Streets of Fire

Mar 07 - Mar 08, 2014

(Walter Hill, United States, 1984, DCP, 93 min)

Late night!
Two nights only!
21+ screening!

The 1984 box office flop-turned-beloved-cult-classic, Streets of Fire, hybridizes musical, western, comedy and action genres in a self-proclaimed “Rock & Roll Fable.” Willem Dafoe is a leather body suit-clad biker villain named “Raven,” 19-year-old Diane Lane is a ballad-belting rock star, Rick Moranis is her sleazy bow-tied manager and Michael Pare (Eddie and the Cruisers) is the gun-toting loner-hero. 

Set in “another time…another place,” the set design and costumes evoke what the bizarre love-child of the 1950s and 1980s might look like, while the soundtrack features the handicraft of Jim Steinman (“Total Eclipse of the Heart,” much of Meatloaf’s discography), and birthed a radio hit or two (Dan Hartman’s “I Can Dream About You”). 

Does a subtext of queer desire subvert silly misogyny in this neon-drenched spectacle of motorcycles and music? You be the judge of this pure guilty pleasure: one of those rare delights, where the protagonist is the least likable part of the movie and you still love it all.

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