Flashpoint

I remember well watching Flashpoint on HBO in the summer 1984. It was a really good movie then, and remains one of my favorites today. This was one of the earliest filmmaking partnerships the fledgling cable movie network attempted. The success of Flashpoint, and a handful of others, eventually evolved into one of the most innovative film production companies in modern cinema.

While Flashpoint played in a handful of theaters in a few major markets, it was always intended for the small screen (that's what we called TV when a 27-inch CRT was considered big). I'm quite sure a 16:9 version does not even exist.

Based on the modestly successful novel by George LaFountaine, the film strays from the original story in many respects. As one might expect, the book is significantly longer, with a vastly more complicated plot. The characters of Logan and Wiatt are reversed in terms of their backgrounds and personalities. Desert Rat "Amarillo" and Sheriff Wells factor more thickly into the tale, and the Feds are even more ruthless - but the twist and payoff are the same.

Overall, director William Tannen's treatment is well done. It is clearly a modest budget film, I suspect the lion's share was spent on the drug bust scene and Kristofferson's contract. In case you didn't know, Kris was a hot property in the 80s, and commanded steep appearance fees. Treat Williams was a virtual unknown, as was Kurtwood Smith (later to gain fame as the father in "That 70s Show"). Rip Torn and Roberts Blossom are their usual brilliant, crusty, lovable selves. Tess Harper and Jean Smart both have limited roles, but provide a love interest for our protagonists, and additional visual appeal beyond the stunning panorama of the West Texas border country.

What really keeps this film rolling is the outstanding score by Tangerine Dream. It is alternately compelling and ominous in all the right places. The music is clearly 80s instrumentation, but has a timeless quality that keeps it fresh, even today. The curious choice of a poorly written and awkwardly performed Kristofferson ballad over the closing titles is the only flaw in the soundtrack; but again, that most likely resulted from over excitement at landing such a hot star for such a modest film.

If you're looking for a cinematic masterpiece, this isn't it. But if you enjoy a well-crafted mystery that brushes lightly against one of the pivotal points of the 20th century, Flashpoint is 90 minutes well spent.

As others have noted its a fairly old, and at the time bold little conspiracy idea. Don't watch it with a jaded eye. I saw it when it came out. It's not masterful but its clever and solid. If you are a wanna be mili film critic then it may be lost on you

An old school movie that's enjoyable and contains a surprise ending. Pay attention it's not your average 80's action.

I can just picture the expressions on the faces of Treat Williams and Kris Kristofferson, a pair of actors whose talents haven't always been well utilized by Hollywood, after reading this script. One can imagine them scrambling for the phone, knocking things over, frantically dialing their agent's number and blurting out "Yes! Yes! I'll do it! Are you kidding? Hell, I'll do it for free!" Films this bold and unspoiled don't come along very often these days.

Blends elements of works as diverse as "A Simple Plan", "The Parallax View", "All The President's Men", "The X-Files" and even Orwell's "1984" (the motion detector plot point) to create a sublime, spine-tingling mystery. The first time director William Tannen, approaches the disturbing central theme of his piece in a startlingly original way. He circles it, surrounds it, then closes in with the cunning of a fox and the daring of an assassin. There are subtle (very subtle) hints along the way, particularly if you listen closely to steel-eyed Kurtwood Smith's jaw-dropping diatribe in which he blisters the so-called "American Way" in no uncertain terms. "This whole f***ing nation is politics" he hisses. But they are merely hints making the slyly implied, almost subliminal conclusion that much more of a stunner. Undoubtedly a film that requires its audience to pay extremely close attention to every line, every gesture, every nuance, every single frame of film. The attentive viewer will be amply rewarded.

Williams and Kristofferson are weary, prankish (think Hawkeye and Honeycutt from M*A*S*H) border patrol officers waging a futile battle against the steady flow of illegal immigration from Mexico into Texas. K.K. is a laid back cynic, a decorated Vietnam veteran with an easy-going disposition that masks a simmering resentment towards lock-kneed bureaucracy. Williams is a stubborn, uneducated idealist, a hothead unafraid to speak out against the injustice, corruption and plain foolishness he encounters on his job every day. K.K. no longer has any illusions about "making a difference" but loves the feeling of riding around in his jeep through a beautiful lonely desert, and glories in the thrill of the chase. Williams clings to the slippery notion that, despite his shortcomings, he's one of the last of the good guys, that his uniform does indeed stand for something decent and noble. Their friendship and camaraderie is deep and real in a way few in movies out of Hollywood ever are.

The two of them are in a state of increasing anxiety as a result of their superiors' arrogant, short-sighted decision to rely on a new motion detector technology to "assist" border patrol units in performing these difficult, high stress jobs. K.K. and Williams are convinced that this reliance will at worst render 3/4 of uniformed personnel useless and soon put them out of work, and at best will severely alter the complexion of their day to day duties. They fear it will rob them of their sense of freedom and adventure. (Williams is by no means thrilled at the prospect of sitting in a room staring at a computer screen all day.)

Fed up, they are both looking for a ticket out. K.K. seems to find one in the form of a wrecked jeep buried under mounds of dirt and mud in the middle of nowhere. He unearths $800,000 in cash in the wreckage as well as the driver's skeletal remains. A look at the corpse's license reveals that, amazingly, he must have been rotting there undiscovered for at least 20 years, placing his last moments alive somewhere in the early 1960's. Wisely reasoning that if the money has gone un-missed for that long, he has as much right as anyone else to claim it, K.K. wants to split the cash with his buddy Williams and take off immediately for Mexico. Williams is tempted, as anyone in his shoes would be, but has his doubts. It doesn't pass the smell test and also won't quite square with his nagging personal code of honor.

To placate Williams K.K. allows himself to be talked into doing some detective work first, to see if they're able to determine who exactly the money once belonged to, and whether or not it's clean. At a certain point in this investigation they come to the shocking realization that they're up against an evil so defiant, so entrenched that even when staring down the barrel of a loaded revolver it won't budge an inch. It all hits home in one of the most chillingly emblematic shots in the history of American film: the pair have just made a gruesome discovery inside an abandoned shack in the desert; the camera pulls back to show them staggering outside silently and dropping to their knees in horror against a backdrop of sand and sky.

"Flashpoint" stands besides films such as "Treasure of The Sierra Madre" and Rod Serling's "Patterns" as unflinching, uniquely American movies that reveal more about who we really are at different points in our tumultuous history than just about any other hundred films combined. It will give future generations a strong sense of what our hopes, our fears, our struggles and suspicions truly were at the time. Its clear-eyed, uncompromised vision is so atypical it's jarring. You keep expecting it to take some wrong turn down Formula Road as so many other conspiracy thrillers do, but it bravely sticks to its narrow, bumpy, unpaved path.

Scoff all you want, and of course this movie has been virtually ignored by critics and audiences for going on 17 years now, but this is one of the best movies of its decade. Rip Torn's sage advice for a shell-shocked Kristofferson at the end will stick with you. "Don't be a martyr. We already got enough of those. Be different. Be the one that got away."

I remember seeing this movie when it first came out in 1984, and was frankly lost. But several years ago I found it on video and bought it. After seeing it all over again, I now understand it.

This movie is very similar in some ways to The Sixth Sense. There were lots of plot items sitting in the open, but you never see them. Clues and hints are dropped constantly into this movie. And at the end, is where they are all suddenly brought together.

I do not compare this to Sixth Sense for quality, but it is worth seeing in my opinion. Expecially if you are one of the JFK conspiracy nuts. There is enough information in this movie alone to give Oliver Stone 4 or 5 more movies.