Extreme Prejudice (1987)

This film is director Walter Hill's carefully crafted tribute to Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." The plot line is different, but the underlying theme of men who are anchored to the past and who have outlived their time on earth runs through the film and permeates every (male) character, albeit heavy-handedly at times (hence, my dinging the film down to a 9-star rating). If you like kicking back to a solid testosterone-charged action flick, you'll love this movie. If you are a student of the history and evolution of the collapse of the Hollywood studio system and the rise of independent film-making, and if you also appreciate the genius that Peckinpah demonstrated in many of his later films, I guarantee that you will find this movie to be wonderfully engaging on many levels and well worth a second viewing. With the possible exception of "Hard Times," I think that this is Walter Hill's best work to date.

Only Mr Hill could bring something so exciting and explosive to the screen, only this wouldn't be well known, as many as it's others, which is the negative, cause it's definitely warrants viewing with an insightful script and very good performances, all around. It's the different and exciting story that makes it, kind of two stories wonderfully colliding together you could say. Once childhood friends, Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (Nolte-dead solid perfect) and drug kingpin, Cash Bailey (Boothe- in one of his performances here) are now warring against each other, especially after Nolte's close friend, and deputy (Rip Torn) is slaughtered. Both enemies vie over old girlfriend (Alonso- never looking hotter, especially near the end in the saloon scene) who had ended up with Nolte. Interfering with the investigation, Nolte has a bigger mess to clean up, where later on, this problem could wonderfully solve his. A elite army of undercover CIA soldiers, lead by their unwavering, hard as steel captain, (Ironside) some seedy, all presumed dead, have popped up, to take down Bailey and company. They are after these documents he has, Cash once one of them, but turned. This is one of those stylishly different action pics, as well as being one of Hills, that only comes along once, one you shouldn't miss. The action shootouts are well staged, especially near the end, with a great cowboy like showdown, it kind of seems weird and puts in a weird disarray, as you don't expect this. Nolte shows what solid character acting is, but it was Boothe, who really impressed me here, speaking such great dialogue, any actor would love to get their hands on. The dialogue seemed meticulously chose, it had me spouting off some lines, after seeing it a few times over twenty five years ago. The title is kind of worrying, when matched it to the movie's story, a better one for something like this could of been applied. All too was the small display of title, etc, over a rising sun. In this R rated version, (the M played cinema wise in Adelaide, more bums on seats) you get what you asked for, heavy squirts of blood and some spillages. You will be humbly satisfied. The whole bloody well made film, is just different you know, and today still stands alone.

