Siskel & Ebert was on channel 2 at 11:35pm every Sunday. Here is our weekly tribute to the two legends. Film school starts now.
G's Take: ONE FALSE MOVE was not only one of the best films of 1992, it remains one of my all-time favorites. Every single performance in this film is mesmerizing. From Bill Paxton's small town sheriff who feels he has something to prove to the big-city cops, to the trio of villains played by Billy Bob Thornton, Cynda Williams, and the leader of the gang played by Michael Beach. Beach delivers a cold, ruthless performance as he directs the gang and leads them further and further into chaos.
Billy Bob Thornton wrote the script for the film and his dialogue just cracks from the jump. We are pushed into this violent world and then switch gears as we go from city to city. Thornton created one of the all-time great neo-noirs and I wish he would go back to writing about crime, or just writing in general. The funny thing is, I am not even sure if he knew he was writing a neo-noir. Thornton grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and something tells me he was just writing what we knows. Not that he was knee deep in drug deals gone sour, but that he understands the way the south clicks, the way it moves, what happens when the sun goes down.
The 90's gave us some really good neo-noirs. RED ROCK WEST with Nicholas Cage and Dennis Hopper is solid, THE LAST SEDUCTION with Linda Fiorintino and Peter Berg is brilliant, but neither of those can touch ONE FALSE MOVE. A true classic. THUMBS WAY, WAY UP!
See you on forty deuce,
G
