Review of To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) by Aaron S — 25 Sep 2008

I liked it much more than I initially anticipated, considering that the first 15 minutes are bad, bad, bad. Friedkin has always had this technique of using awkward edits and cuts to...I don't know, create a feeling of disorientation? Regardless, I don't think it ever works...just makes things feel sloppy. Not to mention that, for some fucking reason, he hired Wang Chung (yes, Wang Chung) to score the film, in turn creating one of the worst scores in film history. Thankfully, Friedkin is more fond of scenes with long stretches of silence than the loud synth crashes and drum machine beats that fill the rest of the soundtrack (and take you out of each scene).

But enough about the bad...to be completely honest, every single performance in this thing was a knockout, from Willem Dafoe at his most insane, to John Pankow (who? exactly) as the exasperated partner of lead William Peterson. Unlike too many cop-drama's, Friedkin smartly puts issues of morals and loyalty firmly in the foreground. While it sounds so simple, too many genre films tend to obscure their muddled message behind all of the gunfights and car chases. And speaking of car chases, To Live And Die In L.A. really raises the bar with it's 15 minute pursuit that winds from a deep concrete tunnel and ends speeding down the opposite direction on a freeway. Also, the finale is intense and quite surprising, made so by the ever-so calculated build-up that took place beforehand. Overall I'd say that, while flawed, this is Friedkin's third best film behind The Exorcist and Bug.