For once, the remake is better than the original. Richard Fleischer's black and white movie has many fans, and rightly so, but the 1990 version really has something to it that makes me watch it again and again. The story and the characters have largely improved, and someone really had a lucky hand with the casting here. Gene Hackman gives a great performance as the loudmouth police detective who finds out that he is not as smart as he had thought. He is on his own, he is scared and he also has a bad conscience. Along with numerous action scenes he shows all these sentiments, the viewers can really feel with him. The same can be said for Anne Archer, together with Hackman she makes a formidable team. She is really perfect for the part of an upper middle class businesswoman who is looking for some romance and suddenly finds herself on the hit list of the mob. A formidable opening scene with a short but really great performance by J.T. Walsh sets the tone, and the tension never loosens.
A very important part is also played by the landscape, a remote, idyllic part of Western Canada, I believe. The director successfully succeeded in putting a romantic scenery opposite to the harrowing plot, the hectic action which has nothing to do with its immediate surroundings. Nature is depicted in its friendliest forms of appearance as an innocent bystander. Everything is so normal, so lovely, except ...
A very important part is also played by the landscape, a remote, idyllic part of Western Canada, I believe. The director successfully succeeded in putting a romantic scenery opposite to the harrowing plot, the hectic action which has nothing to do with its immediate surroundings. Nature is depicted in its friendliest forms of appearance as an innocent bystander. Everything is so normal, so lovely, except ...