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Harry Angel is your usual down trodden and scruffy gun shoe,
taking enough cases to keep the wolf from the door. That is
until Louis Cyphre turns up with an interesting and potentially
profitable proposition. It seems that Louis is looking for
Johnny Favourite, a singer who broke his contract. As Harry
investigates Johnny's disappearance people around him start
to die. Before the missing man is found Harry travels to hell
and back before making a deal with the devil...
Angel
Heart (1987) was directed by Alan Parker from his own
screenplay of the original novel by William Hjortberg. The
film was generally well received and won Lisa Bonet a Young
Artist Award in 1988 and was nominated three times for a Saturn
Award from the Academy of Science fiction, Fantasy and Horror
films.
While
there can be few who haven't already seen the film, or know
the twist in the end, I'll try and avoid this just in case.
This has got to be Mickey Rourke's best film prior to Sin
City (although my other half would disagree and place
Nine and a Half Weeks at the top of her list, for reasons
she wouldn't discuss) Rourke inhabits his character with such
ease it's easy to think that this is what Rourke is really
like. Harry looks like he's been dragged down the street during
a particularly bad hangover and has all the attributes of
a dammed soul. Robert De Niro is... well... Robert De Niro
- one of the greatest actors of our time and, whilst this
is not his greatest role, his inclusion adds gravitas to an
already good film. Lisa Bonet plays Harry's love interest,
though she is the ultimate in being careful what you wish
for as you just might get it, and ultimately is the cause
of his downfall.
Part
film noir and part horror film, doom permeates the film right
from the beginning, shot so that most of the primary colours
have been washed out as it was Parker's intention to make
a black and white film in colour. New Orleans, where Harry's
quest to find himself comes to fruition, is presented as a
character in itself. Like the rest of the film it is beautifully
shot.
So,
if you're a fan of the film you most probably already have
a copy so why should you buy another version? Well, for once,
it is the extras which sell this disc. On the main disc you
get an informative full length director's commentary; the
original theatre trailer; an introduction and interview with
Alan Parker; a making of feature; personality profiles of
Rourke, Parker and Bonet; a photo gallery; and a behind the
scenes feature. If that didn't whet your appetite then the
second feature crammed disc just might. But before you get
too excited, apart from a single interview with Parker, the
other six features deal with the practice of Voodoo - often
putting the Voodoo rituals in the film in context. The film
is presented in Dolby surround sound which does a good job,
but a 5.1 mix would have been preferable.
In
the end the film belongs to Rourke and his stunning performance,
makes you wonder what happened to his career afterwards.
Charles
Packer
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