Review of Colors (1988) by Compi24 — 31 Mar 2019

The Dennis Hopper directorial effort "Colors" takes us into the textured landscape that is 1980's Los Angeles, namely through the lens of a pair of police officers, played by Robert Duvall and Sean Penn.

While both actors do a fair job playing off one another onscreen (I mean, there's three Oscars between the two of them. What'd I expect?), it all feels a bit too muted for me to care. This, I assume, comes more from the writing than the performances at hand, as the overly subtle character work is not the only problem I had with this narrative.

There's a great amount of effort placed into showcasing the horror that gang violence can cause, but very little nuance lent towards delving into why these things come about in the first place. The "gangbanger" characters, as characterized in the film, are simply absolute.

They kind of just exist. Yes, some of them exhibit remorse and even a bit of personality now and then, but beyond that I feel this movie has more to say about the police force than anything involving why gangs do what they do/how they come about.

And even with the police there's not that much for the movie to say. The narrative between the Duvall and Penn characters is so predictable and cliche-ridden that you end up losing interest somewhere around halfway through things.

"Colors" may have been indelible and interesting for its time, but I'm not sure it's much else than that.