| Excessive Force | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jon Hess |
| Produced by | Oscar L. Costo (producer) Thomas Ian Griffith (producer) Michael Harpster (executive producer) Erwin Stoff (producer) |
| Written by | Thomas Ian Griffith |
| Starring | Thomas Ian Griffith Lance Henriksen James Earl Jones |
| Music by | Charles Bernstein |
| Cinematography | Donald M. Morgan |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | 14 May 1993 |
| Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Excessive Force is a 1993 action film, written by Thomas Ian Griffith and Burt Young, directed by Jon Hess.
Contents |
Terry (Thomas Ian Griffith) and his two partners from the Chicago special investigation police squad are engaged in war against Chicago's mafia boss, DiMarco (Burt Young). Despite many attempts to jail him, he always manages somehow to walk free. Not discouraged by that, police prepares another action to raise some evidence against DiMarco, this time it's a controlled sale of drugs for $3 million. After the exchange of the money for the narcotics police wants to arrest gangsters involved in the business, unfortunately this won't come without a shootout, during one of them manages to escape (only to be killed later by DiMarco himself, for losing the mafia's money). The other gangster which was wounded during the shooting is making confessions in the hospital (forced by Terry), those are though worthless in the eyes of the judge, who rules that the interrogation was held with use of 'excessive force' and as that was illegal. DiMarco is once again free, furthermore now he wants vengeance on the police who, as he thinks stole his money. Terry's co-cops are being killed one by one and soon he finds himself in peril, especially after he learns that DiMarco's suspicions are not so quite abstract.
A sequel, Excessive Force II: Force on Force, was released directly to VHS in 1995. It was directed by Jonathan Winfrey and produced by Lisa M. Hansen.
The sequel bears little to no relation to the first film.
Malcolm Johnson, of The Hartford Courant, says that "about the best that can be said for this tale…is that Griffith exhibits a mournful Irish dash to go with his high karate kicks and that Todd shows a far different side of his acting talent than he revealed in Candyman."[1]