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Thursday, June 8, 2023

THE DEVIL'S OWN (1997)

Last call for director Alan J. Pakula (69) and cinematographer Gordon Willis (66) finds them on auto-pilot, not necessarily a bad thing, for the only IRA terrorist thriller that might well have been titled CUTE AND CUTER.  Harrison Ford’s the cute one, ultra-principled vet NYC cop who’ll bond with, then regret boarding Irish immigrant Brad Pitt, the cuter one, unaware this foreigner, last survivor of an IRA terrorist cell, has been smuggled Stateside to buy a cache of secret weapons ‘for the cause.’  Just the sort of cerebral thriller Pakula was known for, but here put thru a development blender to take any texture out of the leads, pureed for maximum sympathy.  (Was this why Pitt threatened to ankle?)  A few touches of moral complexity boost interest in the second half, but a too convenient/too hard to swallow double climax asks for just the sort of kinetic action DNA Pakula tended to neutralize.  On the other hand, Willis isn’t afraid of being theatrical, getting just the shot needed to pull off the big Ford/Pitt confrontation with nothing more than a whitewashed brick wall and a shadow to emphasize Ford’s moral authority against Pitt’s shadowless nihilism.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK: Look fast to spot the same outdoor New York stairway Joaquin Phoenix danced down in THE JOKER/’19.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/04/joker-2019.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Pitt got clobbered pretty bad for his buttery Irish accent.  (He does say ‘Aye’ for ‘Yes’ too many times to count.)  But as accents go, you’ve heard far worse.

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