Year of the Dragon

This is one that I've always meant to watch, but always end up passing on. It's headed to the top of the queue now. Good to hear.

It's incredibly racist and misogynistic but whole heartedly hysterical and quite possibly seems to have been made with tongue solidly in cheek. The uber-masculine screenplay by Oliver Stone gives Rourke a lot of great lines to sink his teeth into, and you're right about John Lone, Molt, who is the perfect foil to Rourke's manic portrayal. And that is one hell of a showdown at the end.

There are some really (possibly) unintentionally hysterical moments that make it for me:

That crazy shoot-out in the club that ends with the female assassin getting battered around about four different moving cars in the middle of the street.

When Rourke's wife is under attack and his buddy cop partner shows up running down the street with his shotgun yelling "STANLEY!" Where the hell did he come from?

Same buddy cop brow beating his friend Stanley in a bar for basically getting his wife killed. Work on your bedside manner, pal.

One of the WORST performances from a leading actress I have EVER seen (Ariane). She's so bad its funny, particularly when she walks into her apartment (which Rourke simply takes over without asking her) and asks "What's going on here?" in this shrill, commanding monotone. Or how about when Rourke basically "seduces" her and she tries slapping him silly? Nice work, lady.

Rourke's fat, mustached, practically mute partner who eats a lot but doesn't seem to do very much.

The ending, in which a seemingly drunken, disheveled Rourke tries to arrest an entire parade, only to be dragged away by his "friends" (the ones he hasn't managed to get killed)....after which, his cop buddy proclaims, "He won't stop! He's a great cop but he JUST WON'T STOP!"

Lines like "The only time I wanna see one of them is if their carrying a plate of spare ribs." or "The first time I saw you, I hated your guts. I think I even hated you before I met you. I hated you on TV. I hated you in Vietnam. You want to know what's destroying this country? It's not booze. It's not drugs. It's TV. It's media. It's people like you. It's vampires. I hate the way you make your living sticking microphones in people's faces. You lie every night at 6:00. I hate the way you kill real feelings. I hate everything that you stand for. Most of all, I hate rich kids and I hate this place. So why do I want to fuck you so bad?"

Gold. They'll never make 'em like this again!

I first saw this movie on tape back in 2004, then bought it later that year, and finally got the dvd in 2005 when it came out. Spectacular flick, that I find myself watching at least once a year. Sure, there's some funny stuff, but for me the action sequences really outweigh tht stuff. The nightclub shootout is great, as is the final chase where you can see that Stanley's really on his last straw when he crashes his car into John Lone's.

I read on IMDB that this was also the first movie that showcased the awesome power of the Desert Eagle .50.

What makes the scene for me is Barry's Superman response time. And how the hell does he find that shotgun so quickly? Does he always keep it in hand over eggs and coffee with the wife?

Nice one, and agreed! And her only other film role was summed up perfectly by Abel Ferrara on the KING OF NEW YORK commentary: "Look at that piece of ass!"

Alright, Molt, I know you're on something of a Rourke kick right now, and you appear to be getting more interested in Cimino. But do you have what it takes for the shitstorm of DESPERATE HOURS?

Never saw THE SICILIAN. If Rourke had starred, I might have given it a shot, but my patience for Lambert is almost nonexistent.

Did you like THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT? My brother swears up and down that's Cimino's best, even stronger than THE DEER HUNTER. Probably another one for my Netflix stack.

I just picked up Harley Davidson And The Marlboro man yesterday, looking forward to seeing some more Mickey Rourke greatness. Now I have to get Double Team.

I remember reading over at IMDB where some guy thought that Rourke was Bruce Willis in Year Of The Dragon.

Get your brother off the meth.

T&L is certainly enjoyable, but it ain't no Deer Hunter.

Rourke is one of my favorites, and his performance in YEAR OF THE DRAGON is really something to see. Doesn't he play at least part of an otherwise serious love scene with his pants around his ankles? Who else would be kooky enough to do that, besides Brando?

In all seriousness, though, his presence gives welcome support to a few poorly written or misdirected scenes. The sequence at the wife's funeral springs to mind: while Cimino tries to drags it in the direction of sappy and overwrought, Rourke's agonizing breakdown keeps it something like real.

I'm always surprised by the hero's racist comments ("Only time I wanna see a Chinaman is when he's bringing me a plate of spare ribs!"), with no indication that he'll be changing his tune once the movie's over. You will probably not see a major studio production with a hero like this one today.

