When renting out DVD's from my local library during the Christmas period, (due to them letting you keep them for 3 weeks,instead of the normal 1 week) I have always intensionally kept away from renting Mad Dog & Glory,due to the movie sounding extremely dry.
Taking a look recently at IMDb's list of movies that came out in 1993,due to deciding that I would take part in a poll being held on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best films of 1993,I was surprised to discover,that along with Groundhog Day being brought out in 1993,that Mad Dog and Glory had also been released in the same year.Pushing my doubts over the title being "dry",I decided to finally have a look at the movie,to discover how mad Mad Dog really is.
The plot:
Investigating a recent gang-land shooting with his close friend,and fellow Police Officer Mike,Officer Wayne "Mad Dog" Dobie decides to take a short break from the crime scene, (so that he can make sense of how he suspects the shooting took place) and go to a near by local shop to pick up a snack.
Entering the shop,Dobie discovers an armed robber,who after shooting the store's owner,is now holding a customer hostage.Nagoiating with the robber,Wayne allows for the thief to run free,as he drags the still alive costumer to safety.Expecting to get thanked for saving his life,Mad dog is instead left in a daze,when the customer kindly tells him that he is a disgrace to the police force.
The next day:
Reluctantly accepting an offer from his fellow officers to go to a Comedy club,Dobie is surprised to discover that the ungrateful customer who he saved,is actually a stand up comedian called Frank Milo,whose jokes cause Wayne's fellow officer's to row in the aisles.Meeting up with Milo after his performance,Frank tells Mad Dog that he is sorry for how nasty he had talked to him,mere minutes after his life had been saved,and that to make it up to Dobie,he is going to become his best friend,and give him a night on the town that he will never forget.
Enjoying every moment of Frank's generosity (which includes being introduced to a dizzy,but very cute girl called Glory")Mad Dog begins to fear that his new "best friend" may be up to something more darker than just delivering his Black Comedy punchlines,when the robber who held Milo hostage at the convenience store is finally located,dead in a dustbin.
View on the film:
Setting the movie literally alight in the first scene,by using the flicking of a cigarette lighter to take the movie from a black and white Film Noir appearance,to being a darkly-neon lit, Neo-Noir world.Director John McNaughton and cinematography Robby Muller prominently use a dusty yellow filter for a number of scenes,which helps to create a deeply murky atmosphere of Milo's back street ally gangster life blending in,and corrupting Dobie's straight-lace police force.Along with the terrific use of the yellow filter,McNaughton also shows a superb eye for complex camera moves,which McNaughton expertly uses to show the change in Glory's and "Mad Dog's" relationship,which goes from nervous and stilted to flamboyant and complex.
Taking on a different role to the one that the studio originally wanted him to take (Milo),Robert De Niro gives a strong,off-beat performance as Wayne "Mad Dog" Dobie,with De Niro always making sure that the situation that Wayne finds himself in is never joked upon,but instead allowing for the Black Comedy element to really enter the movie,by showing that no matter how "Mad" he tries to make himself look,Wayne is not able to get rid of the goofy smile that goes across his face,as he finds himself failing upwards in Dobie's attempt to not back down from the powerful Milo.
Contrasting De Niro's performance perfectly,Bill Murray unveils a wonderful sternness as Frank Milo,which along with giving his very good one-liners extra spikes,also makes Milo a surprisingly ruthless character,with Murray showing Frank to take people either as his "best friends",or as his enemies.Placed right in the middle of Milo and Dobie,the beautiful Uma Thurman (who also appears topless in the film) compliments Murray's seriousness and De Nero's goofiness by showing Glory's nerves to be torn up by the Neo-Noir world that she has been living in with Frank,with Thurman showing that Glory's main dream is to leave the darkness behind,and enter Frank's kooky and goofy world.
Being sadly changed by the studio, that led to the release of the movie being delayed for a year,the dark screenplay by Richard Price mixes a dark and vicious Neo-Noir with sharp and brittle Black Comedy one liners,that are disappointingly not allowed to show there full set of teeth due to the replacement ending being uncomfortably cheerful,and also due to Frank Milo weirdly disappearing for half the movie,which leads to this being a Neo-Noir whose bite is not worse than its bark.
