Arthur Penn (of Bonnie & Clyde fame) is one of those directors whose name I so associate with serious themes and profound social observations that even when he directs a simple little detective drama like Night Moves, it's difficult not to attach to it a deep and pithy significance that may or may not be there.
Night Moves was released in 1975. I was putting myself through film school by working as a movie theater usher, and I must have seen the film at least thirty times. Everything about it suited my post-adolescent self-seriousness.
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| Gene Hackman as private eye Harry Moseby plays chess with himself (knight moves, anyone) during a stakeout |
The story was ostensively an update of the typical 40s film noir detective thriller, only with a post-Watergate deconstruction of the American hero myth thrown in. The detective in question, Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman, who, like Karen Black, seemed to be in every film made in the 70s) is adrift, both personally and professionally, when hired to locate a teen runaway. The teen is Melanie Griffith making her film debut. Cast as a nymphet of the sort she would play again in Paul Newman's "The Drowning Pool" (1975) and most likely incite picket lines today, I distinctly remember wondering if this girl's helium voice would change when she grew up. (It didn't.)
Client: "Are you the kind of detective who once you get on a case nothing can get you off it? Bribes, beatings, the allure of a woman's body?"
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| A very young Melanie Griffith |
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Marital Discord
Wife Susan Clark: " Who's winning?"
Hackman: "Nobody. One side's just losing slower than the other."
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WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM:
I, for one, find uncompromised heroes boring onscreen. Saints and do-gooders always pale next to the more dimensional and colorfully drawn villains. One of the great things Penn does with Hackman's character is that he makes him so flawed, so limited, so human, that you can't help but get involved with his quest. Especially as it begins to spiral far beyond anything he initially thought it would be. Harry Moesby is a hero, it's just that the bad guys aren't as easy to identify now as they were back in the days when they used to wear black hats.
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| Does it matter, Harry? |
PERFORMANCES:
I like Gene Hackman immensely ("The Poseidon Adventure" not withstanding), but at this stage in his career he seemed to be giving the same performance over and over. It took "Superman" (1978) to shake some of the cobwebs off of his acting style. No, if I were honest with myself, I'd have to say a good twenty of the thirty times I watched "Night Moves" was for Jennifer Warren exclusively.
THE STUFF OF FANTASY:
Paraphrasing like crazy here, but Raymond Chandler once wrote of detective thrillers that it didn't matter in the end "whodunit," what mattered was the successful exploration of human nature and the examination of the darkness at the center of man's soul. In that vein Arthur Penn's "Night Moves" succeeds mightily. The big mystery and plot twists of the film are satisfying at the end (and the film has a pretty terrific ending) but what is most satisfying about the film are the characterizations. The film is populated by characters of all stripes that have quirks and motivations that strike me as being uncommonly authentic in their portrayal.
70's Sensuality: Fondue and red wine in bed
THE STUFF OF DREAMS:
Nobody did heady pretension like 70s directors. "Night Moves" is a perfectly enjoyable detective thriller when viewed purely on a surface level, but I love that Penn chose this particular genre to make a heavy statement about human inability to connect, abandonment, loneliness, betrayal and the ambiguity of morality.
It's stylish, well-cast, and there's plenty that is new to discover with each viewing. After "Bonnie & Clyde," "Night Moves" remains my favorite Arthur Penn film.
Paula: "Do you ask these questions because you want to know
the answer or is it just something you think a detective should do?"
the answer or is it just something you think a detective should do?"