Great work from Rourke and a pretty mean film altogether. Gotta love all the speeches different characters break into, mainly race related.

I put this in the same league as TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. for great 80s cop thrillers.

I think Tarantino called the restaurant shootout one of the greatest action scenes of 80s cinema, or something like that. It really is a breathtaking setpiece.

Love this flick. I only wish I had the sense to catch it when it played in theaters.

Cimino was at one point trying to get a similar themed gangster film (based on a true story) set in Los Angeles' Koreatown made in the mid-90s, I think. Too bad that one didn't pan out.

The restaurant shootout really is great. I love how Rourke practically dodges the bullets, and just fires off his revolver at the hitmen.

I'll go against the grain, and say that I didn't mind Ariane's performance. Her acting didn't bother me, but I can see that she was picked as primarily eye candy.

Oh yes, I spotted Al Leong. No way he could be missed.

I believe Rourke's character is supposed to be already in his mid to late 40's, hence the white hair. Very grizzled.

I remember this was in EW, but I really don't understand it.

I remember that article also. He refers to it as the final shootout, even though it's far from that, and he also says that "you forget to breathe".

!!!!!

That's all I need to try and rent this. Maybe finally get ANGEL HEART as well and make a double-feature of it.

That'd make a great double feature, as ANGEL HEART is even better than YEAR OF THE DRAGON, and both roles feature Rourke's strongest performances.

Oh, I have no doubt he lives down the street. But how much screentime actually transpires between the first gunshot in Rourke's house and when Barry's seen running down the street in his bathrobe with a cup of coffee in one hand and a fucking shotgun in the other? I mean, unless the guy lives above the GARAGE, he must have superpower hearing or has his best friend's house bugged!!!

Also, many points to you on the Daffy Duck expression. Couldn't be more fitting...

Well I've heard good things about his performance in POGV. Yeah. Figure it out.

Angel Heart is definitely one of Rourke's best. I have the special edition dvd, and it's a great noir crime thriller with Serpent And The Rainbow voodoo overtones. Rourke was definitely at the top of his game with the one-two punch of Year Of The Dragon, and Angel Heart.

I find it hard to believe Rourke was just going through the motions by the time of JOHNNY HANDSOME (89), as he's claimed in interviews. What an astonishing performance. Especially for someone who had to fight through a lot of silly-looking makeup while attempting a speech impediment. It works, though, because it's Rourke. I would also point to a pair of wonderful silent reactions. First when the bandages are removed and he stares at his new face in the mirror, and the second as Sunny (Barkin) tries to persuade him to double-cross Rafe (Henriksen), soon after Johnny and Sunny have sex. Rourke's expressions in these two scenes are incredibly complex, and to me represent the core of his talent as a performer.

Rourke's comments about his indifference to the later roles, e.g. JOHNNY HANDSOME, are in an interview on the ANGEL HEART DVD.

But yeah, there isn't much beyond that. And he has nothing to say about working with Hill.

That's the only scene I've seen and I remember thinking the speech Roberts was making was very bizarre considering the circumstances.

Year of the Dragon was my introduction to Rourke, and the work of Cimino. It's been way too long since I've seen it, but it was a rental staple in the 80's. I think I was the only one who ever rented it from the local video store. It was definitely a gateway drug into the work of those two.

It's not in the same league as The Deer Hunter, but as far as big messy, hyper violent cop thrillers go, this one can't be beat. It looks super expensive, too, I wonder how much it actually cost. Lord knows it didn't do dick at the box office.

If Rourke was sleepwalking through Johnny Handsome, then that's just a testament to either some innate talent of his or the brilliance of Walter Hill when he was at the top of his game. Handsome may be my favorite Mickey Rourke film and performance. I absolutely love that twisted little Elephant Man meets Kiss of Death flick. But what truly sells that picture is Ellen Barkin's pronunciation of the word geek, something along the lines of 'gaik'. A truly underrated and under seen movie.

While Angel Heart will always be my favorite Rourke performance, Johnny Handsome was pretty good, although I haven't seen it since it first came out.

I think it was this movie where I first came across Rourke and thought "Why is this guy doing a Bruce Willis impersonation?" Mind you I only saw like five minutes of the thing years ago and it could've been the shitty sound of the tv.

I just saw it again the other day, and it reminded me about a question I've always had. That cut across the top of his nose that he has throughout the movie. I always wondered how he got that.

Also the part when Rourke goes to the club and takes Lone into the bathroom so he can beat the crap out of him in a stall, but can't since almost every stall has cokeheads in it, is pretty funny.