Taking a look recently at IMDb's list of movies that came out in 1993,due to deciding that I would take part in a poll being held on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best films of 1993,I was surprised to discover,that along with Groundhog Day being brought out in 1993,that Mad Dog and Glory had also been released in the same year.Pushing my doubts over the title being "dry",I decided to finally have a look at the movie,to discover how mad Mad Dog really is.
The plot:
Investigating a recent gang-land shooting with his close friend,and fellow Police Officer Mike,Officer Wayne "Mad Dog" Dobie decides to take a short break from the crime scene, (so that he can make sense of how he suspects the shooting took place) and go to a near by local shop to pick up a snack.
Entering the shop,Dobie discovers an armed robber,who after shooting the store's owner,is now holding a customer hostage.Nagoiating with the robber,Wayne allows for the thief to run free,as he drags the still alive costumer to safety.Expecting to get thanked for saving his life,Mad dog is instead left in a daze,when the customer kindly tells him that he is a disgrace to the police force.
The next day:
Reluctantly accepting an offer from his fellow officers to go to a Comedy club,Dobie is surprised to discover that the ungrateful customer who he saved,is actually a stand up comedian called Frank Milo,whose jokes cause Wayne's fellow officer's to row in the aisles.Meeting up with Milo after his performance,Frank tells Mad Dog that he is sorry for how nasty he had talked to him,mere minutes after his life had been saved,and that to make it up to Dobie,he is going to become his best friend,and give him a night on the town that he will never forget.
Enjoying every moment of Frank's generosity (which includes being introduced to a dizzy,but very cute girl called Glory")Mad Dog begins to fear that his new "best friend" may be up to something more darker than just delivering his Black Comedy punchlines,when the robber who held Milo hostage at the convenience store is finally located,dead in a dustbin.
View on the film:
Setting the movie literally alight in the first scene,by using the flicking of a cigarette lighter to take the movie from a black and white Film Noir appearance,to being a darkly-neon lit, Neo-Noir world.Director John McNaughton and cinematography Robby Muller prominently use a dusty yellow filter for a number of scenes,which helps to create a deeply murky atmosphere of Milo's back street ally gangster life blending in,and corrupting Dobie's straight-lace police force.Along with the terrific use of the yellow filter,McNaughton also shows a superb eye for complex camera moves,which McNaughton expertly uses to show the change in Glory's and "Mad Dog's" relationship,which goes from nervous and stilted to flamboyant and complex.
Taking on a different role to the one that the studio originally wanted him to take (Milo),Robert De Niro gives a strong,off-beat performance as Wayne "Mad Dog" Dobie,with De Niro always making sure that the situation that Wayne finds himself in is never joked upon,but instead allowing for the Black Comedy element to really enter the movie,by showing that no matter how "Mad" he tries to make himself look,Wayne is not able to get rid of the goofy smile that goes across his face,as he finds himself failing upwards in Dobie's attempt to not back down from the powerful Milo.
Contrasting De Niro's performance perfectly,Bill Murray unveils a wonderful sternness as Frank Milo,which along with giving his very good one-liners extra spikes,also makes Milo a surprisingly ruthless character,with Murray showing Frank to take people either as his "best friends",or as his enemies.Placed right in the middle of Milo and Dobie,the beautiful Uma Thurman (who also appears topless in the film) compliments Murray's seriousness and De Nero's goofiness by showing Glory's nerves to be torn up by the Neo-Noir world that she has been living in with Frank,with Thurman showing that Glory's main dream is to leave the darkness behind,and enter Frank's kooky and goofy world.
Being sadly changed by the studio, that led to the release of the movie being delayed for a year,the dark screenplay by Richard Price mixes a dark and vicious Neo-Noir with sharp and brittle Black Comedy one liners,that are disappointingly not allowed to show there full set of teeth due to the replacement ending being uncomfortably cheerful,and also due to Frank Milo weirdly disappearing for half the movie,which leads to this being a Neo-Noir whose bite is not worse than its bark.