Full Frontal Noir

William Peterson (Manhunter) plays Richard Chance. Chance is a flamboyant, thrill-seeking, wild man of a cop. He regularly makes rash decisions that get him into trouble often. Chances partner gets killed while investigating a lead involving counterfeit money in a remote location. Chance wanted to go with him, but his partner insisted that he go alone.

Enter criminal mastermind Rick Masters, played by Willem Dafoe. Masters is a savagely ruthless and cutthroat business operator. Masters waxes Chances partner with an especially effective shotgun blast to the face. This murder sends Chance on a spiral of depravity and less than legal by-the-book actions trying to take Masters down.

William Friedkin’s script and directing is tight and well-paced. We zip to plot point after plot point quickly and efficiently. No scene is wasted, and the dialogue is all used to push us further to what builds as a tense time bomb of a climax.

There is plenty of action along the way as we go through brutish cop beatdowns, well-executed high-speed car chases, and Masters’s own savagery. Masters wants you dead? You are dead—end of story.

Let’s talk about Dafoe’s performance for a second. Dafoe gives us some of his most and androgynous, stone-faced, vile smirks we have ever seen. Something he would become known for as well. One scene in particular where Masters goes into a Kabuki theater and goes backstage. He starts making out with a male performer, but the performer is not a male. The performer pulls off their wig to reveal long blonde hair and as we pan around, we see a woman. A woman who has the same makeup and hair as Daryl Hannah’s character from Blade Runner. What? Woah. Peterson is spectacular as well, but Dafoe steals the show here.

Dafoe isn’t afraid to consistently be naked in scenes, either. Actually, nobody is. There is as much male nudity as there is female. Peterson goes full frontal in a very convincing sex scene that makes you go, “ Uhhh, are we having a ‘Brown Bunny’ moment?” and then it cuts to the next scene.

The scenes with extreme violence also get right up in your face. While not intensely graphic, gun blasts to the face are still very effective. Some excellent camera shots through weird angels and objects make the world feel very intimate sometimes while still giving us this vastly open world.

Let’s talk about the soundtrack for a second as well. Want Chung….. wow. The thumping bass and synth throughout really bring you into this pulsing world. It feels like a Michael Mann world build but opposite coasts, with fewer neon colors, and more grit. Less cocaine, more crack.

To Live And Die In LA feels like a Grand Theft Auto game come to life. This is what dark noir films are all about—expertly crafted. You literally have no idea what is going to happen to our characters from one scene to the next. Just when you think something good is going to happen, it doesn’t, but they live to tell the tale. John Turturro, Steve James, and Dean Stockwell also add solid support to this high-tension thriller. The French Connection-style car chase really revs up the action in the film’s back half.

Kino Lorber just released this on Blu-ray and 4K with a solid cardboard slipcover. Perfect for collectors. Let alone the remastered picture and sound—that Wang Chung soundtrack….. solid, pulsing, sexy stuff.