Mulholland Falls
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| Mulholland Falls | |
|---|---|
 Video Cover |
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| Directed by | Lee Tamahori |
| Produced by | Executive Producer: Mario Iscovich Producers: Lili Fini Zanuck Richard D. Zanuck |
| Written by | Story: Pete Dexter Floyd Mutrux Screenplay: Pete Dexter |
| Music by | Dave Grusin |
| Cinematography | Haskell Wexler |
| Editing by | Sally Menke |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | April 26, 1996 |
| Running time | 107 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Mulholland Falls is a neo-noir 1996 film directed by Lee Tamahori.
Nick Nolte plays Max Hoover, the head of an elite group of four Los Angeles detectives (based on the real life "Hat Squad") who stop at nothing to maintain control of their jurisdiction.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
This film starts in the early 1950s with the squad of super-corrupt LAPD detectives throwing Jack (William L. Petersen), a suspected organized crime figure, off a cliff on Mulholland Drive, nicknamed "Mulholland Falls" for all the men they threw off it. (There is no waterfall.)
Later the men are called to investigate a suspicious death of a beautiful and alluring young lady found at a construction site, an aspiring actress with whom Max had an affair, Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly).
The evidence shows she fell from a great height, perhaps off of a cliff or from an airplane. Radioactive glass is found in Allison's foot, which leads the detectives to the Nevada Atomic Testing Site, where they illegally break in and investigate.
The detectives find film of Allison having sex taken by a secretly hidden camera behind a one way mirror. Allison's gay friend Jimmy Fields (Andrew McCarthy) tells of making the films, but is murdered before he can testify, apparently as part of a conspiracy.
The man in the films proves to be the civilian (former general) commander of the secret base, Thomas Timms, a "mad scientist" played by John Malkovich. Further investigations lead the detectives to find out about the "atomic soldiers," who were used as guinea pigs for A-Bomb tests and who were now dying en masse in a secret military hospital.
Detectives Maxwell Hoover (Nick Nolte) and Elleroy Coolidge (Chazz Palminteri) get close to the truth and almost wind up just like Allison, being thrown out of a DC-3 by murderous military officers, including Colonel Nathan Fitzgerald (Treat Williams), intent on keeping everything secret. In a vicious struggle the detectives fight for their lives during a shootout on the plane they were to be thrown from and with the pilot fatally shot, crash land. Detective Coolidge dies of a bullet wound on the ground after surviving the crash.
Max cannot reconcile with his wife (Melanie Griffith) at the funeral because she feels betrayed and heartbroken after having been anonymously sent another surreptitiously-taken sex film, this one involving Allison and Max. She leaves Max for good and alone in Forrest Lawn Cemetery.
[edit] Background
The film is loosely based on LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division's (the two units were merged in 1969) "Hat Squad" were in real life the elite of the least-corrupt detective division in any major city in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. While many of their tactics would not pass legal muster today, during the years of the "Hat Squad" their tactics and techniques were not only quasi-legal, but relatively tame when compared to those of more "mature" police departments in the Midwest and Northeast. These were the days before the 1966 Miranda Supreme Court decision and "reading him his rights" came along.
Yet, the only relationship to the true-life "Hat Squad" was the name. Mulholland Falls calls the squad of cops charged with suppressing organized crime the "Hat Squad," but the detail responsible for combating organized crime, in fact, was the "Organized Crime Intelligence Division" (OCID), run by Captain James Hamilton from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, when it was taken over by future LAPD Chief Daryl Gates.
[edit] Film noir look
Director of Photography, Haskell Wexler, creates a look that is visually spare and shaded to emphasize the lurid and angular which is typical of the film noir style done in the 1940s and 1950s.
[edit] Film locations
Filming locations include Los Angeles, Malibu, and Desert Hot Springs, all in California; and Wendover, Utah.
[edit] Exhibition and box office
Tagline: This isn't America, this is Los Angeles.
The film opened in wide release on April 26, 1996.
