Product ReviewsNight Moves (DVD, 1975)

Night Moves

The writer saw this movie many years ago on a date. It may not have been the best choice. She walked out. However, something about the movie stuck, including vivid scenes in the Caribbean. Not long ago, it was put on DVD -- time to see the whole thing. The writer was way impressed.

It's a neo-noir film, sure -- all the PR says that, but it's a noir film in bright light, whether that of the West Coast, or of the Keys and the Caribbean. It's got the same setup as familiar Bogart movies and Dashiell Hammett stories, the middle-aged detective falling into a mess too big for his skills, judgment and imagination, but it's shot in bright, natural light. The opportunities for irony loom large (remember the cornfield scene in North by Northwest where Cary Grant gets strafed). To get that to work in more than one scene requires a first rate script, front line director, and a terrific acting company. Night Moves has all three.

The movie was directed by Arthur Penn, who'd done Bonnie and Clyde eight years earlier, another neo-realist film shot in blazing natural light. The script by Alan Sharp is crisp, sharp, the characters well-drawn, the dialogue terse (and witness to Sharp's superb ear) and a good fit with the actors. Jennifer Warren, whom I don't remember in anything else, might seem off or stiff in almost any other setting. In this, as an androgynous tough girl who draws the detective's attention, she's perfect opposite Gene Hackman. Susan Clark as Hackman's (Harry Moseby) wandering spouse, makes a lot from a somewhat thankless role. Jamie Woods makes one of his earliest appearances as a stunt pilot's mechanic, and is wonderfully eccentric, a perfect fit to the part and to the movie. Melanie Griffith, who looks about 14, makes one of her first appearances and is a marvelously evocative, sexually precocious teenager on the run from a tyrannical mother,played with slightly rotten bile by Janet Ward. Sharp's plot is dark and often eerily inpenetrable.

The film's frequent comparison by critics to 1940s Hollywood noir films is apt, but Night Movies is more directly related to the nouvelle vague, a series of French movies from the late 1950s and early 1960s. Original noir movies, even those like Lady From Shanghai where much was shot on location, were scarcely bound by the realist conventions. Penn's Night Moves has a look more like Truffaut or Melville.

The movie's all on location, all in natural light, with mostly incidental music. 40s film noir by contrast was high theater, with extreme lighting, and intense use of unusual camera angles, movement, and cutting. Its best exponent was Orson Welles (at least in two 40s films and the later Touch of Evil). With nouvelle vague, and American disciples like Penn, Lumet and early Scorcese, the viewer isn't given those theatrical pomps. In Night Movies, scenes look too familiar. The question, "How could that story come out of what I know?", creates troubling disturbances in a viewer's perceptions and expectations. Neo-realism is a powerful technique in the right hands, as Night Moves is.

I far prefer this film to Penn's Bonnie and Clyde. The earlier movie was too wrapped in romantic fashion to pass for neo-realist (the historical characters were ugly, vicious and stupid, just the kind favored by nouvelle vague directors.) As a representative 70s picture, Night Moves is right up there with work by Lumet and Scorcese, with Penn's own distinct style and pacing. Get a copy!Read full review...

Subtle... Need the full viewing to bring it into true focus.

Engaging and spicy! Just what the Film Noir doctor ordered! If Bogart hadn't been around, Hackman could have easily stepped into the roles as Private Detective!

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Yes and no

Night moves with gene hackman...what can i say, its more like "the conversation" than it is "the french connection". As in of course it hits the check boxes of a hackman-70 noir-detective-crime-thriller-classic--but theres a reason its not a household name like "the french connection", and mainly because for the casual viwer--its not that good. See it? Of course. Buy it? Only if u collect movies. Ill prolly watch it once every 5 years when im in a hackman mood. Whereas "the french connection" i prolly watch every 3 months.Read full review...

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Night Moves

Gene Hackman is and has been one of my all time favorite actors. He is so convincing in any part he plays. I'm just glad I was able to obtain the Night Moves to add to my collection.

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See if for Hackman and Penn's direction...don't like subtlety, forget it

Gene Hackman gives a subtle and very effective performance of a man who wishes he wasn't doing what he was doing. Everyone else gives an appropriate mysterious aura to the picture and the classic tropes of film noir are almost all readily present. This film is however not for those who expect a wild spectacle as it is very much in the same vein as "Chinatown", a subtle film that is filmed gorgeously but will probably not satisfy the majority of the average moviegoers.Read full review...

The cast was perfect for this movie

very good movie enjoyed it immensely

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Night moves

Great movie highly recommend. Surprise ending.

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great item.

great item.

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Hackman again

Hackman always does a good job acting

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My favorite actors

Great actors and story

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