or police thrillers. The difference is that not only their characters are flawed, they are vulnerable, destructible, they make mistakes. And they pay for their mistakes. Similarly the villains: yes, they are formidable and glamorous, but they are not in the league of the Blofelds or Sentenzas of moviedom. They make mistakes too. And they pay too.A surprising asset is the film music by Wang Chung, a one-hit-wonder pop obscurity of the era. Their sound perfectly melts with the cinematography, especially in the stylish opening sequence.

Planting them in the sections of L.A. no one ever sees. And allowed them free rein to improvise, romp and play. And then, create some of their best work!.. William Petersen plays Secret Service Agent Rick Chance. Who hunts Artists/Conterfeiter/Con, Eric Masters. Played with clever, evil glee by Willem Dafoe, with a passion just short of Psychosis... The segments showing Dafoe making 'Funny Money' are as detailed and astounding as the scenes of him violently tidying up loose ends!... Toss in great location shots. A few startling chases. And a 'conscience' for Petersen, played by John Pankow as John Vukovich. A three-piece, by-the-book agent. Who follows his partner through the Counterfiet World of assorted crime, mayhem, and dirty deals. Into Dante's Inferno. Only to fully evolve in the last fifteen minutes of the film. That must be seen to believe!...

hands. He is also having a sexual relationship with Ruth Darlene Fluogel who feeds him information - in this case about a drug dealer who is carrying 50 Grand in cash and arrives the next day - Chance persuades Vucovich to rob the guy and use the cash to set Masters up - unfortunately the whole thing is a an FBI sting operation and both agents are soon way out of their depth. Chance decides to carry on with the operation but Vucovich's doubts grow and the fact that their actions led to the death of a Federal agent only makes his guilt even more intense.Its an absolutely cracking movie - excellent played characters - Peterson plays Chance as someone beyond caring for anything apart from nailing Masters and Dafoe is at his reptilian best as the forger - his grin gets more and more sinister as the film unfolds.Fine support from Dean Stockwell as a slimy lawyer and the ever excellent John Tuturro as one of Masters bagmen whom gets caught and is forced to turn stoolie. The film also has a very amoral feel to it - Chance will use anyone he can to achieve his ends - he morally blackmails Vucovich to going along and his relationship with Ruth is even more dodgy - she asks him what he would do if she stopped supplying him with information and presumably sex - "I'll have your parole revoked and have you sent back to the joint"..... Fantastic photography by the great Robby Muller and a car chase through L.A. that ends up going down the wrong way of an 8 lane freeway adds to the films pleasures as does the use of locations around the city that you don't normally see - rail tracks,sidings,industrial landscapes and the L.A. river basin are all uses to terrific effect.It has a very '80's soundtrack by Wang Chung that fits the mood and location perfectly and its has a very bleak ending that Hollywood would have real issues with today. A key film from the 1980's - just a shame its the last great film that Friedkin made before descending into straight to video hell.....

people generally aren't either 'good' or 'evil' all the time, 3 if a cop or in this case, Secret Service agent takes the law into his own hands, he WILL pay for it one way or another, and 4 whether you're a cop or a criminal, things usually don't go according to plan.This information is directly opposed to what we've learned from countless action movies of the 1980s. Watching the "Lethal Weapon" movies, or anything with Schwarznegger, Stallone or Seagal, suggests that it's fun and entertaining when cops take the law into their own hands. Notice that no matter how much damage Riggs & Murtaugh cause, they can laugh about it with the captain later, and the world is always a better place for it. And no matter how many people's civil rights are trampled, and no matter how illegal the cops' activities are, everything always works out in the end, and the only people who get hurt are the "bad" people."To Live and Die in L.A." shows what would happen if Riggs & Murtaugh tried their antics in the real world. While Martin Riggs' arrogant recklessness is heroic and hilarious, Richard Chance's arrogant recklessness ruins a lot of lives, not least his own. When it's over, justice has hardly been served, and even though the bad guys are dead, there's no hint that L.A. is a better place for it.With all these "Lethal Weapon" comparisons, I should make it clear that "To Live and Die in L.A." came out in 1985, two years before the first LW movie.All that stuff aside, this is one rock-solid movie. Willem Dafoe uses his character's eccentricities to create for my money one of the best villains in cinematic history, even if the movie doesn't see Rick Masters quite that way. William Peterson is incredible and brings a lot of depth to his performance; I'm not one to critique someone else's opinion, but I don't understand the users who complained that he's "wooden." Chance is an egomaniacal, scheming nutjob with a death wish; he really believes that he's above life and death, and it never crosses his mind that he might be wrong. Peterson brings this all out.Dean Stockwell is in his element, playing a scumbag who knows everything about everyone. John Pankow was a wonderful surprise, bringing all sorts of conflicting and confused ideas to Vukovich, which is perfectly appropriate. When things really go wrong, he goes to pieces. Again, some users complained that he was overacting, but ask yourself how YOU'D behave. Nobody ever gives Darlanne Fleugel much credit, but she's terrific here. There's a whole lot going on in Ruth's head, and in many ways, she's the central character to this whole play. Pay attention. And I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't point out Steve James and Jack Hoar as two of Masters' criminal associates. They're both tough, intimidating, and surprisingly multi-dimensional.And I haven't even mentioned 1 the car chase to end all car chases, 2 the copious amount of nudity, 3 the perfect fit of Wang Chung's soundtrack with the day-glo L.A. look, even as all hell breaks loose and men confront the dark depths of their souls huh? , and 4 a climactic shock that WILL knock you for a loop.

