Original short films, and video essays on directors, cult oddities, hidden gems and world cinema.
All content scripted, voiced and edited by Zach Closs, unless otherwise stated in the video description. Logos designed by Sarah Closs. Intro and outro animated by Nick Brooks.
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Good video. Hill is a good director who needs more appreciation. And you're right, Isabel Adjani automatically improves any movie she's in. As for my favorites, Red Heat and Geronimo.
"Streets of Fire" was helpful for me. Not a perfect movie, but it pulled me out of the funk I was in. I was raised Catholic. That and my own nice guy attitude were causing me pain. I had come to the end of those behaviors. Thanks Walter Hill and Tom Cody.
Streets Of Fire "
To me Walter Hill's muscular directing (along with Peter Hyams, Ridley and Tony Scott and James Glickenhaus) made me want to understand the process of film making and gave a love of Kick ass movie's as a kid in the 80's . From Southern Comfort, Red Heat and Extreme Prejudice- his films always delivered the goods.
Walter Hill is quintessential in the American Genre space imo - The Warriors, The Driver, 48 Hrs, Extreme Prejudice, The Long Riders, Last Man Standing, Streets of Fire, Southern Comfort....all bangers. The ultimate "dudes rock" director imo.
Interesting visual essay, well produced and presented. Hill’s art of pacing is rarely mentioned as arguably his strongest talent. Even in his lesser films one never feels ensnared in tedium and impatience. Personally, I rank him higher than Woo as Hill seems to invest more intelligence and less superficially visceral thrills than Woo. In other words, Hill always seems to have a focused thought behind his action set pieces. For Woo it’s more just action.
Thank you! I agree that Hill has a great sense of pacing, and there’s an intelligence and economy to his action scenes. You could accuse some of Woo’s American films of being empty spectacle, but I think the action scenes in his Hong Kong output often serve as an extension of the operatic emotions of the story.
Love Walter Hill. He's one of few directors I follow. "Undisputed" might be the best boxing flick ever made.
I love Walter Hill’s work. My favorite movie from him are Warriors and Southern Comfort. Last Man Standing is one of the few movies he did that I didn’t like mainly because it a Yojimbo rip off.
Too long intro, was it needed, mmmm
Gotta commend you for doing Hill. I forget which of his movies struck me first, "Warriors" or "Driver" but I was knocked out by "Driver." I didn't know the influences he'd copied from yet so a emotionally understated crime film with killer car action was a complete revelation to me. I still love and recommend it. BTW, to chat briefly about another fav, "The Warriors," I interviewed David Patrick Kelly when he was doing "Dreamscape" and couldn't resist asking him about his beloved "Warrrrriorrrrrrrrrsssss" scene. I forget the exact question but they wanted something annoying and snotty and Kelly came up with it. He chuckled and said he knew that's the scene he'd forever be remembered for...
You mention the machine gun from Django, but Corbucci gives unfair advantages to all his "heroes" in the trilogy, which really speaks to that cynical view of intelligence & ruthlessness over skill. The mauser pistol from Great Silence is a semi-automatic and much faster to shoot than the gunslinger's traditional revolver. Then Hud in the Specialists wears a (magically bulletproof) chainmail vest, and is shot three or four times over the course of the film. So while he's a badass gunfighter, he'd also have been killed multiple times over what a Leone character would have been, with the sole exception of the Fistful of Dollars climax.
I’ve always described Kiss Me Deadly as a punch to the gut and a left hook to the jaw of the Eisenhower 1950s. So subversive for the era and it starts from the beginning including the backward title sequence.
FACTS
Nice to see someone finally make a ewwtoob vid on Hill. He's one of our few genre monsters who delivers without let up or pause; he is dedicated, imaginative, honest, and has a touch of class and pathos.
I absolutely adore Walter Hill. One of the most criminally underrated filmmakers ever. I cannot get enough of his movies like The Warriors, 48 HRS, Southern Comfort, and my absolute favorite of his and one of the greatest (and most underrated) action/Neo-Westerns, Extreme Prejudice. It is criminal that movie does not get more attention!
Walter Hill’s streak of kick ass, manly action movies from Hard Times through Last Man Standing is unrivaled in Hollywood. Hard Times, The Diver, Southern Comfort, 48 hrs, The Warriors, The Long Riders, Streets of Fire, Extreme Prejudice, Another 48 hrs. And producer and writer credits on Aliens to boot? Who else stacks up?
Both great movies. The Long Riders too.
"HARD BOILED" was censored in a lot of countries! When I finally found it, I showed it to all my Friends! One of my favorite Movies!!! 😇😇😍😍😍 John Woo is an amazing guy! Glad to have known you, Sir. An Incredible mind for music, action, and story-telling, in general.
