After THE FRENCH CONNECTION/’71 and THE EXORCIST/’73, director William Friedkin spent the last two-thirds of his career not so much chasing past success (though that too!) as in futile pursuit of the once-in-a-generation audience rapport he lost when SORCERER/’77 sank critically & commercially. (And it may be his best pic; Friedkin thought so.*) Of those later films (good/bad/successful/not), LIVE AND DIE was the one that should have turned the trick for him, but didn’t. Made on a tight budget with up-and-comers (William Petersen, William Defoe, John Pankow, Jane Leeves, John Turturro), this extra twisty L.A. noir has nothing but baddies and not-so-baddies starting with expedient Treasury Agents Petersen & Pankow who take whatever low-road they need to bring down master counterfeiter Dafoe. Here, a literal low road as Friedkin goes into overdrive trying to top his own under-the-elevated car chase from FRENCH CONNECTION. (Exciting, but probably a misstep since it feels like he’s trying to top himself & not serve the story.) With its crooked storyline cleanly structured to make everything easy to follow (each character & plot reversal a model of concision), not even Friedkin can freshen up some tired cop tropes (dying on the last case before retirement; a ‘dead’ guy rising for one last shot), and a few pieces of close action could have used another take (dictates of budget, no doubt), but most of it feels unusually fresh for such a strict genre film. And so much male flesh on display! Highly unusually at the time when ‘the babes’ would get naked for quick sex with guys who always screwed fully dressed . . . standing up. Yikes! The third act probably overdoses on reversals and preordained twists, but there’s enough momentum to sell them. Just not enough momentum to return Friedkin to that Capra-like sweet-spot of audience rapport he held ever so briefly in the early ‘70s.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The 'cold-opening' prologue (sloppy execution, but a neat tip of the hat to Hitchcock’s VERTIGO, a Friedkin favorite) serves as an excellent reminder that the Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Check out SORCERER for yourself. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/12/sorcerer-1977.html
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Friedkin’s career at low ebb when his last wife, Paramount production head Sherry Lansing 'Green Lit' JADE/’95 for him to direct. The film lost a cool 50 mill, derailed career tracks for David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino & scripter Joe Eszterhas, and featured a perhaps prophetic SLOW-MO version of Friedkin’s signature car chase set piece. (Studio gossip maintained that 10 mill+ in additional costs was off-laid on other Paramount films in production at the time . . . but that’s only studio gossip.)
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