"48 Hrs" director Walter Hill's modern-day, macho western "Extreme Prejudice" emerges as a bloodthirsty tribute to writer & director Sam Peckinpah. For the record, Hill adapted the Jim Thompson cult novel as a screenplay for Peckinpah's superb Texas bank robbery saga "The Getaway" (1972) co-starring Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, and Ben Johnson. You can spot some of the ideas that Hill appropriated from that memorable Peckinpah masterpiece and put into this uneven but above-average actioneer. The bank robbers use explosives to distract the local constabulary while they waylay the bank and they cut the local communication lines to keep the authorities from knowing about their audacious deed. Unfortunately, the problem with "Extreme Prejudice" is that Hill and his scribes struggle to streamline two movies into one. One plot concerns an "A-Team" of military soldiers deployed to perform ultra-secret missions that would otherwise embarrass the government. The second plot focuses on the relationship between the hero and the villain who were once the best of friends and are not rivals for the love of the same woman. Despite the uneven, complicated nature of this contemporary western, Hill has fashioned a good crime thriller that maintains attention throughout its 104 minutes with compelling characters, exciting shoot-outs and showdowns, and atmospheric settings."Extreme Prejudice" casts Nick Nolte as lean, mean, and incorruptible Texas Ranger Jack Benteen, while wolfish Powers Boothe is at his villainous best as Benteen's chief adversary Cash Bailey. Cash decks himself out in virtuous apparel with a white Stetson, slacks, and jacket. As it turns out, Benteen and Bailey grew up together in Texas. They played football together, dated the same girl, and smoked marijuana right under the noses of Benteen's Texas Ranger father and Benrey County Sheriff Hank Pearson. Times have changed for both men and Benteen wants Cash to stop selling dope and clear out. While these two lethal opponents circle each other warily with blood in their eyes, a squad of officially dead military soldiers under the command of Major Pat Hackett (Michael Ironside of "Starship Troopers") blow into Benrey to rob the city bank. Initially, the two plots appear to intertwine. As Hackett tells one of his men, "We're robbing the bank to cover what we're getting out of the safety deposit boxes. It's a case of national security." Hackett and his men plan to hold up the bank where Bailey stashes his money and records. These men case not only the bank, but they also case the local sheriff's office. Indeed, two of the team--Sgt. Buck Atwater (William Forsythe of "Out for Justice") and Sgt. Luther Fry (Dan Tullis Jr. of "Harlem Nights")--start a fight so authorities will arrest them for disorderly conduct and assault. Once they are confined to jail cells, they scope out the facilities.The other members of Hackett's team masquerade as Lone Star Armored Car guards so they can enter the bank armed with guns. Naturally, Hackett accompanies them. The robbers don pantie hose to blur their facial features. The flaw in their best laid plan occurs when Sergeant Declan Patrick Coker (Matt Mulhern of "Junior") and Buck wind up stuck momentarily in a gully and cannot make it back to town in time to dispose of one of Cash's henchmen. Cash's henchman Hector (Gary Carlos Cervantes of "Scarface") ambushes Sergeant Fry as he is exiting the bank lugging suitcases of loot. Hector riddles him with a submachine gun and grabs the luggage. While all this is transpiring, Coker and Buck have established a diversion with a hydrogen tanker that they obliterate with explosive charges. Careening back into town late, Coker and Buck run afoul of Benteen. Benteen learns afterward that Coker, Buck, and Fry were listed as dead by the government. When Benteen tracks down Hackett, the major explains that Cash Bailey once served as the DEA's number one, deep-cover informant. Cash has been using the bank in Benteen's own town to launder and stockpile his illicit drug money. Somehow, Hackett convinces Benteen to release Coker and Buck so they can rejoin Hackett, Sergeant Biddle, and Sergeant McRose and head south to Mexico and liquidate Bailey. Ostensibly, Benteen wants to reason with Cash, but he also wants to bring back his girlfriend, Sarita Cisneros (Maria Conchita Alonso of "Predator 2"), who had gone back to Mexico with Cash.Everybody in "Extreme Prejudice" talks tough and looks intimidating. The salty, profane dialogue that these tough guys snarl with venom at each other predated Quinton Tarantino by several years. As the Benrey County Sheriff, Rip Torn has what is possibly the best line: "Only thing worse than a politician is a child molester." The second best line belongs to William Forsythe's flinty character Buck when he flirts with a woman: "As long as I got a face, you got a place to sit!" The bullet riddled confrontation in old Mexico near the end of this R-rated shoot'em up evokes memories of Peckinpah's magnum opus "The Wild Bunch," while the corrosive friendship between the hero and the villain is reminiscent of Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid." Hill and his writers slip in a few surprises along the way, particularly in the treacherous character of Major Paul Hackett. If you're looking for a blazing guns entry with virtually everybody biting the dust, then "Extreme Prejudice" is designed with you in mind. The other tale of the Texas Rangers in a contemporary setting that compared favorably with "Extreme Prejudice" came out about four years earlier was director Steve Carver's "Lone Wolf McQuade" (1983) with Chuck Norris in his best bad ass role.

(SPOILERS ALERT)A beautiful western-inspired and influenced story of Good vs. Evil set in Texas where Banteen plays a local Texas Ranger on the good side of the law trying to complicate things for Bailey's drug trafficking business, adding to the mix is a secret army operation with more than just money on its mind. I liked the premise of good against evil as a result of human choices and not supernatural or paranormal ones, and what makes this story more humanly-conditioned is the fact that back in the days Banteen and Bailey were best friends both on the wrong side of the law, and at some point one has made a choice to lead a righteous straight path and the other just stuck to his evil ways. Major Paul Hackett (Ironside) surely commits to a choice of his own in leading a group of highly trained military men of different backgrounds to rob the bank where Bailey holds his money and other conspicuous documents supposedly for the purpose of weakening Bailey's business, and that turns out in the end to be just a total cover up and lie manufactured by the Major himself. Setting this story particularly in Texas adds more western feel to the movie especially in the use of that type of shotguns and Nolte's stern yet vulnerable portrayal of a man trying his best to do the right thing yet is often faced by his dark past. The action direction is quite fitting on behalf of Hill which has been his trademark in many hit movies like The Warriors, Another 8 hrs., Red Heat ,etc..