Fun fact: the "Redshirts" in Django are inspired by a real-life, historical white supremacy group that operated on the US-Mexican frontier, they were similar to the KKK but didn´t last as much as their white bed sheets wearing buddies.
I grew up on Walter Hill films, to me he is highly underrated when people talk of great directors but he has also produced and written scripts. Hard Times is my favorite though. Bronson and Coburn at their best.
It’s very obvious that The Driver was highly influenced by Melville’s Le Samourai including the leads having very little dialogue. Nice that you mention Le Cercle Rouge as well. I would also recommend Le Doulos of his crime films. He made the best film ever about Nazi resistance (and there are many) called Army Of Shadows. He was in the French resistance and it shows in the film. It’s brilliant. Walter Hill is hit or miss as a director just like most that have made a lot of films. He had quite a good run to start his career as a director starting with Hard Times through Streets Of Fire then it gets a little more hit or miss after that. I saw a screening of The Driver almost 20 years ago and he did a q and a afterwards and it was great.
Army of Shadows is probably my favourite Melville, gun to my head. Just an astonishing film, the ending floors me every time.
Wish Walter Hill made more movies. Straightforward economical storytelling and visceral action. Love The Driver And Last Man Standing, Extreme Prejudice and even Red Heat.
Its only now at age 50 I realised ive been a huge fan of his films for decades
He directed a two-part TV western called Broken Trail. First-rate.
I’ve never seen a Walter Hill movie I didn’t like. Even his misfires are amazing.
I recall seeing The Driver in the cinema on release. I have not seen it since, but I remember it clearly. Well, not clearly enough, so I need to see it again. Good job!
I really love Streets of Fire.
One of my favourite directors, I've seen all but one of his films (crossroads)
Finally have seen a good portion of Hill's filmography, including the Warriors, the Driver, 48hrs, and Streets of Fire. I think one that goes very much understated though is Southern Comfort, which came off as a great exploration into the aspects that masculinity can take and how they fair under pressure. Its also by far his most suspenseful work, and the last 20 or so minutes seem to rival many horror movies, at least for me. Great job on your videos by the way! You clearly have a knack for properly explaining the thought process these filmmakers take while also showing the nuances that you enjoy on a personal level; honestly these have to be some of the best reviews/analysis's I've seen for many of these films. Keep up the great work!
Southern Comfort definitely needs more attention, and it’s a shame it got so little upon initial release… a fascinating study of masculinity with a lot of complexity in its setup and characters, more so than some of the films you could argue it inspired. Even the two guys who agree the situation is fubar - an El Paso boy and a city boy - disagree constantly and are antagonistic about how to address the problem. Wields the condescension of Powers Boothe so well, haha. And thank you so much for the kind words! I’m glad you’ve dug the videos, and it’s always nice to hear I’m doing right by the films.
Hill is one of those directors that doesn't shout out "look at me, I'm a director!" with his images and just tries to nail a tone. Solid-ass genre movies made with the audience in mind.
Exactly, well put. I think that’s why he’s been more “quietly” influential to directors who do shout that out.
I've only seen The Warriors and Streets of Fire (one of my favorite movies) from Walter Hill, looks like I'll have to take a tour through more of his filmography.
Just saw Streets of Fire for the first time recently! Somehow its an imperfect movie and yet also isn't? It's just so charming and such a beautiful watch that you can't help but fall in love. Would say the same for something like Highlander.
First gained exposure to Hill through his work on Tales from the Crypt and have been a fan of his ever since. (The episode "Cutting Cards" in particular is pure visual eye candy with a hilariously deranged performance from Lance Henriksen to top it all off). This video reminded me that I should probably check out more of his stuff though so thanks for that man!
And I should probably check out Tales from the Crypt - Walter Hill and Lance Henriksen is a pretty unassailable combo!
Another thing I’ll say about the Driver is that it’s amazing How similar the performances by O’Neill and Gosling could be, yet O’Neill pulls it off perfectly, where as Gosling just looks flat and too obvious
I love the way everyone goes flying in those shootouts in Last Man Standing lmao (neo-western/heroic bloodshed is such an awesome genre fusion too). And now I want to rewatch The Driver thanks to this vid, it’s such a cool and moody noir. My favorites are The Warriors, 48 Hrs, Extreme Prejudice (which was basically a huge homage to Sam Peckinpah - Hill wrote his film The Getaway), and Streets of Fire. The latter of which whose influence can be seen and felt in a couple of really cool games and ‘80s anime.
Great picks - I’d totally forgotten Hill wrote The Getaway! The man is everywhere! One of Peckinpah’s best, IMO.