About Barry running down the street with the shotgun, I've always just assumed that they lived in the same neighborhood, since they're old friends.

Just finished this. Pretty good movie. Appropriately seedy, and Rourke really sold the whole thing. I thought it was interesting just how much Oliver Stone's voice screams through the screenplay. Every time Rourke went on a Vietnam tirade I pictured him being about 20 years older and 100 pounds heavier and bowling with Jeff Bridges.

And I too thought that Raymond J. Barry just lived in the neighborhood. They talk about being friends from the old neighborhood several times before he shows up.

Out of curiosity, how old was Rourke's character supposed to be? He looked like a guy in his 20s with gray hair, which was a little odd. His wife seemed much older. Not a huge issue, as Rourke definitely justified his casting, but it was a little distracting at times.

Btw, this had a great trailer on the disc I had. It was an early 80s picture, so I was dreading a lackluster trailer, but it was really nicely edited, very suspenseful, pretty modern for its day.

I saw a little bit of the flick with Cimino's commentary, and it seemed ok. I'll have to give it a complete listen to sometime.

I also thought that his wife looked older. She mentions that she's 35, but she looks at least 10 years older.

Well, I finally watched THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT. My brother probably overrated it. But I had a good time.

That's a critique for another thread, though.

Except that the John Goodman character from LEBOWSKI is actually based on John Milius!

I finally saw this flick for the first time last night and found it to be utterly fascinating. Big, violent, and undeniably sloppy, it's like a casserole from the cinematic fridge. If I didn't know who'd done it while watching it, I might've thought it was John Milius.

At the center of course is Rourke's performance, which has to be seen to be believed. He's such a kitchen sink type actor, sometimes leaving you scratching your head, sometimes leaving you mesmerized. Here it was more the latter, though the performance wasn't without its thin-line moments. He's like a leading-actor counterpart to Michael Moriarty's character actor. Always a little skewed.

John Lone worked well as the foil, although I thought an opportunity was missed to make him more of an inverse to Rourke's character. Rourke appeared to be unhinged but actually was a good cop and decent guy. Lone was taciturn but kept his dealings a distance, manipulating the thugs rather than showing any explosion himself. I would've liked to see him get his own hands dirtier.

Despite some bloat, the film has some dynamite sequences (the shoot-out, the wonderful sequence where Rourke and Caroline Kava have finally relented and ended their marriage only to be attacked - love the shot of Rourke suddenly getting strangled through the bathroom door, the final showdown). But while it was never boring, it never really came together. I felt like it should've been a half hour shorter or a half hour longer.

See, I like that about it too. My only gripe is that it couldn't decide between the two. I wish it would've taken the time to flesh out the side stories. It could've legitimately been an epic, following the journeys of the two leads. Or, excise the "fat" and make it a lean true crime flick. Either way it might have approached greatness.

But still, in any case, despite Ariane's "performance" (which, like Rourke's, has to be seen to be believed), the film is endlessly interesting as it is.

Bump! Just watched this and was blown away again ( I saw this in the theater yes I'm old). It's 2/3 brilliant and 1/3 hilarious train wreck. Rourke's Giant Gray Hair is certaintly distracting but he sells it (had no idea the man was 29 years old when he made this. I figured he was in his mid to late thirties). John Lone was amazing as the bad guy....a really subtle performance and a perfect contrast to Rourke's bull in a china shop (no pun intended...oh hell of course it's intended).

 

All the action is top notch....but my favorite sequence is when White and wife get attacked in his house, and White blows away one thug in the house then pursues the other and shoots him right in the head as he's driving away. Just an intense awesome to the point sequence.

 

Hilarity: In addition to White's hair, there is Oliver Stone's "RELEVANT" dialogue that comes yelling in your face throughout the movie. Every 20 minutes or so a character will suddenly start proclaiming about how the White Man has put down the Chinese,  and it's so bad etc....so strange seeing this film now when China is clearly at the point (or past) of being the new Super Power.

 

And  it's not just that Ariana has flat delivery, she has the weirdest romantic interest character I've ever seen. White tells her how much he hates her, Chinese in general (esp the ones he fought in Vietnam WTF) then ends his tirade by wondering why he wants to fuck her so much. And she is apparently turned on by this! (or maybe not, since White straddles her with his gun (his Service pistol damnit!) prominently displayed. Later he just arrives at her apartment, drops all his Chinese books on the floor and announces he's moving in! So much Gold.....highly recommended

Edited by Cylon Baby - 3/30/11 at 9:21pm