YEAR OF THE DRAGON (1985) - ***1/2 out of 5
Twenty years ago, Mickey Rourke was being cited as the next Marlon Brando for his masculine presence and pure acting charisma that he exhibited on the big screen. Unfortunately, he did end up as the next Brando, at least in the knack for picking terrible scripts and working for the easy paycheck.
Like Brando in ON THE WATERFRONT, he could have been an acting contender, but he blew it.
But before the downfall, Rourke teamed up with disgraced Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Cimino in the adaptation of Robert Daley's crime boiler YEAR OF THE DRAGON. Ironically, Rourke was playing a character that is as old as Rourke is now and ignoring the boxing scars on his face, its eerie in how they both display the look of bitter vinegar disapointment with the lousy cards they've been dealt in life.
Rourke convincingly portrays a middle-aged man in spite of the fact that his make-up isn't convincing, yet it doesn't matter.
Playing a burned-out Vietnam veteran-turned NYPD cop of a Polish-American, Rourke is a man very cynical of the "system," and his days fighting the NVA in the jungles have left him with a angry hostile prejudice against all Orientals. He's fought a losing war before, but he's determined to win this new war at all costs against Chinese Triad leader John Lone. He's practically "Charlie" in Rourke's eyes.
Lone is excellent as the villain that's equally unwilling to backdown, and damn he's a great actor that deserved a better Hollywood career. With a great grasp on the English tongue, he takes a one-note villain part and turned it into a memorable performance.
He conveys such great presence of intelligence in contrast to Rourke's masculine aura. Maybe the best scene in the film is when he's being openly mocked by his fellow Triad mobsters, and he has to quietly take it. Yet without dialogue, his eyes tell us that he will strike back at his new enemy....
I think its a shame that writer/director Michael Cimino has been permanently blackballed by Hollywood over the HEAVEN'S GATE fiasco. I mean it's pretty much his fault for GATE's infamous overspending, but like John Carpenter and John Milius, I just hate seeing good talent not being utilized today. They're too good to be wasted, and yet they are.
Cimino shoots a compelling melodrama about a cop that will wage an uncompromising dirty street war and will suffer harshly for it, with an emotional toll that exausts the viewer. He has some stuff in his script that I don't care, from the DIRTY HARRY simpleton portrayal of the news media to a random shot of an American flag.
Is this cheap emotional pull this side of Spider-Man or some misplaced patriotic righteousness of the hero? Maybe its both. Nevermind that the female lead is nice tits without any acting talent, such pretty dead space. She's a breathing prop for Rourke.
Alot of people dismissed YEAR OF THE DRAGON, saying that its a very racist movie against Chinese-Americans and they just totally missed the whole point. There is a difference being racist, and simply have the gall to have a flawed racist hero this side of John Wayne in THE SEARCHERS.
Cimino and Rourke teamed up to create a good little tale about a soldier who fights an enemy so much, he ends up falling in love with one of them.
