Walter Hill is one of the most incredible directors of the last thirty or forty years, always capable of banging out a great, unpretentious, action packed flick. In the mid eighties, he sat down with a notebook and wrote a checklist of everything he wanted to see in the greatest movie ever, and the result was Streets of Fire, one of the all time cult eighties movie downloads.
The movie follows Tom Cody, a soldier who's been discharged and returns to his old hometown when Ellen Aim, his old sweetheart, and a pop music sensation, is kidnapped by Raven, the leader of the local biker gang. The film works on the level of fantasy, mixing fifties and eighties aesthetics into a new kind of setting. The environment the characters inhabit is surreal and dreamlike, and the cinematography is beautiful, with rainy streets and neon signs dominating the screen.
Something that really helps to define the movie is the music. Again, it blends the style of the fifties with the eighties, so you have those great old Doo Wop dance rock songs treated with a layer of synth rock and roll and dramatic female vocals. Ellen Aim's band, The Attackers, features prominently in the film. One of these songs, I Can Dream About You, actually climbed up pretty high on the charts.
The story itself is pretty stock action film stuff, but this time it's done with such incredible style that it feels fresh and all new. The girlfriend is kidnapped, the hero comes home to save her. We've seen this story hundreds of times before, but this time, it's elevated to a sort of modern day, Rock and Roll fairy tale.
Hill has always been one of the great directors for as long as he's been creating films. However, you rarely hear his name mentioned alongside Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola. While he has every bit of the talent to earn that sort of respect, he tends to focus on action and western flicks, which don't always earn a director the same degree of respect.
Besides the rock and roll, the film also has a score written by blues legend Ry Cooder. The earthy, bluesy feel of his slide guitar offers a contrast to the glossy feel of the rest of the soundtrack, and drives home the "down to earthness" of Tom Cody, the character most frequently accompanied by Cooder's guitar score.
If you want a great double feature, watch Streets of Fire alongside The Warriors. The Warriors is, similarly, a sort of Rock and Roll, street fable, but takes the concept in a rougher, tougher, more gritty direction, while Streets of Fire is a little more glossy, a little more pretty and colorful in comparison to The Warriors and its title street gang heroes.
The movie was original intended to be the first in a trilogy, but, unfortunately, the film didn't perform at the box office quite as well as expected, so the sequels, The Far City and The Return of Tom Cody, never got funding. Luckily, the film has become a cult legend over time, so it has, of course, earned the respect it deserves as an all time action movie classic and one of the best films made in the nineteen eighties, but it's unfortunate that that didn't happen back when fans could've gotten a sequel out of the deal.
The movie follows Tom Cody, a soldier who's been discharged and returns to his old hometown when Ellen Aim, his old sweetheart, and a pop music sensation, is kidnapped by Raven, the leader of the local biker gang. The film works on the level of fantasy, mixing fifties and eighties aesthetics into a new kind of setting. The environment the characters inhabit is surreal and dreamlike, and the cinematography is beautiful, with rainy streets and neon signs dominating the screen.
Something that really helps to define the movie is the music. Again, it blends the style of the fifties with the eighties, so you have those great old Doo Wop dance rock songs treated with a layer of synth rock and roll and dramatic female vocals. Ellen Aim's band, The Attackers, features prominently in the film. One of these songs, I Can Dream About You, actually climbed up pretty high on the charts.
The story itself is pretty stock action film stuff, but this time it's done with such incredible style that it feels fresh and all new. The girlfriend is kidnapped, the hero comes home to save her. We've seen this story hundreds of times before, but this time, it's elevated to a sort of modern day, Rock and Roll fairy tale.
Hill has always been one of the great directors for as long as he's been creating films. However, you rarely hear his name mentioned alongside Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola. While he has every bit of the talent to earn that sort of respect, he tends to focus on action and western flicks, which don't always earn a director the same degree of respect.
Besides the rock and roll, the film also has a score written by blues legend Ry Cooder. The earthy, bluesy feel of his slide guitar offers a contrast to the glossy feel of the rest of the soundtrack, and drives home the "down to earthness" of Tom Cody, the character most frequently accompanied by Cooder's guitar score.
If you want a great double feature, watch Streets of Fire alongside The Warriors. The Warriors is, similarly, a sort of Rock and Roll, street fable, but takes the concept in a rougher, tougher, more gritty direction, while Streets of Fire is a little more glossy, a little more pretty and colorful in comparison to The Warriors and its title street gang heroes.
The movie was original intended to be the first in a trilogy, but, unfortunately, the film didn't perform at the box office quite as well as expected, so the sequels, The Far City and The Return of Tom Cody, never got funding. Luckily, the film has become a cult legend over time, so it has, of course, earned the respect it deserves as an all time action movie classic and one of the best films made in the nineteen eighties, but it's unfortunate that that didn't happen back when fans could've gotten a sequel out of the deal.
About the Author:
For so many of us back then there were places to go and show off our cars. Music And Movie Downloads While there he meets the wonderful Julia (Meryl Streep) who is also on trial. On top of that they have to make sure that they do not download spy ware, ad ware or what ever.
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