I was born in the late 1970s and so while I did grow up in the 1980s I didn’t really come of age until the early 1990s. So, the films that I watched during the 1980s were mostly kid stuff. In the years since I’ve watched most of the more popular and critically acclaimed films from that decade, but there are still tons of films I’ve missed.
I’ve said it many times before but one of the things I love about doing these little monthly movie themes is that I always discover films I’d never heard of before. Nighthawks did okay when it was first released but it seems to have been mostly forgotten, which is too bad because it’s pretty good.
I didn’t intend to watch so many Sylvester Stallone movies when I began the Awesome ’80s in April, but here I am four films deep and looking at some more to watch. Nighthawks was made fairly early in his career. Or I should say fairly soon after he found success with Rocky in 1976 (for he had been playing bit parts since 1969). He’s still clearly hungry and still trying to figure out just what kind of star he’s going to be.
It has some interesting behind-the-scenes production stories. Originally the film was written as the second sequel to The French Connection and it was going to be a buddy cop film with someone like Richard Pryor playing off of Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle character. But when Hackman declared he was done with the character they turned it into a stand-alone film.
The original director, Gary Nelson, was fired before he even really got started – just one week into production. When the next director, Bruce Malmoth was delayed for a day, Stallone took on the director’s duties so as to not lose a day of shooting. That caused trouble with the guild and he was fined for it. Later both the studio and Stallone made substantial edits to the film when it did poorly at early screenings. Supposedly Stallone cut out several scenes that focused on Rutger Hauer’s character.
None of this really matters of course, what we wound up with is what we’ve got, and what we’ve got is pretty good.
Stallone stars as Sergeant Deke DaSilva of the New York Police Department. He, and his partner, Sergeant Matthew Fox (Billy Dee Williams) work undercover (the film begins with a wonderful scene in which Stallone dawns a dress and a plastic face mask posing as a little old lady trying to catch some purse snatchers). They are quickly pulled into a new, elite squad designed to catch an international terrorist known only as Wulfgar (Rutger Hauer in his first American role).
Wulfgar has just come to New York City. He’s on the run from his European financiers due to running afoul to their good graces. One of his bombs killed some kids and he shot one of their men whom he believed had led the police to his doorstep.
He’s trailed by English Police Inspector Hartman (Nigel Davenport) who recruits DaSilva and Fox into his elite squad. A long chunk in the middle of the film is all about Hartman training the cops on how to catch Wulfgar which basically amounts to them throwing out all their police training and being willing to break the rules and kill the man if they can. This section is rather tedious.
Eventually, it becomes a cat-and-mouse game between DaSilva and Wulfgar and that’s when the film is at its best. There is a good scene set inside a subway line, and a terrific one on a tramway car high above the ocean, headed towards Roosevelt Island.
It looks gorgeous too with some wonderful cinematography by James A. Cotner. Stallone and Hauer play their parts well. Overall it is a good little 1980s thriller and one worth seeking out. But there is a reason why it slipped into obscurity as it doesn’t do anything particularly special with pretty standard material.
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