Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 4-August-02
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Midnight Run (1988)

As many of you probably know, the line "Play it again, Sam" never actually occurs in "Casablanca." What many of you may not know, however, is that the line "Relax, have a donut" never occurs in "Midnight Run." I myself do know this --- the real line is "Relax, have a cream soda" --- but many years ago my friends and I somehow got the donut line into our heads, and I never let it go.

And now that I think about it, "Relax, have a donut" is the perfect mantra for "Midnight Run," a lovable, highly entertaining amalgam of three venerable Hollywood formulae, The Road Trip Movie, The Mismatched Buddy Movie, and The Last Big Score Movie. In addition, the film takes all of the standard crime-story heroes --- cops, feds, gangsters, and lowlifes --- and diffuses their anger with a healthy dose of humor, goodwill, and happy endings. (This is the antidote to the very things I railed on in the "Road to Perdition" review two weeks ago.)

Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin star as policeman-turned-bounty-hunter Jack Walsh and accountant-turned-renegade Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas, respectively. As we learn at the beginning of the movie, The Duke earned his street name by embezzling $15 million from crime lord Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina) and giving most of it to charity; he then disappeared after posting bail with a loan from Walsh's scuzzy employer, Eddie (Joe Pantoliano). Eddie promises Walsh $100,000 if he brings The Duke back to Los Angeles within 4 and a half days, money which Walsh hopes will allow him to quit the business and open up a coffee shop. But although he has no problem locating The Duke in New York, getting him across the country proves no easy matter. Standing between Walsh and his dream are a group of feds (led by super surly Yaphet Kotto), a boorish rival bounty hunter (John Ashton), and Serrano's murderous goons, not to mention The Duke himself, who is slippery, annoying, hilarious, and, it turns out, exactly what Walsh needs to really put the past behind him.

There's very little difference between these characters and the angry, violent men you see in all underworld/cop films, but writer George Gallo and director Martin Brest somehow tweak the situations just enough to produce a wonderfully comic effect --- it's funny to hear these guys direct horrific threats and curses at each other because their very anger seems ridiculous. Not only ridiculous, but trivial; it's just part of their get-up, like their black leather jackets (seasoned bounty hunter), flannel shirts (rube bounty hunter), Armani suits (mafia goons), or ever-present sunglasses (overserious feds). Placed in comic situations where riddling each other with bullets in grand Hollywood style isn't an option, these men are exposed for what they really are beneath the profanity and tough-guy attire: either foolish losers or diamonds in the rough.

None of which is lost on The Duke. "You have two forms of expression: silence and rage," he admonishes Walsh and, by extension, all such stock characters. But, luckily for all, Walsh isn't exactly the stereotype he at first appears to be; his toughness hides a noble secret about his past, a couple of long lost loves, and a heart squarely in the right place. De Niro and Grodin are perfectly cast as polar opposites, and they work beautifully together. (Why wasn't Grodin a bigger star? He makes me laugh just looking at him.) Walsh's verbal abuse has absolutely no effect on The Duke; rather, Walsh is himself tempered by his captive's natural calm and nosy camaraderie. Their interaction reaches its apex in a moment of pure comic brilliance when Walsh calls Eddie to report on his progress. As he threateningly screams into the phone, "I will shoot him and dump him in a fucking swamp!", he quickly shakes his head at The Duke by way of reassurance. It's all bluster. Nothing but bluster. The real story is much deeper than that.

As with its characters, so with the movie: although "Midnight Run" contains its share of shoot-outs and car chases, these are just the macho trappings that thinly veil a sweet story about guys with a conscience getting the better of guys with none. If you have yet to enjoy this film, I strongly suggest you make a run --- regardless of the time of day --- to the nearest video store.

Copyright © 2002 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.