in the opening credits as "A Rock & Roll Fable", the film combines elements of the automobile culture and music from the 1950s with the fashion style and sociology of the 1980s.[2] Starring Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis, Amy Madigan, Willem Dafoe, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, E.G. Daily, and Bill Paxton, the film follows ex-soldiers Tom Cody (Paré) and McCoy (Madigan) as they embark on a mission to rescue Cody's ex-girlfriend Ellen Aim (Lane), who was kidnapped by Raven Shaddock (Dafoe), the leader of an outlaw motorcycle gang called The Bombers. Streets of Fire was theatrically released in the United States on June 1, 1984, to mixed reviews from critics and was a box office failure, grossing $8 million against its $14.5 million budget. PlotIn Richmond, a city district in a near future dystopian time period that resembles the 1950s (labelled "another time, another place"), Ellen Aim, lead singer of the rock band Ellen Aim and the Attackers, has returned home for a concert. The Bombers, a biker gang from another part of town called the Battery, led by Raven Shaddock, crash the concert and kidnap Ellen. Witnessing this is Reva Cody, who telegrams her brother Tom, an ex-soldier and Ellen's ex-boyfriend, asking him to come home. Upon his return, Tom defeats a small gang of greasers and takes their car. Reva tries to convince Tom to rescue Ellen, but he refuses. Tom then goes to a local tavern, the Blackhawk, where he meets a tomboyish mechanic and ex-soldier named McCoy and lets her stay with him and Reva. That night, Tom has a change of heart and agrees to talk to Ellen's manager and current boyfriend, Billy Fish, about rescuing her. While Reva and McCoy go to the diner where Reva works, Tom acquires a cache of weapons, including a pump action shotgun, a revolver, and a lever action rifle. Tom meets Billy at the diner, and Billy agrees to pay him $10,000, but Tom also requires that Billy accompany him into the Battery to get Ellen, since he used to live there. McCoy also talks Tom into cutting her in for 10% in exchange for her help. In the Battery, they go to Torchie's, a club where Billy used to book bands and where Raven has Ellen tied up in an upstairs bedroom. McCoy enters and is led upstairs by one of the Bombers, whom she knocks out before holding Raven and some of his gang members at gunpoint. Meanwhile, Tom creates a diversion outside by shooting the gas tanks on the gang's motorcycles, and then rescues Ellen. Tom sends Ellen off with McCoy and Billy in the convertible, telling them to meet him at the Grant Street underpass and blows up the gas pumps outside a bar. Raven confronts Tom and warns him that he will be coming for Ellen and for him, too. Tom escapes on the one intact motorcycle and meets up with the others. The group is joined by "Baby Doll", a fan of Ellen's, who warns them that the police are looking for the people who were behind the attack at Torchie’s. To escape, the group hijacks the tour bus of a doo-wop group called the Sorels. The bus is eventually stopped by a police blockade. Billy tries to get rid of the corrupt police officers by bribing them, but Tom and McCoy have to resort to holding the police at gunpoint and shooting up their vehicles. The group, along with the Sorels, ditch the bus and take a train back to Richmond. Raven meets with Ed Price, the head of the police department, and promises him no more trouble if he arranges for Tom to meet with him alone. Price plans on arresting Raven, so he tells Tom to get out of town, so as to avoid any more violence. Tom goes to the hotel where Ellen and Billy are staying to collect his reward, but he takes only McCoy's cut and throws the rest back at Billy. As Tom storms out, Ellen follows and the two embrace in the rain. After having sex, Tom and Ellen discuss the possibility of eloping. Price, with reinforcements, is just about to arrest Raven, but is ambushed by an overwhelming number of Bombers. Meanwhile, Ellen is on a train with Tom and McCoy, believing that Tom is leaving with her, but Tom knocks out Ellen and returns to town to confront Raven. Tom and Raven duel using sledgehammers and their fists, with Tom ultimately being victorious. The defeated gang carries their leader away. Later, at a concert, the Sorels open for Ellen and her band. Tom bids farewell to Ellen, promising that he’ll always be there for her if she needs him. Ellen performs on stage, while Tom rides off with McCoy. Cast
ProductionDevelopmentThe concept for Streets of Fire came together during the making of 48 Hrs., and reunited director Walter Hill with screenwriter Larry Gross, and producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver, all of whom worked together on that production.[3] Gross later recalled:
