Streets of Fire-ahead of it's time?

James Steven Beverly · October 25, 2007

I was watching "Streets of Fire" last night, and I gotta say I LOVE this movie. Diane Lane at 19, Whoa, Willem Defoe in what had to be one of his first roles, 80s style with a 50s motif. I could help thinking though that it reminded me a lot of the graphic novel pics coming out now, Road to Perdition, Sin City, 300, and sense I had never heard of the film before now, even back in the 80s when it was released, I assume it wasn't all that well received back in the day so I would say it's was a film somewhat ahead of it's time. Has anyone else seen this gem?

Alex Ellerman · October 25, 2007

i've seen it... it's kind of a guilty pleasure... i remembered this quote from the imdb fun facts page:

The tag line for the film was "Tonight is what it means to be young." When producer Joel Silver saw the poor box office numbers from the opening weekend, he quipped "Tonight is what it means to be dead."

i guess a lot of the guys responsible for the movie had just done 48 Hours, so this probably was a bad career move. the music is fun - kind of anthemic, opera rock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagnerian_rock

Tim O'Connor · October 25, 2007

I was watching "Streets of Fire" last night, and I gotta say I LOVE this movie. Diane Lane at 19, Whoa, Willem Defoe in what had to be one of his first roles, 80s style with a 50s motif. I could help thinking though that it reminded me a lot of the graphic novel pics coming out now, Road to Perdition, Sin City, 300, and sense I had never heard of the film before now, even back in the 80s when it was released, I assume it wasn't all that well received back in the day so I would say it's was a film somewhat ahead of it's time. Has anyone else seen this gem?

There was a good AC article about it. I think that it was one of the first films to use the new fast

stock 5294 and also there was some information on how that whole set, the city with the elevated

tracks and the diner and all, was inside a big warehouse.

Leo Anthony Vale · October 25, 2007

There was a good AC article about it. I think that it was one of the first films to use the new fast
stock 5294 and also there was some information on how that whole set, the city with the elevated

tracks and the diner and all, was inside a big warehouse.

I hadn't thought about the movie for ages, let alone the article.

But it just popped into my head that it wasn't a big warehouse. Is there really one big enough?

Rather it was the backlot at Universal tented over.

They turned a big exterior set into an interior set.

Xavier Plaza · October 25, 2007

You can find a lot of details in every frame a rembrandt by Andrew Laszlo, page 147

link:

http://books.google.com.ec/books?id=hdL2gX...bnail#PPA147,M1

Adam Frisch FSF · October 26, 2007

I had the fortune of having Andrew Laszlo, ASC as a teacher on Maine when I went to some workshops there in 1996, and he had lots of stories about the shooting of the film. One of them was that they covered the whole backlot at Universal (I think it was) with a tarpaulin to block the daylight out (since it was a perpetual night in the film). He said it was surreal going out from under the covered tent into the blistering California sunshine for lunch each day.

Tim O'Connor · October 29, 2007

I hadn't thought about the movie for ages, let alone the article.
But it just popped into my head that it wasn't a big warehouse. Is there really one big enough?

Rather it was the backlot at Universal tented over.

They turned a big exterior set into an interior set.

Yeah, I knew that the set had a cover of some sort but I couldn't recall although I

thought that there was something funkier than a warehouse! That must have been a

wild sight.

Xavier Plaza · October 29, 2007

I had the fortune of having Andrew Laszlo, ASC as a teacher on Maine when I went to some workshops there in 1996, and he had lots of stories about the shooting of the film. One of them was that they covered the whole backlot at Universal (I think it was) with a tarpaulin to block the daylight out (since it was a perpetual night in the film). He said it was surreal going out from under the covered tent into the blistering California sunshine for lunch each day.

you're absolutely right, that's what he say in his book.