Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

In 1998, when he was 32, Jason Patric said "I like that I was so brazen in my 20s. I only wish there had been more of those kinds of hard-edged scripts available to me." I don't know if this was before or after "Your Friends & Neighbors" in which he was brazenly an s.o.b.

One of the hard-edged scripts that did come his way was the 1991 "Rush."  Patric must have been in revolt against the "pretty boy" good lucks that made him something of a teen idol in "Solarbabies" and (1986) and "The Lost Boys" (1987). If I weren't concluding my mini-retrospective of Jason Patric movies, I would not have thought that he was only 25 when he appeared in "Rush." In it he plays an undercover narc named Jim Raynor, who seems to have been round many a block already. The movie's present is 1974 somewhere in Texas. (The original events occurred in Tyler, Texas.)

Not as many as his boss Dodd (Sam Elliott), but many. He needs a new partner and picks out overachiever Kristen Cates (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Kristen will do whatever it takes to succeed, including shooting up heroin. Jim has told her that doing so may be necessary to stay alive after (or through) a transaction with a dealer. This looks to be true in the instance in which she shoots up, but Jim starts doing so more than is necessary. His confidence in his ability to "take it or leave it alone" turns out to be excessive (like that of more than a few junkies...)

Both in his initial arrogance and in his stupefied paranoia, Patric is very convincing. I already knew the guy could act and had a wide range, but his performance here is impressive nonetheless. All-out, for sure.

Ms. Leigh (who is in the current "Synecdoche, New York) had some experience of playing a character in the world of junkies from "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (1989) and also has some range (winning awards in "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle"). Her role reminds me of Holly Hunter's cop in  "Copycat." I think the adapter Pete Dexter (who won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Paris Trout) did not write enough motivation into the role. (Kim Wozencraft who wrote the autobiographical novel portrayed her younger self as a thrill seeker, according to those who have read her book.)

There's not much backstory for Jim, either, but he's not throwing himself into work that is dangerous both physically and ethically for the first time. He warns her to no avail.

I have to mention two other outstanding performance in the movie: Max Perlich's as Walker, a feral small-time dealer and construction worker. He has a major speech to Kristen late in the movie that is all the more heartbreaking since he has not seemed someone capable of sustained thought or discourse before then. And although he is only in one scene (the one in which Kristen has to shoot up to get out alive), Special K McKray is shall we say memorable (in nightmares at least) as dealer Willie Red.

The message I took away (beyond the imperative to avenge one's partner) is that the war on drugs corrupts both sides. The movie certainly does not slight the ravages of addiction, and the main trafficker (played by Gregg Allman glowering mostly wordlessly) is plenty unpleasant, but can combating drug trafficking be worth what it does to people like Kristen and Jim?

The movie does not explicitly ask the question, and I already thought that the "war on drugs" is unwinnable and that it would be better to legalize and tax (and quality control) drugs than to try to eradicate them. Lives would be lost, but lives are lost now along with the government spending money in a losing war instead of taking in money as it does from nicotine and alcohol.

The movie has music (too much music, sometimes drowning dialog) by Eric Clapton, most of it bluesy, plus "Tears in Heaven" (which I thought was about Clapton's dead son, not an undercover narc). It was nominated for an Emmy and a Grammie (and not even nominated for an Oscar!?), losing to the title song from"Beauty and the Beast" (! Three songs from "Beauty and the Beast" received Oscar nominations.).

The DVD includes a theatrical trailer that explicitly answers the question ("wrong job"), an earnest "making of" featurette, a 4.5-minute "Tears in Heaven" music video and a commentary track (that I haven't heard) by producer turned director Lili Fini Zanuck (daughter-in-law of Daryl F., longtime head of 20th Century Fox).

©  2009, Stephen O. Murray

The other movies in my Jason Patric mini-retrospective were, in chronological order of their making  The Beast (he did not play the title role!), After Dark, My Sweet,  Incognito, and Your Friends and Neighbors. Some month or other, I'll get around to "Narc" and perhaps watch "Geronimo" again

Thanks (I think!) to Jsommersby and MiDoyle for pushing this product on me.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age