My Favourite Movies: Streets of Fire

After posting a few very recent movies reviews we move back into one of my favourite eras – the 1980’s. Now the 80’s as decades go was shitty on several levels but it did manage to produce some great music and more than a few great films. Although this example can hardly be called great it is very typical of the age and did have some really good songs – so much so that I bought the soundtrack which remains one of my favourites.

Oddly this example of 80’s style is based in a very stylised 50’s New York (at least it seems like New York). As the movie opens the singing sensation Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) is about to go on stage in her home town. During the first song the concert is disrupted by a violent biker gang called The Bombers intent on kidnapping the singer. Raven, their leader (Willem Defoe), is obsessed with her and wants them to ‘fall in love’ for a few weeks. In desperation a local dinner owner Reva Cody (the lovely Deborah Van Valkenburgh) calls her brother – Ellen’s old flame – so save her. So enters the hero of the piece – Tom Cody (Michael Pare) – who proceeds to annoy just about everyone he meets in his quest to get Ellen back. Tagging along for the ride is McCoy (Amy Madigan) and Ellen’s manager/boyfriend Billy Fish (Rick Moranis). They need to travel deep into Bomber territory and make it back in one piece, something that Raven is not going to let them do easily.

This is one of those films where the style outshines the actual story which is fairly basic and the acting which honestly isn’t that great. But it is the look, the feel and most of all the sound of it that struck a cord with me when I first saw it over 25 years ago. Filmed in a mix of intense colour and shades of grey deepening to black it is visually arresting if not unique. In step with the rest of the film the 50’s look is oddly contrasted with a clearly 80’s soundtrack (some of which is lip-synched by Diane Lane in concert and – rather surprisingly in one scene – on a video juke box) from artists such as Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Ry Cooder (who did the incidental music) and at least 3 songs by Jim Steinman which I’ve been humming bits of since watching this movie on Saturday.

As this flopped at the cinema there’s a good chance you’ve never seen or heard of this film. I only saw it way back when because my brother was experimenting and picked it up in the video store. It made a big impression on both of us and after watching it again just a few days ago it still got my foot tapping and Ellen Aim is still singing her heart out in my head. This is a classic little movie in more ways than one. If you’re an 80’s fan like me you’ll love it.