Dennis Hopper

  • River’s Edge (1986)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) When I ask you to picture a “1980s teenage film,” you probably have an impression in mind that’s half-John Hugues romantic high school comedy and half-Porky’s sex comedies. That misguided impression is probably the single best thing you can bring into River’s Edge, because it highlights that it’s a film at the polar opposite. Inspired by a terrible true-crime story, it’s about bored and apathetic small-town teenagers who barely react when one of their own murders his girlfriend and leaves her near a river. One of them (played by Keanu Reeves in an early role, fortunately the closest that the film has to a hero) has enough sense to understand that this is wrong and reports it to the authorities… which leads teenagers to talk about betrayal and snitching. At the opposite side of this narrow moral coin, Crispin Glover plays a much darker teenager who actively plots to hide the murder, protect the killer and punish the snitch. (As that wasn’t enough, there’s an even younger character who’s even darker, but there’s a limit to how much terrible things I can fit in a paragraph-long review.)  No, River’s Edge isn’t your standard 1980s teenage film, and it’s worth noting that it seems to be inhabiting a singularly joyless version of our world where nihilism is key and nothing really matters. Drugs and hedonism define the characters in the absence of anything worthwhile. (In related news, Dennis Hopper plays a supporting character with a surprisingly important plot function.) River’s Edge is still impressively dark and hasn’t aged all that badly if you’re the kind of person who believes that teenagers are (and, apparently, will forever remain) dangerous feral creatures. It’s no fun at all to watch and there’s a weight to the result that will linger long after the credits roll. Just understand that you’re not going into a typical 1980s teen movie film with this one.

  • The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

    The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (YouTube Streaming, August 2021) I’ve been scratching my head for a few minutes in order to find something to say about The Sons of Katie Elder, and it’s harder than you’d think. It’s a western, in colour, from a period in Hollywood history where the studios were running on empty — repeating familiar formulas without quite understanding why audiences were getting tired of them. The film, to be clear, is not a dud: it’s competently-made, with an effective hook (four brothers come back home for their mother’s funeral, and start fighting the resident evil businessman) and some big names on the cast. I’m not a fan of John Wayne, but there’s also Dean Martin to keep things interesting—plus George Hamilton and a young Dennis Hopper. On the other hand, The Sons of Katie Elder is a western film in a very traditional mould, riffing off some questionable frontier justice ideas. It’s watchable, but not particularly memorable. And that, perhaps, is the most lapidary review of all — what else is there to say when the result provokes so little reaction?

  • Hoosiers (1986)

    Hoosiers (1986)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, January 2021) For some reason, I expected more from Hoosiers than I got. It does have a reputation—Oscar Nominated, inducted into the National Film Registry, regularly mentioned as one of the best American Sports movies ever made, Hoosier is often hyped as more than a basketball film. But it is just a basketball film—set in 1950s rural Midwestern America, it’s about a disgraced pro basketball coach making his way to a small high school in order to take charge of their miserable team. (Apparently, he also teaches other things, but the film won’t show you that.)  You won’t be surprised to watch him win against all odds and eventually lead his unified team to a high-stakes championship. It’s based on a true story, and the film’s brown-hued cinematography makes it clear that it’s hitting all of the false-nostalgic clichés about small-town American high-school sports. Gene Hackman is the film’s anchor as the coach, but it’s Dennis Hopper who earns more attention (and award nominations) as a troubled supporting character. (Meanwhile, Barbara Hershey looks great as a romantic foil, but she disappears from the film once it gets back to the inspiring-underdog plot in earnest.)  I didn’t exactly dislike Hoosiers—it’s well made, engaging on a very basic narrative level, and benefits from following a boilerplate formula closely—but neither did I like it all that much. I’m nearly sure that being outside the film’s target audience (I’m not American, never played high school team sports and don’t go for sports in general even now) clearly accounts for much of this lack of enthusiasm. On the flip side, well, Hoosiers doesn’t transcend its limitations as an underdog sports film. It’s exactly what it claims to be, and anyone overhyping the film (even in their own heads, like I did) this may want to keep that in mind.