The box office receipts were poor. The first week's gross was $4,306,221 (1,625 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $11,504,190. In its widest release the film was featured in 1,625 theatres. The film was in circulation seven weeks (45 days).[2]
[edit] Critical reception
Most critics panned the film. The look of the film was praised, including the work of cinematographer Haskell Wexler, but the film was criticized for the misuse of a talented cast and a confusing plot.
Some, however, did like the film. The Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, historically a fan of film noir, wrote in his review, "This is the kind of movie where every note is put in lovingly. It's a 1950s crime movie, but with a modern, ironic edge: The cops are just a shadeover the top, just slightly in on the joke. They smoke all through the movie, but there's one scene where they're disturbed and thoughtful, and they all lightup and smoke furiously, the smoke lit by the cinematographer to look like great billowing clouds, and you smile, because you know the scene is really about itself."[3]
Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times film critic, also liked the film. Even though he says Mulholand Falls "goes about its business without a trace of finesse" he approved of the direction and the acting in the film, especially Jennifer Connely's "haunting presence." He wrote, "Mulholland Falls combines a vivid sense of place with a visceral directorial style that fuses controlled fury onto everything it touches."[4]
Yet, a lot of critics echoed Peter Stack. Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, he notes, "Mulholland Falls falls flat a lot. The best of the old noir detective dramas had lively pacing and crisp tough-guy dialogue. This movie seems at times like an exercise in slow motion and in dull, cumbersome writing (the script is by Pete Dexter, who wrote the Rush screenplay)."[5]
[edit] Cast and ratings
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| Argentina: | 16 |
| Australia: | M |
| Canada (Manitoba): | R |
| Canada (Ontario): | AA |
| Canada (Maritime): | 14 |
| Canada (Quebec): | 13+ |
| Finland: | K-16 |
| Germany: | 16 |
| Iceland: | 16 |
| Spain: | 18 |
| Sweden: | 15 |
| United Kingdom: | 18 |
| United States: | R |
- Nick Nolte as Maxwell Hoover
- Jennifer Connelly as Allison Pond
- Chazz Palminteri as Elleroy Coolidge
- Michael Madsen as Eddie Hall
- Chris Penn as Arthur Relyea
- Melanie Griffith as Katherine Hoover
- Treat Williams as Colonel Nathan Fitzgerald
- Daniel Baldwin as McCafferty
- Andrew McCarthy as Jimmy Fields
- John Malkovich as General Thomas Timms
- Kyle Chandler as Captain
- Bruce Dern as The Chief
- William L. Petersen as Jack, a Mafia boss
- Rob Lowe as Hood
- Aaron Neville as Nite Spot Singer
- Louise Fletcher as Esther
[edit] Soundtrack
The original score for the film was written and recorded by Dave Grusin.
An original motion picture soundtrack CD was released on May 21, 1996 by the Edel America label. The CD contained 13 tracks including a ballad, "Harbor Lights," sung and written by crooner Aaron Neville. Neville also performs the song in the film.
Other songs heard in the movie, like Dean Martin's "That Certain Party," Count Basie's "Who Me?", and Kay Starr's "So Tired," are not included.
[edit] Unsolicited awards
Wins
- Razzie Awards: Worst Supporting Actress, Melanie Griffith; 1997.
[edit] Quotes
- Lieutenant Maxwell Hoover: This isn't America, Jack. This is L.A.
- Hoover: This is L.A., this is my town. Out here you're a trespasser; out here, I can pick you up, burn your house, fuck your wife, and kill your dog! And the only thing protecting you is if I can't find you, and I already found you!
- Hoover: We go where the case takes us.
- Col. Fitzgerald: Not if it takes you here you don't.
[edit] References
- ^ Mulholland Falls at the Internet Movie Database.
- ^ The Numbers box office data. Last accessed: 1/12/06.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. The Chicago Sun Times, film review, April 26, 1996.
- ^ Turan, Kenneth. The Los Angeles Times, Calendar Section, film review, April 26, 1996.
- ^ Stack, Peter. San Francisco Chronicle, film review, page D-3, April 26, 1996.
[edit] External links
- New York Times film review by Janet Maslin.
