1988’s Shoot to Kill, starring Sidney Poitier, Tom Berenger, Clancy Brown and Kirstie Alley, is a misplaced 80s motion gem.
Just lately, I wrote an article about motion pictures that had been surprisingly laborious to seek out on streaming or Blu-ray, and one of many motion pictures I discussed was a little-remembered 1988 thriller known as Shoot to Kill (aka Lethal Pursuit within the UK). The movie was a good field workplace hit in its day, however outdoors of a DVD launch a few years in the past, it has sunk into obscurity.
It is a disgrace, as Shoot to Kill is a nifty little film. After a couple of feedback praised the movie, I made a decision to revisit it for myself, as I truthfully hadn’t seen it for the reason that nineties and had no concept if it might maintain up. To my shock, not solely did it maintain up, however Shoot to Kill is a little bit of a misplaced 80s motion traditional.
The movie stars Sidney Poitier as a veteran FBI agent investigating an odd theft the place the proprietor of a diamond dealer robbed his personal retailer. It seems the determined man stole his personal diamonds to repay a person holding his beloved spouse hostage. Poitier’s G-man underestimates the legal, and ultimately, he murders the person’s spouse, his maid and even his canine. Shaken up by the truth that this jewel thief would kill so many harmless folks, he turns into obsessive about discovering him, solely to find that the person has hightailed it into the Pacific Northwest wilderness and has infiltrated a gaggle of fishermen who’re being led by means of the mountains by a feminine information named Sarah Renell, performed by a younger Kirstie Alley, who was on Cheers on the time and would star in Look Who’s Speaking the next 12 months. Fortunately, Sarah’s boyfriend, Jonathan Knox, is an professional tracker and mountain man, and the 2 crew as much as observe down the fishing social gathering earlier than the killer, whose identification we don’t know at this level, may be revealed.
Now, this is a superb premise for an motion flick. It has all the weather. It has good motivation for the 2 heroes, with Poitier’s Warren Stantin feeling guilt over the folks he couldn’t defend, whereas Berenger’s Knox desires to rescue his girlfriend. The 2 are additionally a traditional mismatched pair, with Poitier a classy, older urbanite with no wilderness expertise. On the identical time, Berenger performs a complete loner who has by no means needed to kill or been pitted in opposition to a monster regardless of his expertise within the mountains. This makes the movie work on many ranges, being a straight-ahead thriller with tons of motion whereas additionally having parts of a mismatched buddy comedy labored in.
It’s expertly directed by Roger Spotiswoode, who made a slew of thrilling thrillers within the 80s, together with Terror Practice, Beneath Hearth and Air America, earlier than taking an ill-advised stab at comedy with Cease or My Mother Will Shoot. He bounced again when he directed Tomorrow By no means Dies.
However what makes Shoot to Kill work is how exceptionally well-cast it’s. Youthful viewers might not respect how massive of a star Sidney Poitier was when Shoot to Kill was made however suffice it to say he was a legend. Poitier was the primary black film star, successful an Oscar for Lillies within the Area and having starred in a slew of classics, together with Within the Warmth of the Night time and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Shoot to Kill was his first time in entrance of a digicam in 12 years, as he had prematurely retired from appearing to strive his luck as a director. He was the primary black director to make a film that grossed over $100 million when he made the Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor comedy traditional Stir Loopy.
When he made Shoot to Kill, Poitier was sixty, and this was a fairly daring function for him to take, as by the character of the movie, it’s extremely bodily. He spends a lot of the film within the mountains, mountain climbing, climbing rocks, and doing numerous fairly bodily taxing stuff that, impressively, he wasn’t doubled for. Greater than something, his gravitas provides the movie an additional oomph, as he has the aura of a person who’s been by means of lots, as by his age, his character would have been one of many first black FBI brokers and, as he tells Berenger at one level, he’s confronted off with the Mafia, the KKK and the KGB. Certainly, Poitier has – onscreen, that’s. You additionally purchase him as a person who’s haunted by his failure, and close to the tip of the movie, his pursuit of the villain turns into virtually suicidal, as he doesn’t need one other harmless life to be taken. However Poitier can also be hilarious, reacting with disbelief on the varied issues he encounters within the mountains, similar to a moose and a grizzly bear that he manages to scare away. Berenger is simply nearly as good in a uncommon motion function, enjoying a rugged mountain man with a mushy facet. Kirstie Alley might have been saddled with a generic woman-in-p peril function. Nonetheless, her character is hard and resourceful, and even as soon as the unhealthy man has been revealed and he or she will get taken hostage, she continuously tries to get free and by no means permits herself to turn into a sufferer. In some methods, she’s the star of her motion film occurring concurrently.
No, as for the villain, that is the place it will get difficult. The movie goes by means of nice pains to cover his identification so that you just don’t know who the unhealthy man is when he infiltrates the fishing social gathering. Three different fishermen are performed by well-known character actors who’ve performed villains earlier than, together with Soiled Harry’s Andrew Robinson, Richard Masur, Frederick Coffin and the Kurgan himself, Clancy Brown. Okay, so to somebody in 2024, it is probably not that a lot of a thriller who the killer is, as one among these guys has turn into a legendary big-screen villain, and I’m not speaking about Richard Masur. Even nonetheless, this thriller side works nicely.
General, Shoot to Kill is a fairly beautiful piece of old-school motion filmmaking, with good performances, hair-raising stunts, and glorious location capturing in BC and San Francisco. My solely grievance is that the musical rating by John Scott is a tad tacky, with an excessive amount of saxophone – however alas, that’s the period. A part of me thinks it might be a traditional if Michael Kamen, Alan Silvestri, or Jerry Goldsmith had scored this. This winter of 1988 was a good-sized hit on the field workplace, making greater than twice its price range again, and it was a well-liked VHS rental. So why is it out on Blu-ray? It appears to have fallen right into a grey zone of unavailable motion pictures launched by Disney’s grownup label, Touchstone Footage, within the 80s. Many of those motion pictures can be found on Disney Star internationally, and Shoot to Kill was streaming at one level, as there’s HD copy floating round on the market – it’s simply not accessible in the intervening time. That’s too unhealthy as a result of this film is a little bit gem price rediscovering, particularly on condition that Poitier handed away not too way back. If yow will discover it, it’s best to give it a shot.