  • The Hot Spot (1990)

    The Hot Spot (1990)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In French, On TV, June 2019) I don’t think that The Hot Spot is all that good a movie, but if you’re the kind of viewer who craves a bit of steamy neo-noir, then it will satisfyingly scratch that particular itch. The film, adapted by none other than Dennis Hopper from a 1950s novel, starts from the familiar premise of a stranger coming into a small Texas town and deciding to stay for a while. This being a neo-noir from the 1980s rather than the 1940s, there’s a lot more explicit sex and violence than its black-and-white predecessors, as our hero frequents a strip bar, befriends women played by Jennifer Connelly and Virginia Madsen, and gradually puts his plan in motion. True to noir, even a canny man of mystery is no match for the machinations of women with their own designs. The visual atmosphere of the movie does reflect the kind of torrid Texan heat best suited for the film’s subject matter. Don Johnson plays the protagonist with a certain stoicism not dissimilar from Kevin Costner, which does suit the film. Meanwhile, I may have been vocal before about how twenty-first century Madsen is more attractive than her younger self, but she looks really nice here (it’s the curly hair and the stockings more than the brief nudity). Meanwhile, Connelly is presented as innocence personified—misleading, but convincing. The pacing of The Hot Spot is a bit too slack for it to rank as a truly good 1980s neo-noir, but if you’re indulgent on that aspect then the film does deliver what it intended, and fans of the genre will find it very much to their liking.

  • Waterworld (1995)

    Waterworld (1995)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Second viewing, On DVD, August 2017) I’ve grown soft on some of the movies I loved to dislike back in the nineties (see: Independence Day), but as it turns out, Waterworld is just as dumb now than it was back then. From the first moments, the idiocies accumulate quickly, and it’s hard to remain immersed in a Science Fiction movie when you keep muttering “no, no, that’s just stupid” every thirty seconds or so. Soaked dystopia Waterworld desperately tries to make audiences believe in a world entirely covered with water, in factions repeatedly meeting on a featureless ocean, in scarce resources being expended wildly, in … oh, forget it. But there’s more to the annoyance than nitpicking the film to death: it really doesn’t help that Waterworld’s action sequences are so repetitive, either taking place on water or in rusted-out low-imagination post-apocalyptic environments. The film is dull and blurs in trying to recall specific moments. Costner himself is almost a caricature of his own stoic persona, and there’s added irony in contemplating that the film largely takes place on a sea over the American west … that’s right: Westworld is another Costner western. If the film does show most of its then-record breaking budget on the screen, it’s not particularly exciting nor engaging. Sure, Jeanne Tripplehorn is always interesting and sure, it’s OK to see Dennis Hopper ham it up as a villain made to scare kids but … really? Now that I’ve watched Waterworld again, I’m ready to go another twenty years (or more) not thinking about it.

  • Witch Hunt (1994)

    Witch Hunt (1994)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, August 2013) This quasi-sequel to 1991’s Cast a Deadly Spell brings us back to an alternate 1950s Los Angeles suddenly awash in magic, but nearly everything else has changed: The noir aesthetics have given their place to bright Hollywood glam, the lead Private Investigator role is now played by Dennis Hopper and the tone of the film shifts from criminal horror to social commentary.  Recasting McCarthyism as literal persecution of witches, Witch Hunt does get to be a bit too obvious at times.  Still, there are a few things to like here and there despite the limited budget, including the background details and emphasis on a glamorous era for Hollywood.  Hopper isn’t too bad as the lead, while Julian Sands is arresting as an evil magician and Penelope Ann Miller has an eye-catching role as a threatened starlet.  The ending is a bit weak and obvious in its hurry to denounce witch-hunting for political gains, but the real fun of the film comes before then.

  • True Romance (1993)

    True Romance (1993)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (In theaters, November 2000) The first time I tried to watch this film on TV, I drifted off fifteen minutes later, distracted by housework. This time, stuck in a second-run movie theater, I had no choice but to keep on watching, and I must that that the end result isn’t bad at all. A lot of famous names and faces (including one good sequence between ever-dependable Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper) plus an odd script from the pen of Quentin Tarantino, built around only a few sequences that last a long time each. Some surprises, a good action finale and crunchy dialogue make up for ridiculous plot development seemingly lifted from teenage fantasies and a roster of largely unsympathetic characters.