that is not, from first scene to last, dead on target. William Petersen as Richard Chance, an ambitious adrenaline-charged treasury agent who becomes totally obsessed with avenging his partner's murder and Willem Dafoe as Rick Masters, a fabulously wealthy yet sleazy and violent counterfeiter form the nucleus around which the film unfolds. Both actors are superb in their roles, but no less impressive is John Pankow as the new partner who approaches emotional meltdown as he gets drawn deeper and deeper into a web of illegality and violence stemming from Chance's single-minded pursuit of Masters. Also Dean Stockwell as a cynical mob lawyer in his glass tower office and John Turturro as a lowlife ex-con, each in their own way a lackey to Masters, deliver taut finely-etched portrayals that linger in the mind with their subtle impact, all the more remarkable for the relatively brief time they appear on screen. And the same can be said about Debra Feuer and Steve James in even briefer roles, Feuer as Masters' longtime girlfriend and James as a ghetto crime lord totally dependent on a constant supply of counterfeit twenty dollar bills from Masters. The richly detailed location shots within which the film's action flows, from Masters' BelAir mansion to the barrios of East Los Angeles, from Hollywood Boulevard performance art theaters to federal prison exercise yards is unflinchingly authentic, but never intrusive. And as a bonus to all this is a car chase that at least equals if not surpasses the one Friedkin directed in 1971's Best Picture Oscar winner, The French Connection.

whatever it takes to bag the 'bad' guys. Friedkin had already explored that in The French Connection 1971 but, at that time, he used a big star draw card with Gene Hackman, who, as Popeye Doyle, trod on a lot of toes and faces to do the job – and still managed to garner sympathy from this viewer, and many others, despite his excesses.That is not the case for Richard Chance William Petersen , the T-man who'll do anything to get Rick Masters Willem Dafoe for murdering another T-man, Jim Hart Michael Greene , Chance's partner in crime, so to speak. You see literally and visually the trouble with Chance, is that he always wants to take a chance on bridging the gap between doing what's right and proper, and doing what he wants to get the job done; ethically, he's a true pragmatist – totally vacuous when it comes to core principles. And that's in direct contrast to Rick Masters, who's loyal to all those around him, until they double-cross him; only then do those real 'bad' guys pay the price for their double trouble.From the narrative perspective, Chance and Masters are mirror images, of course, and each shares the same first name although, for Masters, Rick is a nick-name , thus providing a duality of principle and purpose in the totally corrupt society as presented by Freidkin; and all of which is summed up with Bob Grimes' an urbane and consummate Dean Stockwell pithy rebuttal to Bianca Debra Feuer when she asked him why he was lawyer for Masters: "It's just business". Note the great grimy name for Stockwell's totally debased character...So, the great irony for this story is that Chance works within the law as a T-man, but operates as much as he can outside of it to further his personal interests; while Masters works outside of the law as an anti-T-man he counterfeits money , while operating within it as much as he can – using corrupt lawyers and the legal system – to further his own interests. So, who is the real bad guy? Who deserves more sympathy from society? The ending is fitting, as it should be: out with the old, in with the new. Society continues to function, in all its grime and glory, such as it is; but it is also Friedkin's Disconnection on a grand scale for telling the truth about how it all works. Little wonder: most people can't handle the truth, as somebody said, because there's a little bit of Chance and Masters in all of us. And, we all know what happened to Friedkin's career as a director after this one was released.There are, however, few thrillers, in the last twenty-five years, better than this one for irony, suspense and action. Add to that the sexually pulsating sound track from Wang Chung and the on-site location shooting around Los Angeles – and you have a very believable story in a city where angels always fear to tread.Is it just co-incidental that many of the actors went on to greater recognition? For William Petersen, this was his second movie; for Willem Dafoe, it was his sixth; for John Pankow, his third; Turturro, his fifth and so on. Granted, they all have to start somewhere, but after this one, their status grew rapidly. We can all thank Friedkin for that.See it for sure, if you haven't already; see it again for what you missed first time round. Highly recommended for adults only.

story. All the characters are amoral, dirty and sordid, and it is impossible to feel sympathy for any of them. There are excellent scenes, such as the car chase in the streets of Los Angeles, or the surprising lethal shooting in the end of the story. The DVD shows a commercial alternative ending of the story, fortunately not accepted by the director William Friedkin. The unpredictable and credible end as it is makes the great difference of this outstanding movie. My vote is eight.Title Brazil : "Viver e Morrer em Los Angeles" "To Live and Die in Los Angeles"

exploited by all. Her feelings for Agent Chance are more implied than explicit, but they are believable as is his indifference to her as a person. This riveting film never lets your attention wander. Thanks to Friedkin, we are told, we are given a credible ending to this taut, tightly- wound thriller. An under-exposed, under-appreciated work; excellent for the genre.

all this film gives a feeling of being involved in events that go too fast, too dangerous, and too twisted. Its shows what happens to the heart when the individual becomes obsessed with what he seeks. Watch this one and love it.