According to Hill, the film's origins came out of a desire to make what he thought was a perfect film when he was a teenager, and put in all of the things that he thought were "great then and which I still have great affection for: custom cars, kissing in the rain, neon, trains in the night, high-speed pursuit, rumbles, rock stars, motorcycles, jokes in tough situations, leather jackets and questions of honor".[5] According to Gross, Hill wanted to make a film about a comic book hero, but since he did not like "any of the comic books" he had read, he wanted it to be an original character. "He wanted to create his own 'comic book movie', without the source material actually being a comic book", said Gross, which led to the creation of Tom Cody.[4] WritingThe four men began planning Streets of Fire while completing 48 Hrs. Gross published a diary from the shoot of 48 Hours which had an entry dated 12 August 1982, the night before filming on that movie started:
During 48 Hours, Gross said he thought that Hill had received "a bum rap on the woman question" over the years. "People think that he doesn't like women and he knows that's not true. I think that's going to be demonstrated even more clearly in his next films. He told me he's going to do this new thing: he's going to put a female character right in the centre of the narrative."[7] Gross later said they were affected "as everyone was at the time" by the success of Flashdance and they decided during writing that the film would be a musical:
Hill thought "the audience will go with you when you set up an abstract world with teenage values and play out a drama within this. It was kind of real but it wasn't really. I always said whenever someone says fantasy they immediately think of more Disney-esque. The idea of a hard hitting drama in a fantasy world, that was kind of different at the time... I always thought of it as a musical. They kind of saw it worked in the world of an MTV video."[8] Gross says he and Hill were also influenced by the teen films of John Hughes.
Gross says Hill did not want the film to be too violent. As a result, it was decided that no blood would be shown and none of the characters would die. "He'd say it would be inappropriate to direct this movie if there were any blood", said Gross. "We’re in the world of Cocteau, we’re in the world of Beauty and the Beast. This is a fairy tale. Now...he neglected to mention that some fairy tales are very violent."[4] Gross and Hill would work out their ideas in detail. Gross would do a draft and Hill would rewrite it. "He did not love creating scripts from scratch; he loved rewriting." By this stage however, Gross and Hill had worked together so closely Gross says "I began to develop a strong sense for knowing how to sound like he did."[4] FinancingWhen the script was finished, they sent it to Paramount. Gross says that Jeff Berg, Hill's agent, Larry Gordon, and Michael Eisner, head of production at Paramount, "got into some kind of a fight when the script was finished. We learned later that, I believe, Eisner rejected it on the grounds that it was too similar to Indiana Jones. Conceptually. So they didn't pull the trigger and Berg ended up selling it to Universal."[4] They submitted the script to Universal executive Bob Rehme in January 1983, and by the end of the weekend, the studio had greenlit the production. This was the fastest greenlight Hill had ever received for a film, and he owed the decision to the box office success of 48 Hours.[5][9][10] The titleThe film's title came from a song written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen on his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town.[11][12] Negotiations with Springsteen for rights to the song delayed production several times.[3] Originally, plans were made for the song to be featured on the film's soundtrack, to be sung by Ellen Aim at the end of the film, but when Springsteen was told that the song would be re-recorded by other vocalists, he withdrew permission for the song to be used.[11] Jim Steinman was brought in to write the opening and closing songs, and "Streets of Fire" was replaced by "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young".[3] The studio claimed that they replaced Springsteen's song because it was a "downer".[11] CastingWhen it came to casting the movie, Hill wanted to go with a young group of relative unknowns. Gross says "There was always the idea that we were going to discover a new Steve McQueen, you know? A young, white guy who would ride a motorcycle and have a carbine over his shoulder and be a mainstream icon."[4] Among the actors they saw for the role of Tom Cody were Tom Cruise, Eric Roberts, and Patrick Swayze. Gross says they wanted Cruise and made him an offer, but he had already accepted another role.