In addition to Midnight Run, 1988 also saw the release of Rain Man, in which Tom Cruise cycles through a wardrobe of fashionable yuppie-wear while driving Dustin Hoffman through the U.S. Jack Walsh dresses in one of my favorite screen examples of a hard-wearing, practical outfit for traveling across the country by plane, train, and automobile. Though he still had Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Heat, and more ahead of him, Midnight Run broke the comedic mold for De Niro to explore a more comedic side best seen in movies like Jackie Brown, Wag the Dog, and Meet the Parents. “His character was irritating and Chuck knew how to do that… I felt like that was a good way to go.” “The way Chuck Grodin is, it worked,” De Niro later explained to The Playlist. The King of Comedy), Midnight Run would be his first straight comedic role, enhanced by his buddy dynamic with Charles Grodin as the Duke. While De Niro had played light before (i.e. Having built his career on serious roles in movies like The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and most recently The Untouchables, Robert De Niro was looking for a comedic change of pace and found in an action comedy being developed by Martin Brest and George Gallo. “I can see this is gonna be some fuckin’ trip, boy,” Jack bemoans after a dinner with the prickly Duke. and his hundred-grand payday brings a fresh set of challenges between the Duke’s reluctance to fly, the interference of the FBI, a rival bounty hunter sabotaging him at each step, and-oh!-a couple of deadly doofuses sent by the mob to whack the Duke… and anyone who gets in their way. A pro, Jack has an easy enough time finding the Duke in New York, but bringing him back to L.A. “This is an easy gig, it’s a midnight run for chrissakes!”īounty hunter Jack Walsh has withstood plenty of action and abuse tracking down fugitives for bail bondsman Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano), but the inherent danger of bringing in Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas (Charles Grodin), an accountant in the crosshairs of the Mafia, has Jack demanding $100,000 for the job. Robert De Niro as Jack Walsh, tough bounty hunter The mob's team is deployed by Jimmy Serrano ( Dennis Farina), who grows increasingly enraged as his hit squads miss their targets.Robert De Niro as Jack Walsh in Midnight Run (1988) Vitals The FBI is led by agent Alonzo Mosely ( Yaphet Kotto), who is enraged because De Niro has stolen his FBI identification and is posing as a federal agent. Grodin is afraid of flying, so the two men set out on a long, cross-country odyssey that involves train trips, a shootout at the Chicago bus ter minal, hitchhiking, riding the rails in box cars, and being attacked by helicopters. The movie develops that relationship during and between a series of virtuoso action sequences, after De Niro finds Grodin in New York and sets out to return him to Los Angeles. In "Midnight Run," where he is literally handcuffed to De Niro at times, he is every bit the master's equal, and in the crucial final scene it is Grodin who finds the emotional truth that defines their relationship. Grodin has been in the movies just about as long, has appeared in more different titles, and is of more or less the same generation, but has never received the recognition he deserves - maybe because he often plays a quiet, self-effacing everyman. It's harder to do what he does and allow the nature of the character to get the laughs, while the character himself never seems to be trying to be funny.ĭe Niro is often said to be the best movie actor of his generation. Here he proves to have comic timing of the best sort - the kind that allows dramatic scenes to develop amusing undertones while still working seriously on the surface. Whoever cast De Niro and Grodin must have had a sixth sense for the chemistry they would have they work together so smoothly, and with such an evident sense of fun, that even their silences are intriguing.ĭe Niro does not usually appear in movie comedies, and when he does, as in " Brazil," it's usually in some sort of bizarre disguise. But "Midnight Run" is not a formula movie, because the writing and acting make these two characters into specific, quirky individuals whose relationship becomes more interesting even as the chase grows more predictable. This sounds like a formula, and it is a formula.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |