WACKY WEDNESDAY:

We’re experiencing a bit of a lull this week at Bowne. Since Monday, it’s been slow-going, but that’s alright because it’s supposed to get much busier soon. That’s the way work goes; a few days/weeks where it’s 10-hour days, then a few days/weeks where we’re literally falling asleep at our stations.

So yesterday, my manager, XB, suggested that we techpool employees might want to schedule a day off, seeing as how such days will be rare in the coming month. Being a good wooden soldier, I volunteered to take mine today. So I spent the morning at home, made no money, rested up, etc. By about 11 am, I was dying of boredom. I used to indulge in this activity called “reading” back during my college and unemployed days. “Reading.” Sounds like a lotta hoodoo to me.

Speaking of hoodoo, I decided to give the DVD of “Angel Heart” I rented a spin. I didn’t have to get up early for work today, so I figured what the hell. My review follows:


THE RELUCTANT FILM CRITIC’S CORNER PRESENTS:

A review of “Angel Heart,” (1987) starring Mickey Rourke and Robert DeNiro. Directed by Alan Parker.

Louis Cyphre (DeNiro) wants to find somebody. It’s an old client of his, a crooner who went big-time before America entered the war against the Japs. This client took an injury, suffered shell-shock and amnesia. He’s currently in a psychiatric hospital in Harlem, stuck in an unresponsive, vegetative state. Or maybe he isn’t. Cyphre believes that his old client disappeared from the hospital years ago. So he wants this old client, Johnny Favorite, found. His interest, as he says, is “strictly financial.” If Johnny Favorite is still alive, he must honor the contract he signed with Mr. Cyphre.

In order to find Mr. Favorite, Mr. Cyphre hires Harry Angel, a Brooklyn-based private eye. Of all the private eyes in all the boroughs in New York, why Harry Angel? Is it because his last name starts with an “A,” so he would be the first down the list in the yellow pages? Harry has no idea why he has been offered the job. But with $5000 as a starting fee, he has no reason to turn it down.

Thus begins “Angel Heart,” which starts out as a detective story, but slowly submerges itself in a world of voodoo and nightmare. The film represents both Mickey Rourke and Alan Parker at about the peak of their respective careers. Rourke just came off “Year of the Dragon” and “9 ½ Weeks,” and Parker would direct “Mississippi Burning” a year later. He would receive a Best Director nomination for that film, which has a similar “poor South” visual look to this one.

Such technical and visual acheivements—natural-light cinematography, rotting wood art direction—are just about all “Angel Heart” has to recommend it. Actually, Rourke and DeNiro are also great. DeNiro pretty much eats up the screen, with his creepy gaze, long fingernails, and greasy, jet-black hair. The only thing oilier than DeNiro’s hair is Rourke when he starts to lose it at the end. The man develops more forehead sweat than Brando doing the Stanley Kowolski “Stella!” scene in an unventilated van.

But the movie lost me at the end. Strangely enough, the ending is the reason many fans of “Angel Heart” recommend it. It’s twisty, years before “The Sixth Sense” made twisty supernatural flicks en vogue. Ultimately, however, I don’t get whatever message Alan Parker’s trying to convey. Or maybe I do get it, and I just don’t like it.


SPOILER! Turn back if you plan to see this movie!

Harry Angel sold his soul to the Devil 12 years ago. But he got amnesia, so he doesn’t remember doing it. 12 years later, Satan reveals to him that once upon a time, he was Johnny Favorite. So now he has to give the Devil his soul.

My question is, if Harry Angel doesn’t remember being Johnny Favorite, how can he be held responsible for what Johnny Favorite did? He’s a different person now; he’s been a different person for more than a decade. Supposedly, Johnny Favorite was a real asshole, chasing skirts around, murdering a young boy. Until Alan Parker’s screenplay conveniently told me so, I never suspected Harry Angel could murder somebody. Remember his conversation with Cyphre: He wants to stay as far away from murder as possible.

Did Harry Angel murder the morphine-addict doctor, or Johnny Favorite’s old flame, or his own daughter. When he asks Cyphre, “Did I really kill them?” Cyphre’s response is, “Yes, under my direction.” That means Cyphre killed them, not Harry!

This movie left me wholly unsatisfied. It’s visually well-done, but I feel it ignored a chance to really be complex, even thought-provoking. An episode of The Simpsons is more thought-provoking. Remember the episode where Lisa tells Bart, “Many… religions believe that nobody is born with a soul. It can only be acquired through suffering and prayer.” “Angel Heart” is never smart enough to inquire about the condition of its protagonist’s soul. All that matters in the end is that Harry goes to Hell.

If Hell means an eternity rewatching the ending of "Angel Heart," I truly, truly feel for the guy.