TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.

(November 1985, U.S.)

When TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. was released in 1985, I more or less dismissed it as another cop movie, despite my love for William Friedkin's THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) and THE EXORCIST (1973). Then in the summer of 1986, I saw Michael Mann's MANHUNTER with William Peterson (later of CSI fame), and I was immediately taken by not only his outstanding performance, but the film itself. Realizing only then that Peterson was the star of TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A., I wasted no time in renting the movie. While it was certainly no FRENCH CONNECTION, it was, nonetheless, an impressive neo-noir action thriller with talented, unknown actors (at the time) and a new wave soundtrack by Wang Chung in the age of the MTV 1980s.

Peterson plays Secret Service agent Richard Chance, assigned as a counterfeiting investigator in its Los Angeles office. With a dangerous reputation of recklessness, Chance is determined to nail notorious counterfeiter Rick Masters by any means necessary (played by Willem DaFoe) after Masters murders his partner who was just three days away from retirement. His new partner John Vukovich (played by John Pankow) is more of a straight-shooter who does his job by the book, and must contend and keep up with Chance's recklessness and unethical practices.

After several attempts at surveillance and unsuccessful arrests of Master's known associates, the two agents are able to finally meet with Masters undercover as Palm Springs bankers interested in his counterfeiting services. But the agents needs to put up thirty thousand dollars front money to make the but, money the department cannot grant them. So Chance's solution is to kidnap and rob a man carrying fifty thousand dollars in cash to purchase stolen diamonds. This is heist gone terribly wrong, when the man is not only killed during the robbery, but inevitably leads to a high speed chase through the streets and highways of L.A. (Friedkin clearly trying to continue a reputation for a killer car chase sequence he started in THE FRENCH CONNECTION). Then they discover that the man they robbed and got killed was actually an undercover agent on a sting operation for the FBI. Chance is apathetic by his mistake, still determined to get Masters, while Vukovich is on the verge of a nervous breakdown from his guilt of their crime.

The two agents meet with Masters for the exchange, and that, too, goes terribly wrong, resulting in a shootout and Chance's death (sorry for the spoiler). Masters escapes, but is eventually caught and shot by Vukovich during a moment of blazing inferno inside a warehouse, in which Masters burns to death following his gunshot wounds. Vukovich is a changed man now, becoming the same sort of "whatever it takes" agent that his former partner Chance was.

William Friedkin is not a perfect director. Some of his films are classics, some are hardly that at all. TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. may have easily been considered a comeback film after a series of less-than-great titles that began with SORCERER in 1977 (actually, I like that one). In the age of MTV and MIAMI VICE, the film is stylish, flamboyant, dazzling and perhaps even over the top in comparison to other crime films of the genre that offer a harder, darker edge to them. William Peterson is tough and smart, and easily comparable to someone like the late Steve McQueen in films like BULLIT and THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. The city of Los Angeles is certainly no California paradise in its depiction of not only crime, but its grimy settings and cinematography. Even by today's standards of crime and cops, the film remains an effective study in police corruption and the immoral and brutal choices that ultimately corrupt one's soul. Friedkin successfully represents a cynical and nasty side of life in the city that may easily be considered the West coast version of his New York City in the early 1970s (I think Popeye Doyle and Richard Chance would have been good friends).

Favorite line or dialogue:

Rick Masters : "First you rip me off, then you set up Carl, now you want to fuck my lady?"