All Night Long (1981)

Gene Hackman plays a man who was just fired from his executive job. He's demoted to being the night manager at a 24 hour drug store. He doesn't get along with his wife (Diane Ladd) or his 18 year old son Freddie (played by 26 year old Dennis Quaid). Freddie is sleeping around with his 4th cousin Cheryl (Barbra Streisand). George tries to put a stop to it and Cheryl dumps Freddie and starts sleeping with him! This is a strange one. It came out in 1981 and bombed immediately. It had a lot of bad publicity with Lisa Eichorn being fired and replaced with Streisand. Also Streisand re-wrote the entire script to make her part bigger. She wanted to try something different with this movie. That's fine but why redo the script? This story was about George and his dealing with being fired and being middle-aged--Streisand should have left the script alone. As it is it's a terribly uneven movie--veering wildly from drama to comedy. The drama is pretty heavy and the comedy is, at best, subtle. It was pushed as a romantic comedy which it certainly was not. However it was never dull and works as a mild dramady. W.D. Richter wrote the original screenplay and he always writes (and directs) offbeat movies so this being a strange movie makes sense.Acting is all over the map. Streisand (wearing a blonde wig) plays her role in a muted way. She only sings one song (badly) and doesn't play the tough-acting role she's well known for. She tries for something different but it doesn't work. Hackman is just great in his role--he really brings the movie to life. Ladd is hardly in this and Quaid is WAY too old for his role--and looks it. So it is uneven and strange but worth a look. I give it a 5.

A huge box office bomb upon release, ALL NIGHT LONG has been criticized by many for it's uncomfortable mix of odd-ball comedy and quaint slice-of-life drama. Though it received some positive reviews (most notably from Pauline Kael and ROLLING STONE magazine), most mainstream critics hated it and audiences all but completely ignored it. It is also often cited by most of Streisand's die-hard fans as their least favorite film of the actress. While the film is certainly not without it's flaws, I have interestingly always thought ALL NIGHT LONG contained somewhat of a bizarre charm, and I've always wished it would receive a re-evaluation from the film-going public.As mentioned before, the film has it's problems. It's paced too leisurely (it's only 90-minutes in length, but feels more like two-and-a-half hours), Jean-Claude Tramont's direction is too light (the film needs more of a thematic punch in several scenes), and much of it's humor is surprisingly too subtle (odd seeing that most film comedies have the opposite problem). Having said all of that, the film is still worth checking out. Though Tramont's direction may be a tad too limp, his skewed perception of the American dream gives the film a dreamy, almost art house-like feel that makes the film more inherently interesting than the screen play would merit alone.Also, the varied cast is a lot of fun, almost all of them playing against type. Gene Hackman brings a equal mix of unusual serenity and touching pathos to his role of the would-be inventor who manages to find his true self by losing nearly everything that was once-important in his life. In an early role, Dennis Quaid throws himself completely into part of Hackman's airheaded son, making the intelligent personae he would develop in later films like DREAMSCAPE and THE BIG EASY even more impressive. Barbra Streisand is clearly miscast the role of the bimbo housewife who woos both Hackman and Quaid (Streisand replaced Lisa Eichhorn, who was fired from the film after two weeks of production), but her performance is still worth catching. Though she's never totally believable as Cheryl (a role that was poorly-defined in the screenplay to begin with), she is still a very likable, always watchable, and occasionally an endearing presence in a unusual little film that deserves a second chance.

If you haven't seen this movie, do yourself a favor and the next time AMC is showing the same James Bond movie for the tenth time in a week or TBS is airing the same movie three nights in a row, take the time to visit the video store and rent this.I'm not a big Barbra Streisand fan, but this and What's Up Doc are two movies I never miss. Barbra actually plays someone who can't sing. That alone is worth taking a look at.But the real reason to watch this movie is Gene Hackman. Hackman is the most overlooked actor of all time. Unfortunately, he came along at the same time that his more flashy peers Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Jack Nicholson did. While his understated performances got lost in the shuffle, time has proved him to easily have the most lasting power. While all four of those have suffered downturns in their career--temporary in the cases of Hoffman and Nicholson, erratic in the case of DeNiro, tragically permanent in the case of Pacino--Hackman never for a moment stopped turning in quality performances.All Night Long is one of his greatest. While this guy could have become a sad sack that we merely pity, Hackman turns him into a fighter, watching the insanity taking place around him. He also invents the greatest product ever designed to be a symbol of the movie's theme.Hackman invents a mirror that lets you see yourself as others see you, as you really are, not as a mirror image. This film is about looking at yourself for who you are, rather that letting others define you. Don't be misled by those looking for a "10" like middle-aged crisis comedy. It's far more than that. "10" was garbage, this is brilliant.From Dennis Quaid's comment that somebody had a "brain hemorrhoid" (instead of hemorrhage) to the sublime Apocalypse Now helicopter scene parody taking place inside a grocery store, this movie is also filled with hilarious little touches.It's worth the rental. Get it. (If it's even been released yet, that is).

Everything about "All Night Long" is off and never turns on. Why is it always the films with the best people that wind up being so bad? In this film's case of wasted star talent, the victim here is Gene Hackman. He portrays a middle aged drug store employee who feels that he has squandered his life so he solves his boredom problems by going on little nighttime charades with the odd insomniacs who prowl the streets during late night. Hackman is extremely miscast in this kind of role and Barbra Streisand's presence doesn't help to save it either.