The Driver is as cool and great as you say, well done, Drive on the other hand was a silly and cheesy attempt-Super shiny and polished where it shouldn’t have been. Anyways, From what I gathered from your other posts, my request for an insightful video tribute would be… Romeo is bleeding
Well, I personally do love Drive as well. I remember seeing a workprint when it came out (I was 18) and it’s held up for me, though it’s always seemed to be a love-it-or-hate-it. I think it’s good for very different reasons - if The Driver is closer to Melville’s cool realism and Mann’s procedural detail, Drive I see as more starting there, and blossoming into a surreal, grand guignol arthouse love story. I always liked how Gosling and Carey Mulligan communicate deeply like genre characters, using few words, and everyone else in the movie is a chatterbox saying nothing. I haven’t seen Romeo is Bleeding in ages! Definitely a rarer one, I remember loving Gary Oldman and Lena Olin in it.
@@WildFlicks check it out I think you’ll find it holds up very well, especially the performances 😉 ….I’m figuring that you saw Drive first, before the Driver, by the way, I did like only God forgives, which is both Ryan and Director again, and Ryan’s performance is actually very similar to Drive, but it works much better for me in OGF
My favourites are Southern Comfort, The Long Riders, Johnny Handsome and Trespass. I also love The Driver, too. There are several ones which i think are underrated. Pictures like Another 48 Hrs., Wild Bill or Geronimo.
Southern Comfort is fantastic. This kind of reciprocal dialogue between directors is the kind of thing that could be traced out to the ends of time, which is why I limited myself to these two films. Though that one, itself a riff on Deliverance, likely influenced subsequent Vietnam cinema in its handling of visuals and moral parable narratives.
@@WildFlicks southern comfort is so underrated and much better than deliverance although I can see deliverance as being a breakthrough for the time it came out, where as Southern comfort got overlooked for when it did
@@WildFlicks I think it could even be interpreted as a mirroring of the American Civil War and the Vietnam War, as if history is repeating itself in multiple contexts.
A very wonderful movie, raw, real and beautiful
18:12 interestingly i read somewhere that actor who played Silence, Jean-Louis Trintignant, said that the "happy ending" was the original ending and was found in the script. Later one of the actors suggested the more nihilistic ending and Corbucci though the idea was good and filmed that one as well, which as we know worked in favour of the film.
I felt like you had at least 25 minutes of really interesting commentary not used there. Could you do The Limey?
Is it toothless though? Yes a bit. He quits an obviously pointless and demoralising job. But drugs are bad m'kay in this film so it misses alot. I would have liked to see how people really get people hooked on drugs which is not rich white boys tempting rich white girls. But that would not get made.
I wathed the miniseries. It was quite good. But it was same old heroin ridiculous tropes rolled out. But it did the right thing and he said "oh actually maybe we should look at our own society and not try to police the whole world instead." So it wins on being a pretty good and nuanced set of characters with the exception of the daughter. I was reminded of The One With Kate Winslet in Africa or something.
Great video
I really like it. It's a descend on revenge. How he cannot recover until the point he loses his marriage. The fact he cannot speaks is also a good point of how he was unable of express all his anger and pain. The movie has its failures but to me is a good return of a master of the action movies. Without john woo, there is no matrix, no john wick and many others.
In the late 1970s/early 1980s local station in NYC/NJ areas would play westerns or Kung Fu films on weekend afternoons, but it was a special occasion when they played a Leone film. They would mostly play Corbucci or other "less than B-level" Italian westerns. But I actually preferred the more rougher, bloodier, dirtier movies by Corbucci and others.
Its more like Revenge of the Sith but still, a great f'ing movie
Where is John hilcoat
I'm no film expert, but my favorite part was the golden filtering used for the Mexico scenes. The effect on me was not "a gross country that isn't the U.S." but instead I felt the bright sun, heat and humidity along with history... especially when Wakefield's helicopter lands in front of the Mexico City Cathedral in the Distrito Federal
Fantastic review, I have been obsessed with this movie since I first saw it. Spreading the word especially to people who love John Carpenter, it flies under the radar cause it's so grounded like this could happen to anyone. No supernatural killers or Sci-Fi here. Just a crazy scary night.
Thank you! And totally, the grounded quality sets it apart from many of his later works, but that absolutely works for the setup and situation
What is the name of the song you play for the outro?
Jornada by Wilson das Neves
@@WildFlicks Thanks, I was itching to find that song
What about some other HK action directors? I have seen many. All are pretty good.
Broken Arrow is an awesome movie. For any Western Movie goer, who did not know who John Woo is or seen an HK movies, Broken Arrow was hella entertaining. I have seen Woo flicks, and I did not even realize he actually directed Broken Arrow. I thought they just ripped him off.
shut up, did she really attempted su*cide after the movie premiered????