#StokerScore Rewound: Streets of Fire

#StokerScore 7/10

The year is 1984. It was a time of Madonna and Band Aid, legwarmers and shoulder pads. It was a bleak time for coal miners who were embroiled in a strike that grew to be more about Margaret

FAME, I'm gonna live forever

Thatcher's desire to crush the concept of unions. while at the cinema James Cameron's Terminator arrived, Ghostbusters made wearing overalls cool and a boy caught a fly with chopsticks

he's holding them all wrong

Movies in 1984 were pretty huge. As well as Arnie promising to be back,
we also saw A Nightmare on Elm Street and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom plus, just to prove that musical cinema still had power, Footloose. Whilst I understand that Footloose isn't technically a musical as no one sings, the amount of dancing has always put it into that genre for me. I know that's weird, like saying Flashdance or Saturday Night Fever are musicals, to me they are as the soundtrack is, in effect, another character....and no, I don't think Guardians of The Galaxy or its sequel are musicals, I guess its just a personal classification.

As a genre, musicals are associated with a more sedate time. You think musicals and you might think West Side Story, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory or Camelot. More recently they're having a

renaissance with the likes of La La Land and Into The Woods but in 1973 came The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the concept was rejuvenated. Rock Music was epic; Led Zeppelin were singing about Vikings, Meat Loaf was singing about a Bat Out of Hell and cinema was playing along with the likes of Brian De Palma's truly excellent Phantom of The Paradise showcasing the talents of Paul Williams as the Faustian producer Swan.

Then came Grease, a musical because people sing in it, Fame, too is a musical because people sing in it, but 1984's Streets of Fire is the reason that I blur movies with great soundtracks into sometimes being musicals. In this Walter Hill movie, subtitled A Rock and Roll Fable, two singing acts are a significant part of the plot. There is the beautiful Ellen Aim played by Diane Lane and the doo-wop group The Sorels, but both of these acts are dubbed by

no one believes I'm only 18

other performers so is it still a musical? I think that it is. And the songs? well a couple of them were written by Meat Loaf's songwriter, Jim Steinman and one of them, Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young, is awesome. Then there is the Sorels doing Dan Hartman's I Can Dream About You which reached number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Other songs in the film are Rockabilly stomps that I defy you not to tap your foot along to.

good practice for Spider-Man

So yeah, it's a musical, but it's also an action movie too. The story involves Michael Par's character returning to his home town after receiving a telegram from his sister. His ex girlfriend, who is now shacked up with the slimy Billy Fish played here by Rick Moranis, has been kidnapped by a local gang and he has to set about rescuing her. Along the way he picks up another ex soldier played by Amy Madigan, a part that
was originally written for a male actor. The movie even has the great Bill Paxton as a barman. But the standout actor in the movie is Willem Dafoe. He is just head and shoulders above the rest of the cast, partly because of his acting ability and partly because his lines aren't as dumb as everyone else's.

The biggest letdown to this movie is the dialogue and script. The visuals seem to have gone for a 1980's feel in 1950's settings and the whole thing has the overall feel of a western to it with Pare's Pare's is now. Yep, the acting from all of the leads except Dafoe and Deborah Van Valkenberg as Cody's sister is woeful. But it's the delivery of the poor dialogue that somehow also adds to the charm of this mess.

style over substance?

Tom Cody filling in for Clint Eastwood. Interestingly, his role was supposed to have gone to Tom Cruise and I think if Cruise had taken it his career might be where


click here to listen to the closing song and watch the trailer  tonight is what it means to be young


Despite some huge flaws this movie is a personal favourite of mine. It has a score by Ry Cooder, Hill has directed some great movies like 48 Hours, Sothern Comfort and Last Man Standing and the music is really excellent. Ignore the acting by many who would go on to much better things and just enjoy the ride.