[4] Hill heard about Michael Paré from the same agent who recommended Eddie Murphy to him for 48 Hrs (his then-girlfriend and later wife Hildy).[5] At the time he was cast in March 1983, Paré had appeared in two films, Eddie and the Cruisers and Undercover, which had not yet been released.[13] For Hill, Paré "had the right quality. He was the only actor I found who was right for the part ...a striking combination of toughness and innocence."[5] Paré said of his character, "He's someone who can come in and straighten everything out."[5] The character of Ellen Aim was written as a 28-year-old woman. Gross says they wanted Daryl Hannah, but were unable to do a deal in time.[4] Diane Lane read for the part when she was 18. Hill was reluctant to cast her because he felt that she was too young for the role. Hill met Lane in New York City and she auditioned for him in black leather pants, a black mesh top and high-heeled boots. He was surprised with her "total commitment to selling herself as a rock 'n' roll star".[3] The actress had been in more than 10 films by the time she did Streets of Fire. She described her character as "the first glamorous role I've had".[5] Hill was so impressed with her work on the film that he wrote additional scenes for her during the shoot.[5] "We were very excited about Diane Lane because she was starring in two excitedly hyped Francis Ford Coppola pictures that were being done in Oklahoma", says Gross. "So we had the approval of sort of picking the person that Francis Ford Coppola picked."[4] Amy Madigan originally read for Reva, Cody's sister, and told Hill and Silver that she wanted to play the role of McCoy which, she remembers, "was written to be played by an overweight male who was a good soldier and really needed a job. It could still be tough and strong and have a woman do it without rewriting the part."[5][9] Hill liked the idea and cast her.[5] Willem Dafoe was recommended by Kathryn Bigelow, who had recently directed him in The Loveless (1981). Bigelow was dating David Giler, a collaborator and friend of Hill at the time. Gross later said he thought Dafoe "may have been the best thing about the film."[4] FilmingProduction began on location in Chicago in April 1983, then moved to Los Angeles for 45 days, and finally two weeks at a soap factory in Wilmington, with additional filming taking place at Universal Studios. Shooting wrapped on August 18, 1983.[5] All 10 days of filming in Chicago were exteriors at night, on locations that included platforms of elevated subway lines and the depths of Lower Wacker Drive. For Hill, the subways and their look was crucial to the world of the film and represented one of three modes of transportation—the other two being cars and motorcycles.[5] While shooting in Chicago, the production was plagued by inclement weather that included rain, hail, snow, and a combination of all three. The subway scenes were filmed on location in Chicago at many locations, including LaSalle Street (Blue line), Lake Street (Green line), Sheridan Road (Red, Purple lines), and Belmont Avenue (Red, Brown, and Purple lines). The Damen Avenue stop (Blue line, at Damen, North, and Milwaukee avenues) was used.[5] Production designer John Vallone and his team constructed an elevated train line on the backlot of Universal Studios that perfectly matched the ones in Chicago.[3] The film crew tarped-in the New Street and Brownstone street sets to double for the Richmond District setting, completely covering them so that night scenes could be filmed during the day. This tarp measured 1,240 feet long by 220 feet wide over both sets, and cost $1.2 million to construct.[3] However, this presented unusual problems. The sound of the tarp flapping in the wind interfered with the actors’ dialogue. Birds who had nested in the tarp provided their own noisy interruptions.[5] The exterior of the Richmond Theater where Ellen Aim sings at the beginning of the film was shot on the backlot, with the interior done in the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles for two weeks.[5] The Ardmore Police roadblock was filmed near 6th street in East Los Angeles, near the flood basin. Although three districts are seen, the city has a total of five districts: the Richmond, the Strip, the Battery, the Cliffside, and the Bayside.[5] An additional district, Ardmore, also appears in the film, but it may be a separate municipality as it is not prefaced with "the". The production employed 500 extras to play the citizens of the Richmond District.[5] Cinematographer Andrew Laszlo shot the film with very low light, giving the images a stark, "low-tech" quality. The choreography for the two songs Ellen Aim sings and the one by the Sorels was done by Jeffrey Hornaday.