Catchfire (1990)

Directors:

Dennis Hopper
Alan Smithee

Writers (WGA):

Rachel Kronstadt Mann (story)
Rachel Kronstadt Mann (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

3 April 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

When murder is your business, you'd better not fall in love with your work.

Plot:

An artist (Foster) witnesses a Mafia hit and calls the police. At the police station she realizes that the Mafia has a man in the force...

Plot Keywords:

Mafia | Hitman | Artist | Greek American | Older Man Younger Woman Relationship

Cast

Dennis Hopper	...	Milo
Jodie Foster	...	Anne Benton
Dean Stockwell	...	John Luponi
Vincent Price	...	Mr. Avoca
John Turturro	...	Pinella
Fred Ward	...	Pauling
Julie Adams	...	Martha
Tony Sirico	...	Greek (as G. Anthony Sirico)
Sy Richardson	...	Capt. Walker
Frank Gio	...	Frankie
Helena Kallianiotes	...	Grace Carelli
John Apicella	...	Man at refinery
Clifford Bartholomew	...	Fed #2
Kevin Bourland	...	Ad agency man
Carl David Burks	...	Ad agency man

Also Known As:

Backtrack (USA) (TV title (director's cut))
Catchfire (Australia)
Do It the Hard Way

Runtime:

180 min (original cut) | 116 min (director's cut) | 98 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Norway:15 | Singapore:M18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Mack-Taylor Productions

Trivia:

Though uncredited, the script was rewritten by Alex Cox and Tod Davies.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Anne and Milo are about to drive off in an SUV, the mountain backdrop is flapping in the wind.

Quotes:

Milo: There's something going on here that I really don't understand, but I like it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Love and Death on Long Island (1997)

Hit Men Are Really Sensitive Types!

For about a decade, I swear I saw a number of films with the same trait: trying to make a hardened cold-blooded hit man into a sympathetic softie at heart. Oh, filmmakers just love to make evil look good.

Who better to play a twisted wacko than Dennis Hopper? Here, Hopper has the hots for Jodie Foster. To quickly summarize, the film is pretty interesting but with a bad message, as just mentioned. What's really interesting is the cast. Check this out: Hopper, Foster, Joe Pecsi, Fred Ward, Dean Stockwell, Vincent Price, John Turturro and Charlie Sheen. Obviously, this cast is what primarily makes the film fun for a viewing or two. The more you see it, and analyze it, the dumber it gets so don't see this more than twice....maybe once is more than enough. The dialog is pretty dumb in spots.

This is also unique because they can't seem to figure out how long this film runs. When I first saw it on VHS, the box said it was 102 minutes but it was really between 112-115 minutes. When the DVD came out, it also said "102" but only ran 99 minutes. They must have edited out quite a bit of footage from the tape! It was probably a smart move as the second half of the movie dragged too much. However, I've heard of a case like this with tapes and DVDs.