Review of Night Moves (1975) by Chris G — 24 Jul 2010

Gene Hackman continued his run of following up The French Connection with Night Moves, a modern noir tale where there is more going on than what the surface shows us. Hackman plays Harry Moseby, a retired NFL player who works as a private investigator. He takes the jobs the big agencies don't want, for example an ex movie star (Janet Ward) is searching for her runaway daughter. Harry gets the job. The thing is that Harry's problems go beyond the case. His wife (Susan Clark) is fooling around on him, leaving him to his work and only his work. The case leads him to Florida where he finds teenage Delly (Melanie Griffith) and Paula (Jennifer Warren), an eccentric resident of the Keys who attracts the curiosity of Harry. It's in Florida that the case begins to go beyond a simple runaway.

Night Moves owes a debt to the old days, where the private dick was always in way over his head and love was never his strong suit. Hackman's portrayal is one of being coy to being naive. His life is a roller coaster of emotion that never gets back to the station to let on a new batch of people. This is Harry's ride until the very end and even as the credits roll you're just not sure how Harry is going to wind up- on his feet or in the ditch.

Though not as probing as Taxi Driver, Night Moves can be considered a prime example of mid-1970's film making. There's a feel about moves made between Kent State and Star Wars. The general feeling in films was that either A) No one could be a hero or B) The hero wins, but doesn't win. Aftereffects of Vietnam? Watergate? Who knows, but there is a general tone in this era that Night Moves is also stamped with, combining with the noir aspect of the pathetic detective helps this film be better than it could have been.