[5] The lighting for these concert scenes were done by Mark Brickman, who also lit concerts for Bruce Springsteen and Pink Floyd. In addition, 12 1950 and 1951 model Studebakers were used as police cars.[5] More than 50 motorcycles and their drivers were featured as the Bombers, and were chosen from 200 members of real Los Angeles-based clubs like The Crusaders and The Heathens.[3] According to Laszlo, the film's style was dictated by the story.[3] The Richmond's look was very soft and the colors did not call attention to themselves. The light in The Battery was contrasting and harsh, with vivid colors. Argyle prints and plaids are used in the Parkside District, and neon lights color the Strip.[3] Hill later said he felt "humbled" by the shoot:
Due to the choreography and setups in between takes of every scene, the climactic four-minute showdown between Cody and Raven took a considerable time to shoot.[3] Paré estimated it as four weeks:
Michael Paré later recalled:
Paré also said he had troubles with Rick Moranis:
Paré said that the original draft of the script had Tom Cody kill Raven with a knife. "Walter really liked the idea because it had Tom Cody winning at all costs." However, this was changed to a fair fight to ensure a PG rating.[14] Paré did not always work well with Hill:
E. G. Daily, who played Baby Doll, says it was "a very frustrating thing for me" to not sing in the film "Because Diane Lane was singing, and I remember thinking 'Ah!' It was so frustrating for me. It was painful. Because I wanted to be on that stage singing with those guys...But back then I always played those quirky characters. I didn't get those fancy leads. I got those best friend of the leads, quirky, funny characters. Hookers with a heart of gold. Weirdos."[16] Gross and Hill met with the editors on the weekends and looked at footage. Gross recalls that about five weeks into the 14-week shoot:
Gross also wrote that "there was a chance of something great, but early fundamental disappointment with key personnel (in that case the star, Michael Paré) steeled all of us to face the chance that it might not turn out that way."[17] MusicSoundtrack
Jimmy Iovine produced five of the songs for the film and the soundtrack album.[5] For Ellen's singing voice, he combined the voices of Laurie Sargent and Holly Sherwood, billing them as Fire Inc. The fictional rock band The Attackers were the real-life bandmates of Sargent, Face to Face. They provided the lead vocals on Ellen's songs "Nowhere Fast", "Never Be You" and "Sorcerer", and supporting vocals on "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young".[5] The version of "Sorcerer", composed by Stevie Nicks, that was featured on the soundtrack album was performed by Marilyn Martin. The version of "Never Be You" that was featured on the soundtrack album was performed by Maria McKee. Fire Inc. was an improvised Wagnerian rock studio project created by Jim Steinman specifically for the film, featuring uncredited singers Laurie Sargent of Face to Face and Holly Sherwood as female lead vocalists, along with Rory Dodd and Eric Troyer as male backing vocalists, who appeared frequently on several Steinman product during the 1980s. Two songs written by Steinman were part of the soundtrack: "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young" (number 80 on the US Billboard Hot 100) and "Nowhere Fast", both performed by Fire Inc., with Holly Sherwood providing lead vocals on the former and Laurie Sargent on the latter. The songs were dubbed over Diane Lane's vocals in the movie, with her character Ellen Aim and the Attackers. The title of the former was used as the tagline on some promotional materials for the film.[5] Dan Hartman's selection "I Can Dream About You" is the most successful song from the movie, and became a Billboard top 10 hit in 1984 (also from his studio album of the same name). In the movie, the song is performed on stage at the end of the film by 'The Sorels', a fictional doo-wop-style group consisting of actors Stoney Jackson, Grand L. Bush, Mykelti Williamson, and Robert Townsend.[5] However, the song was sung for the film by Winston Ford, whose vocals were lip-synched by Jackson in the movie. While there are thus two versions of the song, only Hartman's version was released commercially. Steinman later recalled thinking the script was 'terrible', but he thought the film was going to be a big hit, in part because of the enthusiasm of Joel Silver:
Steinman has said the filmmakers were convinced they would have the rights to the Bruce Springsteen song "Streets of Fire", and filmed an ending using it. However, when they realised they would not get it in time, they asked Steinman for a song, which he wrote in two days.
