| Repo Man | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Alex Cox |
| Produced by | Peter McCarthy Michael Nesmith Gerald T. Olson Jonathan Wacks |
| Written by | Alex Cox |
| Starring | Harry Dean Stanton Emilio Estevez Olivia Barash Tracey Walter |
| Music by | Tito Larriva Steven Hufsteter |
| Cinematography | Robby Müller |
| Editing by | Dennis Dolan |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 2, 1984 |
| Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Repo Man is a 1984 cult film directed by Alex Cox. It was produced by Jonathan Wacks and Peter McCarthy, with executive producer Michael Nesmith, and stars Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton.
Contents |
Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez), a young punk rocker living in Los Angeles, gets fired from his boring job as a supermarket stock clerk. He learns that his pot-smoking, ex-hippie parents have donated the money they promised him for finishing school to a crooked televangelist. Depressed and broke, Otto wanders the streets, until he falls in with Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), a seasoned repossession agent, or "repo man", working for the "Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation" (a small automobile repossession agency). Although Otto is initially disgusted by the concept of repossessing cars, his opinion changes rapidly when he is quickly paid in cash for his first "job". Otto joins the agency as a repo man himself.
Otto soon learns that, as Bud had told him, "repo man is always intense." He enjoys the fast life style, the drug use, the real-life car chases, the thrill of hotwiring cars and the good pay. His old punk rock lifestyle seems boring by comparison.
Otto meets a girl named Leila (Olivia Barash), who tells him that a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu from New Mexico contains four dead but still dangerous space-aliens in its trunk. Otto doesn't believe her, but the next day he reads that a reward of $20,000 is offered for the Malibu. Otto, Leila, a secret government agent, and rival Mexican repo men, the Rodriguez Brothers (Del Zamora and Eddie Velez), all compete with each other to find and deliver the Malibu, which is being driven around Los Angeles by a scientist (Fox Harris), who originally stole the aliens from Los Alamos National Laboratory and drove to California, slowly losing his sanity on the way due to the radiation emitted by the aliens.
Repo Man, shot on a small budget, makes use of a number of inside jokes, minimalist atmosphere, and symbolism. All of the repo agency employees, except for the security guard, Plettschner, are named for North American lager beer brands (Bud, Oly, Miller, and Lite). Instead of using common brands or lookalikes as props in the film, all foodstuffs and beverages are decorated with a stark white label and plain blue text describing the contents such as: beer, popcorn, or food (meat flavored).
Repo Man was well received by critics and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1984.[2][3][4] It currently holds a 97% "Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.[5] The film was voted as the eighth best film set in Los Angeles in the last 25 years, by a group of Los Angeles Times writers and editors, with two criteria: "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list".[6] Entertainment Weekly ranked the film #7 on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films".[7]
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films[8]
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
Mystfest
American Film Institute Lists
| Repo Man (Original Soundtrack) | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | 1984 |
| Genre | Punk rock, hardcore punk, soundtrack |
| Length | 37:20 |
| Label | MCA |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [11] |
The soundtrack features songs by punk rock bands such as The Plugz, Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies, Iggy Pop and others. The film score was created by Tito Larriva and Steven Hufsteter of The Plugz.
According to the documentary A Texas Tale of Treason,[12] Cox wrote a sequel to Repo Man which, though filming started, was never finished.
Chris Bones saw the script on Cox's website and asked, and received, permission to adapt the script into a graphic novel. The book, Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday,[13] was released in March 2008 by Gestalt Publishing.[14]
On December 3, 2008, a sequel was reported to be going into development with the working title Repo Chick. The story would be set against the backdrop of the 2008 recession and the resulting boom in repossession that extends far beyond cars and homes.[15][16] On 13 February 2009, Cox announced on his personal blog that shooting had finished and the film was in post-production.[17] The bulk of the film was shot in front of a green screen, with backgrounds filmed and composited in during post-production.[18] Universal sent Cox a cease-and-desist, since Cox does not possess the rights to do an official sequel, but he ignored it, as his film uses none of the characters from the original. The film premiered on September 8 at the Venice Film Festival. It was released to DVD in the UK on February 7, 2011, and the following day in North America.
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