I really wanted to see 8 Million Ways To Die (1986) because of the posters: it basically looked like a very Eighties neo-noir action thriller which is a sub-genre that I love. It was a commercial flop at the time and has a creaky reputation due to being the last film of director Hal Ashby (Harold And Maude, Coming Home), and a sad end in that the producers fired him after principal photography and cut it their way. There’s an interview online with Jeff Bridges, the main star of the film, who said that before he agreed to be in the movie, he’d talked to Hal about why he was making this type of crime movie, which really wasn’t his usual type of film – Ashby’s response, apparently: “I want to make it to know why I want to make it.” That type of loose approach, which also included letting actors improvise from the script, was not to the liking of the producers since it was based on a Lawrence Block crime novel and who no doubt wanted the type of genre movie promised from such a property. 8 Million Ways To Die is still very much a sun-soaked, sweaty L.A. neo-noir with clear Eighties signifiers – cocaine, nudity, violence – yet there is a 1970s throwback quality. It’s not all car chases and shoot-outs, it almost has an Elmore Leonard quality with the way the characters circle each other and plot about one another. There are a few scenes such as the morning-after dialogue between recovering alcoholic ex-cop Scudder (Bridges) and a sex worker madam (Rosanna Arquette), learning about each other even as they have to deal with the consequences of a character’s murder that has affected them both. Bridges is sincere and projects warmth even after scenes of him hitting rock bottom, and there’s an investment in his ongoing mission to stay sober throughout all the mayhem when he is contacted by a sex worker for help (Alexandra Paul). The movie really pops with Andy Garcia, young, hungry and handsome, as the shady high roller who Scudder suspects; there’s an electricity to the scenes when Bridges and Garcia face off, verbally going at it while they eat ice cones in one of my favourite scenes. A lot of Eighties action flicks had warehouse climaxes but this one has such a tense, manic, almost comical quality as it keeps extending and drawing out the suspense with characters yelling at each other across a vast space. Misshapen and confused in parts as it might be, I really came to love 8 Million Ways To Die, and it might be my personal favourite Hal Ashby movie after The Last Detail. Appropriate synth styled score by James Netwon Howard. Recommended.
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