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Narrow Margin (1990)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers (WGA):
Release Date:
21 September 1990 (USA)
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Tagline:
Sometimes the difference between life and death can be a Narrow Margin more
Plot:
A woman secretly witnesses the murder of her blind date for the evening by a top Mafia boss. She immediately...
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Plot Keywords:
Mafia
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Train
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Blind Date
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Murder
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District Attorney
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NewsDesk:
User Comments:
Quite a ride
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Gene Hackman | ... | Robert Caulfield |
 | Anne Archer | ... | Carol Hunnicut |
 | James Sikking | ... | Nelson (as James B. Sikking) |
 | J.T. Walsh | ... | Michael Tarlow |
 | M. Emmet Walsh | ... | Sergeant Dominick Benti |
| Susan Hogan | ... | Kathryn Weller |
| Nigel Bennett | ... | Jack Wootton |
| J.A. Preston | ... | Martin Larner |
| B.A. 'Smitty' Smith | ... | Keller |
| Codie Lucas Wilbee | ... | Nicholas |
| Barbara Russell | ... | Nicholas' Mother (as Barbara E. Russell) |
| Antony Holland | ... | Elderly Man |
| Doreen Ramos | ... | Elderly Woman |
| Kevin McNulty | ... | James Dahlbeck |
| Andrew Rhodes | ... | Sgt. Nigro |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
97 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby SR (35 mm prints) |
70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints)
Certification:
Argentina:13 |
Iceland:14 |
Iceland:16 (video rating) |
Australia:M |
Finland:K-14 |
Germany:16 |
Norway:15 |
Sweden:15 |
UK:15 |
USA:R |
Singapore:PG
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
It was Gene Hackman's idea that his character wear glasses.
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Goofs:
Continuity: The characters' shadows in the final showdown on the car roof are of different lengths in different shots. Most notably, in one shot the villain casts his shadow all the way onto the rocks that pass the train, while in the very next shot his shadow is short and stays entirely on the car roof.
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Quotes:
[in helicopter above mountains]
Caulfield: Why does he have to fly so low?
Sergeant Dominick Benti: We're not low. The ground's high.
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Caulfield: Why does he have to fly so low?
Sergeant Dominick Benti: We're not low. The ground's high.
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This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (31 total)
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1990's Narrow Margin made a poor showing at the box-office, which is a pity because this is a thriller that really thrills. All too quickly dismissed by many critics for committing the cardinal sin of being a remake (in this case of Richard Fleischer's classic 1952 B-movie), it's a superbly paced example of pure commercial film-making at its most satisfying.
Intelligently scripted by director Peter Hyams (Capricorn One, Outland) with an admirable use of Scope that emphasises the claustrophobic nature of the game of cat-and-mouse, there are at least two genuinely breath-taking moments even before the inevitable train-top finale. Yet the film is always careful to maintain a semblance of credibility. As a result, it derives as much of its suspense from our involvement with the characters as from its bravura action sequences.
True, these are stereotypes - idealistic DA, frightened-but-honest witness, pragmatic killer - but they are believable stereotypes who behave logically, relying on their wits. If the watchword of Hyams' Outland was professionalism, in Narrow Margin it is self-reliance. Both sides have to make the most of what is to hand in a restrictive environment that works against them equally.
If this enclosed environment had been a spaceship and the killers aliens, Narrow Margin might have wowed them at the box-office. As it is, without an easily exploitable angle, it proved one of the most mystifying of Hyams' frequent financial disappointments: Hyams at his peak was the consummate commercial film-maker, yet paradoxically his films were never very commercially successful. With impressive performances from Hackman, Archer and Hyams' regular James B. Sikking as the businessman-like killer who prefers negotiation to coercion, Narrow Margin deserved much, much better. It's a good movie, and one you won't just watch once.