Walter Hill forever, you know?
He credits Lawrence Gordon for the idea of this movie. It was originally about the Governor of Louisiana's daughter getting kidnapped by a criminal who strapped dynamite to her head and threatened to blow her up in 48 hours if he wasn't paid. To save her, the toughest cop around gets the worst prisoner in jail - the one-time cellmate of the kidnapper - to save her. Roger Spottiswoode would write the script, along with Hill, Tracy Keenan Wynn, Larry Gross and Steven de Souza.
Hill couldn't sell them on his idea of making it more of a comedy and teaming Clint Eastwood and Richard Pryor. But then something changed. Hill said, "Paramount felt that the combination of Nick Nolte and a good black actor would be commercial. What happened is very simple: Richard Pryor is now an enormous movie star, and that's changed everybody's mind about black lead players."
The movie was not without issues. Gross and Hill rewrote the film until the last day of shooting, pressured to making it more of a comedy. Producers thought the movie was too violent and claimed that Hill would never work for Paramount again. Those same bosses hated dailies of Murphy's performance and wanted him fired, but co-star Nick Nolte and Hill fought to keep him.
All of these things were forgotten when this became the seventh-biggest movie of 1982.
Career criminal Albert Ganz (James Remar) escapes from prison with the help of his accomplice Billy Bear (Sonny Landham). They travel to San Francisco where they kill a former associate Henry Wong (John Hauk) as well as two cops, Detectives Algren (Jonathan Banks) and Van Zant (James Keane). Only Inspector Jack Cates (Nolte) survives but loses his gun.
Jack tracks down Ganz's former partner Reggie Hammond (Murphy) who only has six months left in his jail sentence. The cop gets a 48-hour release so that Reggie can help him track down Ganz and Bear. Their relationship is somewhat rocky, but Reggie impresses Jack by taking down an entire redneck bar called Torchy's by himself, using the power of the badge, his attitude and some BS to get all the info they need to track down Billy's old girlfriend. I mean, the guys still end up fighting one another, but that brings them even closer as they work the case.
This movie feels like lightning in a bottle, as Murphy was ready to break even bigger than just being on Saturday Night Live. Having Nolte and Hill supporting him helped and I just remember everyone being so excited about this movie. Murphy would follow this with Trading Places and from then on, he's always be a major star.
I love Murphy. Beyond his comedic gifts, he has a deep love of all genres of cinema. He said he had no idea how to hold a gun, so he just did an impression of Bruce Lee's face before he fought. He also said this about Rudy Ray Moore in a recent interview and I want to ask him so many more questions: "I started thinking of him like a guerrilla filmmaker. And then I started seeing different types of movies. And if you watch 8 ½ by Federico Fellini and then you watch The Holy Mountain by Jodorowsky, and then you watch Human Tornado by Rudy Ray Moore, you have the exact same reaction. You go, "What the ... am I watching?""
He even got a sample from Santa Sangre - "The elephant is dying" - into his song with Michael Jackson, "Whatzupwitu."
Anyways. 48 Hours is so raw compared to the buddy cop movies that came after. You should totally check it out if you haven't and just thought it was like any other action movie of the 80s.
He credits Lawrence Gordon for the idea of this movie. It was originally about the Governor of Louisiana's daughter getting kidnapped by a criminal who strapped dynamite to her head and threatened to blow her up in 48 hours if he wasn't paid. To save her, the toughest cop around gets the worst prisoner in jail - the one-time cellmate of the kidnapper - to save her. Roger Spottiswoode would write the script, along with Hill, Tracy Keenan Wynn, Larry Gross and Steven de Souza.
Hill couldn't sell them on his idea of making it more of a comedy and teaming Clint Eastwood and Richard Pryor. But then something changed. Hill said, "Paramount felt that the combination of Nick Nolte and a good black actor would be commercial. What happened is very simple: Richard Pryor is now an enormous movie star, and that's changed everybody's mind about black lead players."
The movie was not without issues. Gross and Hill rewrote the film until the last day of shooting, pressured to making it more of a comedy. Producers thought the movie was too violent and claimed that Hill would never work for Paramount again. Those same bosses hated dailies of Murphy's performance and wanted him fired, but co-star Nick Nolte and Hill fought to keep him.
All of these things were forgotten when this became the seventh-biggest movie of 1982.
Career criminal Albert Ganz (James Remar) escapes from prison with the help of his accomplice Billy Bear (Sonny Landham). They travel to San Francisco where they kill a former associate Henry Wong (John Hauk) as well as two cops, Detectives Algren (Jonathan Banks) and Van Zant (James Keane). Only Inspector Jack Cates (Nolte) survives but loses his gun.
Jack tracks down Ganz's former partner Reggie Hammond (Murphy) who only has six months left in his jail sentence. The cop gets a 48-hour release so that Reggie can help him track down Ganz and Bear. Their relationship is somewhat rocky, but Reggie impresses Jack by taking down an entire redneck bar called Torchy's by himself, using the power of the badge, his attitude and some BS to get all the info they need to track down Billy's old girlfriend. I mean, the guys still end up fighting one another, but that brings them even closer as they work the case.
This movie feels like lightning in a bottle, as Murphy was ready to break even bigger than just being on Saturday Night Live. Having Nolte and Hill supporting him helped and I just remember everyone being so excited about this movie. Murphy would follow this with Trading Places and from then on, he's always be a major star.
I love Murphy. Beyond his comedic gifts, he has a deep love of all genres of cinema. He said he had no idea how to hold a gun, so he just did an impression of Bruce Lee's face before he fought. He also said this about Rudy Ray Moore in a recent interview and I want to ask him so many more questions: "I started thinking of him like a guerrilla filmmaker. And then I started seeing different types of movies. And if you watch 8 ½ by Federico Fellini and then you watch The Holy Mountain by Jodorowsky, and then you watch Human Tornado by Rudy Ray Moore, you have the exact same reaction. You go, "What the ... am I watching?""
He even got a sample from Santa Sangre - "The elephant is dying" - into his song with Michael Jackson, "Whatzupwitu."
Anyways. 48 Hours is so raw compared to the buddy cop movies that came after. You should totally check it out if you haven't and just thought it was like any other action movie of the 80s.