Here's another for the, "I can't believe
you've never seen that!" list. 1986's THE HITCHER, directed by Robert
Harmon, stars the great Rutger Hauer as a hitchhiking serial killer.
Rutger Hauer makes this movie with his
nightmarish, scenery-chewing performance as a rabid killer who just won't leave
his selected prey alone. But C. Thomas Howell is equally great as the
unassuming college-aged road tripper who unwittingly picks him up.
Unlike the victim in OPERA, Howell's character
makes a bunch of pretty normal decisions. He gets the killer out of his car as
soon as he can, he warns others about the killer, he calls the police and so
on. So, the movie gets off to a good start where you sympathize with the
character and believe in the situation. Which is good, because it escalates to
insane action territory where Hauer becomes almost Terminator-like in his
single-minded pursuit of Howell.
Ebert wasn't a big fan of this flick,
particularly because of the way it treats Jennifer Jason Leigh's character, a
waitress who goes on the run with Howell. And yes, the treatment of that
character is gross and doesn't really fit with the rest of the movie. But I
dunno. I still liked it. The central conceit is so strongly cemented in the
realm of most people's shared fears and nightmares that it's hard not to be
entertained by this gruesome game of cat and mouse.
No comments:
Post a Comment