Nighthawks (1981)

One of the most underrated movies of the eighties. I couldn't figure out why this was so dissed by the critics and the public in the early eighties. Was it because people were not ready to embrace the thought of international terrorism in their front yard? I think so.

This is one of Sylvester Stallone's forgotten movies where he reminds you of Al Pacino as Serpico at times with his benevolent nature and the facial hair. He doesn't slur his monosyllabic sentences, or act as if he has lost more IQ points. Until this film came out, I didn't think there was much more to Stallone. Sadly, I was too young to see this all by myself in the theatres and saw it a year later on cable. And when I saw Rutger Hauer, I was amazed at how creepy the man was! He was born for the role, but unfortunately, Hauer doesn't seem to play good guys as well. Whenever I see him, this is the first film I think of. "Blade Runner"'s the second. Billy Dee Williams's character was bland that I didn't find myself rooting for nor hating him. Lindsay Wagner is expendable and I wish the late Persis Khambatta was able to stretch her role a little more. She was Hauer's perfect, plausible counterpart (and spoke some wicked French and German). Nigel Davenport is the typical foreign expert on the subject that gives the film an interesting transatlantic angle.

I found myself bored by the end of the first forty-five minutes, until the montage of Stallone and Williams looking for clues to the dead flight attendant at the various discoteques. And then when this movie came on TV, they changed the two songs in the disco: "Brown Sugar" from the Stones and "I'm a Man" from Keith Emerson to seventies stock tunes. Must of been a lawsuit pending. Suffice the music, there is a brutal, ten-minute-long chase through subway tunnels, a station, and then on the train itself. Afterwards, there's some downtime, but Wulfgar (Hauer) is at the point of no return now that the po-po has a physical description of him. So much for the plastic surgery. You can now sense the desperation he has, and he already knows he's not going to get a happy ending so that's why he decides to air-out Stallone's ex-wife (played by Wagner in two or three brief snippets). So you know that he's gonna lose, it's just HOW he is going to lose makes you watch the rest of it. You can also see that Stallone's character struggles with himself on how he'd rather bring Wulfgar in than kill the terrorist (he's got those law-enforcing ideology and beliefs going on overtime).

But the problem about this film is that it is so dated and by-the-numbers judging from today's standards, that it's almost a flat-out documentary. The formula is typical seventies where the exposition is gradually set up until the middle of the film- and by then the viewer is bored- but the action and suspense takes place throughout the rest (you'll notice from the "Dirty Harry", "Rocky", and "Star Wars" movies, the later "Indiana Jones" flicks, along with "Serpico", "The French Connection", etc). However, "Nighthawks" was clearly ahead of its time, and I could see a remake or something like this being done down the road from now. See, NOW it might sell because we've seen it in our own front yard. Get Vin Diesel to play Stallone's role; Tyrese Gibson to play Billy Dee Williams; Lindsay Wagner's character's axed; Cillian Murphy will be Rutger Hauer; Clive Owen can play Nigel Davenport's role; Milla Jovovich can be Shakka, and Michael Clarke Duncan will play their Lieutenant.

But leave in the "I do not enjoy killing, but it's my job"-line.

Still good for its time !