Dead Bang (1989)

I guess Don Johnson after Miami Vice wad destined to be cast as irreverent police detectives who get results which is why they are tolerated. After easy living Sonny Crockett on a houseboat in Miami Vice he does Dead Bang in which his character is working off a perpetual hangover. Soon enough he would be in Nash Bridges where he once again had a sunny disposition.On Christmas Eve Johnson catches a homicide of a patrol officer shot at point blank range. Like millions of the rest of us Johnson had plans to spend time with his family. But he figures if he's working Christmas investigating the shooting of a fellow officer no one else should be enjoying themselves. And he makes sure they don't.A convenience store manager who was shot and survived gave out a description of someone who the deceased spotted before he was killed. Following this suspect out of southern California in a tour around red state America leads Johnson on a merry chase through a variety of white supremacist groups. The object of his search is Frank Military identified by the convenience store manager who as it were is black.Johnson really steps on a lot of toes, two prime examples are Bob Balaban a parole officer whom he kidnaps Christmas Day so that he can pursue without a warrant a lead. That whole sequence including what Johnson does while interrogating his lead is hilarious.He also handles department shrink in a most unusual manner. Michael Jeter plays the psychiatrist who never encountered issues like Johnson has. I also can't forget the uptight, anal retentive FBI guy that Johnson is forced to work with, William Forsythe. Those two are one impossible team.Though it has a lot a lot humor Dead Bang also is a most serious look at a proliferation of white supremacist groups which makes the film maybe even more relevant for today.

There's a specific brand of cop in film and on TV that apparently appeals to audiences. Typically, he's alienated from his family because he's too dedicated to his job and consumes too much of his time doing it and not enough with them. Or debasing brutality has taken too big a chunk out of his consciousness for him to frequent the society of women and children. Generally, he eats three meals of pizza or Chinese and drinks like a fish. The company he keeps does nothing for his lexicon. And the first thing everybody tells him is that he looks terrible. In Dead Bang, Don Johnson plays this classic brand of cop, to a tee.Has anyone ever made a movie about a good cop who is neurotically orderly? The one perhaps determining stroke contributed by Dead Bang is a scene in which the inebriated investigator heaves onto a suspect. His name is Beck and on Christmas Eve he's designated to probe the murder of another LA cop. He produces the name of a freshly paroled offender apparently affiliated with a disheveled band of white supremacists.There are a few rows and gunfights, and a Fed overplayed by William Forsythe imposes himself. Also, due to his wreckless ways, which appear somewhat restrained relative to that of most movie cops, Beck is ordered by the chief to obtain permission from a police shrink or be removed from the case. However since Michael Jeter's counselor resembles Woody Allen, Beck breaks up and the doctor grows annoyed and the opportunity of remaining on the case seems remote, that is till Beck has a very unclinical, clear-cut and inhospitable talk with the slightly built fellow.Near the beginning, there's an unwanted detour in which Beck beds Penelope Ann Miller who, unbeknownst to him, was the wife of the murdered cop. But when he faces her with the information, that's all and she never appears again. From then on out it's all boys, and there is some inexplicably evocative dialogue in which Beck and his contemporaries talk about "going through doors" together. Beck says there's only one thing that counts: Is there anyone who'd be afraid to go through a door with him? And later, his police chief replies, "I want you to know that I'd go through a door with you anytime." Johnson's eyes look aloof, but he's got some presence here, doing the work and really deriving something appealing out of the formula. As the burdensome G-man, Forsythe is the essence of trivial-mindedness. At one point, he looks at a shivering Beck with gravitas and says, "You didn't bring a cold-weather coat? What's wrong with you?" Also, Bob Balaban, as a whipped parole officer, and Tim Reid, as a local police chief, give their roles some punch.However, what the audience sees, actually, are a couple of white-supremacist psychopaths with a fixation on racial purity and homemade apple tarts. Their main advocates are a handful of dim-witted Hell's Angels sorts who, when they need funds, raid the Mexican bar right next door, kill everyone in it and then are astonished when the authorities appear. John Frankenheimer's control is tight enough but quite mechanical: He sustains the action but doesn't furnish much character. Then again, Robert Foster's script is speckled with crumbs of peculiarity, practically all of them minor. Frankenheimer, the director of three of the most sharply honed and deeply affecting conspiracy movies ever made, is also responsible for some of the more negligible.

From World War 2 through the fall of the Soviet Union, communism has been a genuine threat, but two things made the threat seem like an absolute joke; 1)Bad "Red Scare" movies of the 1950's, and 2)One exploitive Senator named Joseph McCarthy. Since the 1960's, people have used these incidents to dismiss the threat and everything connected to America's effort to fighting it. DEAD-BANG is a reminder of the first of these problems, only this Don Johnson movie attacks the far-right instead of the far-left.Don Johnson plays Jerry Beck, a Los Angeles cop investigating a murder of both a black convenience store owner, and a cop who tried to stop the people who killed him. Soon enough, he finds that the people who killed them are much worse than a bunch of two-bit losers who dress in Nazi uniforms and paraphernalia in order to feel good about themselves. But what does Beck find when he investigates a murder with racial overtones? An uncooperative police department that thinks he's losing his marbles, an uptight Born-Again Christian FBI man(William Forsythe), a police psychiatrist(Michael Jeter) who he gets into a fight with over the fact that he looked like Woody Allen, a rural Oklahoma sheriff's(William Traylor) depot that hasn't changed since 1965, a local church that's a disguised version of the World Church of the Creator, with ties to a military compound that's obviously a disguised version of the Aryan Nations.The fact that this movie slams white supremacy, yet almost all the black cops get killed fighting the right-wing militia, doesn't really say much for it. Another thing that bothers me is that Johnson's character frequently refers to the car driven by the neo-Nazis as a "maroon Ford station wagon." Perhaps if he tried looking for a maroon PONTIAC station wagon, which was the actual make of the car, he might improve his chance of finding the culprits. I can't recommend it entirely, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have something going for it.

Another one of those TV stars who moved into movies this sadly has been put alongside with Caruso's JADE but on closer inspection all movies are not that bad..... Dead Bang is a fairly run of the mill cop against bad guys type thing but what takes it out of the run of the mill is the direction from Frankenheimer & the star turn from Johnson. Johnson gives a great performance as the stressed cop,we can see the frustration in Beck's life either doing his job or trying to see his kids,his acting is done very well & not over the top..in particular the xmas morning bust Beck makes..the start of the scene we see the alcoholic sweats to later on being sick all over the suspect. The supporting cast however do not raise their game to give the support Johnson needs with William Forsythe in particular giving a completely wooden performance which is surprizing as he has been so much better.The action scenes are handled very well indeed...The gunfights(are they're are a few) are not to Hollywood for my liking.On the whole a very enjoyable movie & it shows that Don Johnson should have been a movie star.