In 1988, Dennis Hopper directed the controversial cop drama Colors, now reissued on Blu-ray.
The previous year saw 387 people killed in gang-related incidents.
Against this backdrop cameColors, Dennis Hoppers unflinching and disturbingly authentic crime drama starring Robert Duvall and Sean Penn.
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Having emerged from rehab in 1983, Hopper embarked on a new creative streak.
The first film with Orion didnt go so well, Hopper explained in a 1988interview.
There was a major bust to stop the terrible cough syrup problem.
I said, Give me a break.
Make it cocaine, make it real, make it Los Angeles.
This wouldnt even make a bad episode of a television show.
The result is a film that positively pulsates with the sense of imminent danger.
One early scene beautifully sums up the difference between the two cops.
As inEasy Rider,Hopper lets his central characters stretch out and talk.
Even Hodges, among the most benign and smart characters inColors, makes mistakes from time to time.
None of this is to say thatColorsis without flaw.
Despite this, the believable grit of the location shooting and Duvalls spectacular performance constantly shine through.
A locker room confrontation between Duvall and Penn positively crackles with energy.
Between them, Hopper, Schiffer, Duvall and Penn relay the danger of their world.
It is going on, and I made it as honest as I could, no dramatic license.
All the busts, all the police activity, were strictly according to procedure.
More than 25 years on,Colorsstill has a fearsome power.
Colorsis out on Blu-ray now in the UK courtesy of Second Sight.
