Blue Steel (1990 film)
Blue Steel is a 1990 American action thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, and Clancy Brown.[4]
Blue Steel | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Kathryn Bigelow |
Produced by | |
Written by | |
Starring | |
Music by | Brad Fiedel |
Cinematography | Amir Mokri |
Edited by | Lee Percy |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 102 minutes[2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $8.2 million[3] |
The film was initially set to be released by Vestron Pictures and its offshoot label Lightning Pictures, but it was ultimately released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which acquired the film due to Vestron's financial problems and eventual bankruptcy.
Lawrence Kasanoff, Vestron's head of production at the time, green lit and produced the movie.
Plot
Megan Turner is a rookie NYPD patrol officer who shoots and kills a robber by emptying her service revolver while he is holding up a neighborhood market. The robber’s .44 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 29 handgun goes into the air and lands on the floor of the market as the robber is blown backward through the front window.
As she continues to the checkout area, Turner nearly steps on the robber’s handgun lying directly in front of Eugene Hunt, one of the customers lying on the floor. Unnoticed, Hunt takes the gun and slips away. Because the robber's weapon was not found at the scene and the other witnesses are unclear about seeing a handgun, Turner is accused of killing an unarmed man.
While she attempts to clear her name with Assistant Chief Stanley Hoyt and her superiors, the suspended Turner begins dating Hunt, who has become obsessed with her. Hunt, a commodities trader, has taken the gun and started committing random killings. At the first killing he leaves behind a spent shell on which he has carved Meagan Turner’s name. One night, at his apartment he displays an unusual interest in Megan’s gun and her shooting stance. He reveals that he was in the supermarket at the time of the hold-up, and that he left with the perpetrator's gun and that he is the person behind the recent killings. Turner arrests him but he is freed by his attorney, Mel Dawson, due to a lack of concrete evidence.
Turner fights to keep her badge and solve the murders with the help of Detective Nick Mann. Hunt turns up at her apartment, assaults Megan and shoots her best friend, Tracy, before rendering Turner unconscious with a blow to the head with the gun. Hunt buries the gun in a park. Turner revives and goes to Hunt's apartment with Mann to arrest him, but Hunt's attorney prevents her from doing so and threatens to once more have her fired.
Seeking comfort from her mother, Turner visits her family home, an uncomfortable place because her father physically abused her mother throughout her childhood. When she arrives, she finds that her mother is bruised. Enraged, Turner handcuffs her father and arrests him. During the drive they stop and off talk in an attempt to finally put an end to his abuse. When they return to the house, Hunt is posing as a guest sitting with her mother. A tense exchange takes place between the two, where they both imply that they are armed. When he leaves, she goes to his apartment, where she spends the night staking him out.
The next morning, Turner follows Hunt to the park, where he has buried his gun. Mann interrupts another standoff between Hunt and Turner, where Megan is attempting to get Hunt to try for her gun and Hunt runs off. Believing that he will return for the murder weapon, they stake out the park. Turner sees the beam of a flashlight and assumes it is Hunt searching for the gun. She leaves the car to apprehend him, but not before handcuffing Mann to the steering wheel to prevent him from following her. The flashlight turns out to be a ruse: Hunt paid a homeless woman to decoy the police. Back at the car, Hunt is outside the car holding Mann at gunpoint and is about to kill him. Turner appears and fires her gun, shooting Hunt in the left arm before he escapes in traffic.
Mann and Turner return to her apartment, where unbeknownst to them, Hunt is patching up his wound in her bathroom. Turner and Mann have sex and Mann is ambushed by Hunt and shot when he goes to the bathroom. Turner does not hear the shot because it was muffled by a towel. Hunt attacks and rapes Megan and she eventually kicks him away and gets her hands on her gun and shoots at him, but he flees. Mann is unconscious and taken to the hospital, where Turner is told that he will make it.
Determined to find Hunt and finish him off, Turner knocks out her police guard and takes his uniform and gun. She wanders the streets and Hunt follows her into the subway. Turner and Hunt are both shot and the gun fight carries on out to the street. Megan finally shoots and kills him after a long and violent confrontation in the middle of Wall Street after running him down with an abandoned car and him running out of bullets. She empties her gun into Hunt. Other police arrive and she is taken away in an ambulance.
Cast
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Megan Turner
- Ron Silver as Eugene Hunt
- Clancy Brown as Nick Mann
- Elizabeth Peña as Tracy Perez
- Louise Fletcher as Shirley Turner
- Philip Bosco as Frank Turner
- Richard Jenkins as Dawson
- Kevin Dunn as Asst. Chief Stanley Hoyt
- Tom Sizemore as Robber
- Mary Mara as Wife
- Skipp Lynch as Instructor
- Mike Hodge as Police Commissioner
- Mike Starr as Superintendent
Reception
Box office
Blue Steel premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah in January 1990.[5] The film was not a box office success.[6]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 75% based on reviews from 24 critics.[7] On Metacritic the film has a score of 54% based on reviews from 20 critics.[8] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[9]
Film critic Roger Ebert compared it to John Carpenter's Halloween, noting: "Blue Steel is a sophisticated update of Halloween, the movie that first made Jamie Lee Curtis a star. (...) What makes it more interesting than yet another sequel to Halloween is the way the filmmakers have fleshed out the formula with intriguing characters and a few angry ideas."[10][11][12][13]
References
- "Black-Leather Director in a Business World : Cult Favorite Kathryn Bigelow Brings Her 'Dark' Style to an Action Film". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- "Blue Steel (18)". British Board of Film Classification. June 5, 1990. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
- "Blue Steel (1990)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
- "Thrill Me! : 'Blue Steel' and 'Impulse' put a new twist on conventional crime films--the lead cops are women, and so are the directors". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- James, Caryn (February 5, 1990). "Critic's Notebook; Hollywood Tactics Invade the Sundance Festival". The New York Times. p. 11. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- "Weekend Box Office: 'Red October' Doing Fine in March". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- "Blue Steel (1990)". Rotten Tomatoes.
- "Blue Steel". Metacritic.
- "Cinemascore". Archived from the original on December 20, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- Ebert, Roger (March 16, 1990). "Blue Steel Movie Review & Film Summary (1990)". www.rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun Times.
- Sheila Benson; Jack Smith (March 16, 1990). "Movie Reviews: 'Blue Steel': A Low-Caliber, Bloody Thriller". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- Janet Maslin (March 16, 1990). "Review/Film;A Deranged Yuppie With a Thing for His Lover's Gun". The New York Times. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
- "Blue Steel". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 25, 2019.