To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

William Friedkin

Writers:

Gerald Petievich (novel)
William Friedkin (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1 November 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The director of "The French Connection" is on the streets again!

Plot:

A fearless Secret Service agent will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner.

Plot Keywords:

Secret Service | Murder | Revenge | Place Name In Title | Money

Awards:

3 wins

US TV Schedule:

Mon. Nov. 16

3:50 AM

MAX

Cast

William Petersen	...	Richard Chance (as William L. Petersen)
Willem Dafoe	...	Eric 'Rick' Masters
John Pankow	...	John Vukovich
Debra Feuer	...	Bianca Torres
John Turturro	...	Carl Cody
Darlanne Fluegel	...	Ruth Lanier
Dean Stockwell	...	Bob Grimes
Steve James	...	Jeff Rice
Robert Downey Sr.	...	Thomas Bateman (as Robert Downey)
Michael Greene	...	Jim Hart
Christopher Allport	...	Max Waxman
Jack Hoar	...	Jack
Valentin de Vargas	...	Judge Filo Cedillo (as Val DeVargas)
Dwier Brown	...	Doctor
Michael Chong	...	Thomas Ling

Also Known As:

Police fédérale, Los Angeles (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
Viver E Morrer em Los Angeles (Brazil) (Portugal) [pt]
Änglarnas stad (Sweden) (video title) [sv]
Änglarnas stad - Los Angeles (Sweden) [sv]
Brottsplats Los Angeles (Sweden) (TV title) [sv]
Elää ja kuolla L.A.:ssa (Finland) [fi]
L.A. daisosasen -- Ôkami-tachi no machi (Japan) [ja]
Leben und sterben in L.A. (West Germany) [de]
O anthropos apo to Los Angeles (Greece) (festival title) [el]
Vivere e morire a Los Angeles (Italy) [it]
Vivir y morir en Los Ángeles (Spain) [es]

Runtime:

116 min | Germany:101 min (TV version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Arabic | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) | Iceland:16 | Argentina:18 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Singapore:M18 | USA:R (certificate #27848) | Australia:R | France:-12 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | West Germany:16 | Norway:18 (video premiere) (1987) | Norway:(Banned) (1986-2003) (cinema release)

Filming Locations:

6th Street Bridge, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

SLM Production Group

Trivia:

The prison scenes were shot in the San Luis Obispo Penitentiary and real prison inmates were used as extras.

Goofs:

Plot holes: After breaking into Masters' secret country hideout by breaking the outer gate's padlock with a bolt cutter, Chance and his fellow cops encounter another padlock, this time on a warehouse door. But instead of using the bolt cutter this time, Chance fires his revolver at the lock. Although this breaks the lock, why did he risk the danger of a bullet ricochet instead of using the bolt cutter again?

Quotes:

Richard Chance: [noticing a 'Do Not Enter - Wrong Way' street sign] We're going this way!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

Soundtrack:

The Conductor Wore Black

A Gritty, Anti-Buddy Police Thriller With A Welcome Mean Streak

Another critic discussing this film accurately mentioned "being shamefully ignored" as an injustice this 1985 William-Friedkin masterpiece suffered upon its release. And it was not only the critics who failed to notice its worth. For some reason, the public stayed away in droves as well, this as myself and my friend were practically organizing tours to the theater, introducing people to the film who, weened on "48 Hours", "Miami Vice" and yet to experience the Abbott & Costello hijinks of the "Lethal Weapon" series, had little concept of what a below-the-belt, impeccably crafted cop movie could be. Or would turn into.

Those who've seen Friedkin's earlier genre entry "The French Connection" shouldn't be caught off guard by his often ruthless tactics here, as he's back in the familiar territory of cops and criminals. Nor should those who survived his muscular "Sorcerer"--another unsung hero of an action piece--be unprepared for the director's inability to hide the more challenging (and dreadful) sides of male conflict. Even the disturbing "Cruising", where no attempts were made by the film to explain its ugly corkscrew of a story, all the while summoning an atmosphere thick with dread, still suspenseful, but full of plot holes conveniently filled with leather jackets and the scariest Village-People-on-PCP-soundtrack to date, is just another Friedkin descent into Hell. The details always more than part of a whole.

It may show the surface of a genre flick, but beneath the pulsing Wang Chung soundtrack and 80s-reflective duds (no Members Only jackets appear, luckily) there is as lean and mean and taut a suspense thriller as even Don Siegel could deliver in his prime. And with an outstanding, hyper-realistic cast of then unknowns--including Chicago theater alumni William Pederson, pre-"CSI" and with even more cock to his walk, swaggering through his pursuit of a damaged counterfeiter, Willem Dafoe--the screws tighten with each and every action sequence, climaxing the building mayhem with a cathartic, freeway massacre of automotive chaos on the same scale as a "Mad Max" movie.

The characters ar caustic, the betrayals extremely violent, the music pounding, the ending, in particular, is a departure from the Gerald Petievich novel, the author, himself, a retired U.S. Treasury agent writing an even bleaker resolution to the problem of two unstable detectives at odds with each other, losing their sanity, and finding no comfort in their escalating criminal misbehavior. "To Live And Die In LA" marks a significant and welcome departure within such an oversaturated genre, the buddy cop movie. It refuses to soften its blows or coddle its audience, showing instead dangerous, volatile situations being taken serious. Brutally serious.

Nonetheless, for all its nihilistic tone, captured in parched images of a city populated by thugs, thieves, and sociopathic criminals, "To Live And Die In LA" is like a breath of fresh smog.