The Blasters, who turned down the chance to appear in Hill's 48 Hours, appear in the film performing two songs.[20] Walter Hill had worked with Ry Cooder several times previously but Cooder did not do the original score. Hill was unhappy with that score and liked music Cooder had written for Stroker Ace which the director of that film had not wanted to use.[21] Track listing
Charts
ReleaseReactionLarry Gross recalls the filmmakers were optimistic prior to release:
ReceptionBox officeStreets of Fire fared poorly at the box office, opening in 1,150 theaters on June 1, 1984, and grossing $2.4 million during its first weekend.[24] After 10 days, it made $4.5 million, while fellow opener Star Trek III: The Search for Spock grossed $34.8 million in the same time.[11] Gross says Hill was making Brewster's Millions at the time. "Joel got off the phone with Universal and said, 'We're dead.' We sat down, I remember, in a little park. In downtown LA. And we started giggling, in that way people do when things are terrible...there's the song in the movie called 'Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young'. And I remember, in the park, Joel saying, 'Today Is What It Means to be Dead'."[4] The film went on to make a total of $8 million in North America, compared to a production budget of $14.5 million.[24] "I was shattered when the film didn't perform", said Gross. "That broke my heart...I hoped, by the time the movie finished, that it would be whipped into a shape and design that would have a real impact. And then it didn't, and that was sad."[4] Critical responseOn the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 31 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.20/10. The website's consensus reads: "Streets of Fire may sometimes buckle under the strain of its ambitious fusion of disparate genres, but Walter Hill's bravura style gives this motorcycle musical fuel to burn."[25] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film holds a score of 59 out of 100 based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[26] Janet Maslin of The New York Times criticized the film's screenplay as being misogynistic and "problematically crude."[27] Gary Arnold wrote in The Washington Post that as "romantic leads, Paré and Lane are pretty much a washout", and that "most of the action climaxes are treated as such throwaways that you begin to wonder if they bored the director."[28] Jay Scott wrote in The Globe and Mail that "when Streets of Fire is speeding by like Mercury on methedrine, the rush left in its wake cancels out questions of content. But the minute the momentum slows, it's another story—a story about a movie with no story at all."[29] In an essay for Film Comment, David Chute wrote, "It's probably impossible not to enjoy the movie. No director holds a candle to Hill for sheer visceral expertise. But the moods didn't linger. It's such a hard-shelled picture that it barely has moods."[11] Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave Streets of Fire 3 stars out of a possible 4, praising the soundtrack and set design, and noting the "broadly symbolic" performances which embodied a struggled between good and evil. He also wrote: "the language is strange, too: It's tough, but not with 1984 toughness. It sounds like the way really mean guys would have talked in the late 1950s, only with a few words different—as if this world evolved a slightly different language."[30] LegacyScreenwriter Larry Gross said the film has been influential:
Streets of Fire has a number of similarities to Capcom's hit 1989 beat 'em up video game Final Fight. In a 2007 interview, Retro Gamer magazine asked the game's designer Akira Nishitani about the similarities. Nishitani said that, at the time, the team were not "aware of Streets of Fire, but I've Googled it and there does indeed seem to be something familiar about it" but that "this style of story was very popular back then" and many "fighting games made use of it" so "I guess we were part of that crowd!"[31] Conversely, Akira Yasuda (the game's planner) states on his personal website that he based Final Fight protagonist Cody Travers on Michael Paré's Tom Cody.[32] Streets of Fire also inspired early anime set in cyberpunk and other associated genres. The OVA miniseries Megazone 23 and the original OVA version of Bubblegum Crisis are both notable examples of this. At one point, the main character in the former even watches the movie in-universe, while the opening sequence to the latter's first episode is heavily lifted from that of the film.[33] AccoladesAwards
Nominations
Possible sequelsStreets of Fire was intended to be the first in a projected trilogy titled The Adventures of Tom Cody, with Hill's tentatively titling the two sequels The Far City and Cody's Return.[3] The Streets of Fire script concluded with the expectation that Streets of Fire will be followed by The Long Night, Book Two in The Adventures of Tom Cody.[37] Paré later recalled:
However, the film's failure at the box office put an end to the project.[24] In an interview, shortly after the film's release, Paré said, "Everyone liked it, and then all of a sudden they didn't like it. I was already worried about whether I should do the sequel or not."[38] Road to HellAn unofficial sequel titled Road to Hell was made in 2008, directed by Albert Pyun, and with Paré playing Tom Cody, and Deborah Van Valkenburgh playing his sister Reva Cody. See alsoReferences
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