Repo Man: Edge City/ Anchor Bay Entertainment Rating: USA: R/ UK: 18
Author’s Note: Welcome to KingpinLJC’s very first write-off, this one covering Alex Cox’s 1984 cult classic, Repo Man. When you’re done here, please be sure and check out the reviews of the following participants: KingpinLJC, Psychovant, Brundledan, Trotterman, and Wokelstein. Now, on with our regularly scheduled review…
It’s easy to see why Alex Cox’s 1984 film Repo Man is regarded as a cult classic—it’s got some eminently quotable dialogue, a weird and interesting assortment of characters, an odd, almost non-existent plotline, and most importantly, it makes a statement about life and the human condition. But, cult films are funny things—some of them achieve the status because they’re so wonderfully inept that they’re good (any of Ed Wood’s films, for example), others because they spawn new myths or tell weird, yet fantastic, stories (Highlander probably fits here), and finally some of them are simply perfect examples of life for certain people at a certain time (which is where films like Repo Man and the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski) fit in). It should be obvious that by their very nature (cult meaning an exclusive group of persons sharing an interest) that cult films won’t appeal to the masses. Liking one cult film doesn’t guarantee that you’ll like others, because as far as subgenres go, few (if any) are more diverse and all encompassing than this one. That being that, I can understand why some folks really revere Repo Man—and I can understand why I only see it as slightly better than average.
Emilio Estevez (Stakeout) is Otto, a disenfranchised 18-year-old punk who’s wandering the blasted California landscape bouncing from one dead end job to another. Prospects for the future look bleak when Otto learns that his parents (two ageing hippies) have given his college fund money to a televangelist so that he can send bibles to South America. Otto meets up with Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), a world-weary repo man who takes him under his wing and teaches him of the ‘repo man code’. Otto finds that the repo man life agrees with him, and Bud becomes like a surrogate father to him.
Meanwhile, a noted scientist is the subject of a government manhunt because he’s taken off with the bodies of what appears to be four aliens in his trunk. The repo men (and the rival Rodriguez brothers) get into the hunt when a $20,000 bounty is offered for the vehicle. From there, things rush on toward a climax that’s probably the last thing anyone expected.
After an initial viewing, it would be easy to say that Repo Man is essentially an episodic film about nothing. Certain plot elements (the contents of the trunk, for example) appear to be important for much of the film’s running time, but ultimately have very little to do with the film’s real point. However, that assessment of the film isn’t entirely accurate. Repo Man is ultimately an almost philosophical film—one wherein Otto ponders his place in the grand scheme of things and eventually finds his path. Now, that may sound like I’m pulling out the old film school snob routine and attributing things to the film that aren’t actually there, but I’m not—trust me.
For a film that’s not about a whole lot narratively, the movie says a great deal philosophically. At it’s core, Repo Man comes across as an almost full out assault on the 1980’s yuppie lifestyle. The characters here aren’t well off, ‘greed is good’ Reagan era republicans—they’re average Joes struggling to make a buck—disenfranchised with the system, and angry that the only code anyone lives by is ‘get what you can while you can get it’. But, not only does it attack 80’s values, it also takes numerous potshots at organized religion (the hippie parents who’ve given away their life savings to a televangelist and a spoof on L Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, hilariously retitled Diuretix). Much of the philosophy is espoused by other Bud, or Miller—the garbage dump philosopher who coins brilliant phrases like ‘the latticework of coincidence’ and postulates that driving actually makes you dumber.
The film rips along in the first half, filled with numerous humor-filled moments, including Bud’s laying down of the ‘repo man’s code’ and the fact that many of the repo men are named after beer (Bud, Lite, Miller). It’s only in the second half, where Cox tries to tie together a bunch of different storylines and ideas into one narrative, that the film loses steam. Simply put, there’s just too much going on in the second and third acts of this movie.
Estevez and Stanton are the standout performers here. Estevez does a fine job embodying the world-weary young punk who just wants to make his way in the world. Stanton, who’s always been a great character actor, demonstrates here that he can handle the bigger roles as well. Bud is an interesting character who’s seen it all—and in some ways, his viewpoint is even more intriguing than Otto’s. Of course, the real beauty of the film is the way the two actors play off of each other in the scenes they share. I probably wouldn’t be too far off the mark in saying that this is easily one of each of these two actor’s best performances.
The film also features a raucous punk rock soundtrack featuring songs by Iggy Pop, Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies, and The Circle Jerks (who also turn up in the film as well). I’m not the biggest punk rock fan in the world, but the music here perfectly fits the tone of the film.
All in all, Repo Man is a film that has earned its cult film status. While I found the second half of the film really peters out, I think that there’s more than enough good here—in Estevez and Stanton’s performances, in the weird situation, in Cox’s direction, and in the great dialogue to recommend this film to viewers looking for something a little different than the standard Hollywood fare. It’s not the cult film I’d watch constantly (for me, that’s The Big Lebowski), but there’s more than enough good here to make it worth pulling out once every few years and re-experiencing…and that’s far more than I can say for most films.
The explosive, action-paced cult classic returns in this all-new special edition. Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton star as repo men who get caugh...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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