Spoilers herein.
This is of interest for those that study the evolution of the action film, the slipperiest timeclock in popular culture. Here, the old black guy white guy formula is extended with a little self-reference and the introduction of a little noir spice. The heros can't win: the black guy is an illiterate drugaddicted jock, but it is because of things done to him. The white guy is a crusader for justice who, among other things has a cheating wife. In fact, all his woes are related to sex and power.
The noir/action mix would not last long, with a few experiments using Willis and one interesting one with Mel Gibson. Humor was thought to be the key. Didn't work.
I find the engineered self-reference most interesting. All these stories are scrupulously studied, and the football stadium element is no accident. It opens and closes the film, bracketing it. The obvious reason is ride the wave of other self-referential films from the period (until now). One man is an observer, one a performer. Each has a female partner that matches, and the little girl is a mix with her puppet.
This sort of thing used to be placed in film stories as a matter of art. Of course no art is intended here, just selling tickets. So what is interesting is that by 1991 at least some powerful studio executives believed that such self-reference had so entered the psyche that it was subliminally natural.
From the director's perspective, this is just another milestone in Tony Scott's development into a flashy but empty filmmaker.
This is of interest for those that study the evolution of the action film, the slipperiest timeclock in popular culture. Here, the old black guy white guy formula is extended with a little self-reference and the introduction of a little noir spice. The heros can't win: the black guy is an illiterate drugaddicted jock, but it is because of things done to him. The white guy is a crusader for justice who, among other things has a cheating wife. In fact, all his woes are related to sex and power.
The noir/action mix would not last long, with a few experiments using Willis and one interesting one with Mel Gibson. Humor was thought to be the key. Didn't work.
I find the engineered self-reference most interesting. All these stories are scrupulously studied, and the football stadium element is no accident. It opens and closes the film, bracketing it. The obvious reason is ride the wave of other self-referential films from the period (until now). One man is an observer, one a performer. Each has a female partner that matches, and the little girl is a mix with her puppet.
This sort of thing used to be placed in film stories as a matter of art. Of course no art is intended here, just selling tickets. So what is interesting is that by 1991 at least some powerful studio executives believed that such self-reference had so entered the psyche that it was subliminally natural.
From the director's perspective, this is just another milestone in Tony Scott's development into a flashy but empty filmmaker.