Review of Miami Blues (1990) by Scott A — 09 Aug 2013

Fred Ward is one of my favorite actors and this is one of my favorite of his roles, right up there with his portrayal of Henry Miller. In many ways this adaptation of Charles Willeford's first Hoke Moseley novel was ahead of it's time, mixing quirky humor and extreme violence in a way that didn't really catch on until Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction.

" The studio, at the time, sat on this film for two years before releasing it, surely because they didn't know how to market the film or how audiences would react to the odd mixture of harsh violence and dark, twisted humor.

This film is not up to Tarantino standards of writing and directions, and it is something of a mixed bag, but where it counts, the film really works. Jennifer Jason Leigh is great as the bubble headed college student turned prostitute who falls for the sociopathic Junior.

She's heartbreaking in one scene where she holds back tears while giving a recipe for vinegar pie. Alec Baldwin is terrific as Junior, and brings more layers to the role than a lesser actor would have given the character.

Lazier filmmakers would have simply painted Junior as a psycho with no redeeming qualities and Pepper as a dimwitted victim, but their relationship is much more complex than most films would have bothered to make.

But back to Fred Ward, although he probably has less screen time than Baldwin, this film is really his film and who steals every scene he's in. I really wish this film had been a bigger hit and there would have been more film adaptations of Hoke Moseley novels with Ward playing Moseley.

Like Tarantino films and their ilk, this film is certainly not for all tastes, but it's still better than most Tarantino imitators and also gets bragging rights for coming out two years before "Reservoir Dogs.

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