Catchfire

Conceptual artist Anne Benton (Jodie Foster) creates electronic pieces that flash evocative statements. Her work has begun to attract major media attention. Driving home one night, Anne suffers a blowout on a road near some isolated industrial factories and, while looking for help, witnesses a mafia hit supervised by Leo Carelli (Joe Pesci), who kills another mobster and his bodyguard. Leo spots Anne, but she escapes and goes to the police.

Two of the mobsters, Greek (Tony Sirico) and Pinella (John Turturro), go to Anne's house to silence her, but manage only to kill her boyfriend, Bob (Charlie Sheen). FBI agent Pauling (Fred Ward) -who's been after Carelli for some time- offers Anne a place in the United States Federal Witness Protection Program, but when she sees another mobster, Carelli's lawyer John Luponi (Dean Stockwell), at the police station, she disguises herself with another woman's wig and raincoat and flees. Meanwhile, mob boss Lino Avoca (Vincent Price), Carelli's boss, summons top-of-the-line hitman Milo (Dennis Hopper) to silence Anne. Milo purchases one of Anne's artworks and ransacks her house, discovering intimate Polaroids taken of her.

Months pass. Anne has severed all ties with her past and re-established herself in Seattle as an advertising copywriter. Milo, who never gives up, recognizes the tagline of a lipstick ad as one of Anne's catchphrases, and tracks her down. Pauling and the police also track Anne down, but she manages to once again elude all the men who are pursuing her. Shortly after, Milo tracks Anne to New Mexico. There, he is followed by Pinella, who is tracking Milo's whereabouts for Carelli, and whom Milo quickly kills. This time, Milo corners Anne and offers her a deal: he'll let her live, if she'll do anything and everything he asks. Milo's interest in Anne, it turns out, is more than professional, but not exactly what she thinks; he doesn't want her to be his sex slave, though sex is part of the equation.

A man obsessed, Milo has fallen in love with Anne. And he has no idea how to cope with the unfamiliar emotion. Astonishingly, after a rocky start, Anne realizes that she has also fallen for him. At the same time, when failing to kill Anne as he was hired to do, Milo has marked himself for death. Anne and Milo flee together to an isolated farm that Milo owns. Avoca's men track them there, and they narrowly escape.

Milo and Anne realize that in order to be free, they must return and confront their pursuers. They concoct a plan leaving Avoca, Carelli and all of their men dead. Anne and Milo escape together to a new life, presumably in France.

• Jodie Foster as Anne Benton
• Dennis Hopper as Milo
• Dean Stockwell as John Luponi
• Joe Pesci (uncredited) as Leo Carelli/Corelli
• John Turturro as Pinella
• Fred Ward as Pauling
• Vincent Price as Mr. Avoca
• Julie Adams as Martha
• Tony Sirico as Greek (as G. Anthony Sirico)
• Sy Richardson as Capt. Walker
• Frank Gio as Frankie
• Helena Kallianiotes as Grace Carelli
• John Apicella as Man at Refinery
• Clifford Bartholomew as Fed #2
• Kevin Bourland as Ad Agency Man
• Carl David Burks as Ad Agency Man
• Grand L. Bush as Bank Teller (as Grand Bush)
• Tod Davies as Hit Woman
• Satya De La Manitou as Car Thug
• Ayres Donno as Girl in Restaurant
• Tomás Goros as Golf Course Fed
• Sarina C. Grant as Hooker (as Sarina Grant)
• Katherine LaNasa as Waitress (as Katherine La Nasa)
• Lauren Lloyd as Margaret Mason
• Anthony Pena as Taos Sheriff
• Robert Rothwell as Ad Agency Exec
• Jerry Summers as Rianetti
• Gary Wills as Police Sargeant
• Michael Yama as Technician
• John Zenda as Trucker

The production was marred with difficulties between Foster and Hopper. The differences began on the first day of filming of Foster in the shower scene. Foster, dissatisfied with the scene yelled "cut" which angered Hopper, who informed her to never do that again. Later, according to Hopper in an interview with Charlie Rose, Foster warned Meryl Streep by phone several times to avoid Hopper who was very keen on working with her. Streep never returned his calls. Hopper stated "It blew what I thought at the time was a go project a few years ago. Cause Meryl suddenly said no. She [Foster] thought that I had this AA mentality where I was really just doing this sober drunk or something."[2] During a Q&A with Richard Peña following the screening of The Beaver, Foster later stated "I worked with an actor-director who was a major pain. It was very difficult for me. Very difficult." [3]

The original screenplay was written by Rachel Kronstadt Mann, then re-written by Ann Louise Bardach, who was hired by Hopper and producer Steven Reuther. During the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Hopper hired Alex Cox to do another polish while the film was shooting. Hopper released a director's cut of the film in the United States on cable television titled Backtrack, which runs 18 minutes longer than the theatrical version.[2]

The film wasn't well received by critics. Variety wrote: "Somewhere in here is a dark, sassy picture, but the final product is more like a jigsaw with half the pieces. Apart from Foster who's strong, shrewd and sexy, thesping is vaudeville all the way. Pesci rants and raves, Stockwell shows a nice line in a low-key comedy, Ward looks like he hasn't been shown the whole script, and Hopper as a go at Humphrey Bogart in shades". Greg Wroblewski wrote: "It's a mediocre film, with often illogical, even incomprehensible plot twists and poor character development".[2]

• Catchfire at IMDb
• Catchfire at Box Office Mojo
• Catchfire at Rotten Tomatoes