Blue Steel (1990) [DVD]

This was almost more of a horror movie than a thriller, with supernatural elements. I'm only writing a review to clear up some things about the story written by reviewers who gave the movie 1 star, mostly because it seemed that they didn't understand the movie they had just seen. It makes sense that they might not understand it because it isn't a standard "Hollywood" movie: they simply may have never been used to a story told this way, with this pacing, or this level of thought or analysis to it. Nothing was dumbed down or laid it out for you directly. You were supposed to be gathering the story through context and the characters' environments and behaviors. The movie never out-and-out directly tells you, "this is why this is happening." It takes a little bit of thought. (A word of caution, this review contains many spoilers.)Character development didn't clobber you over the head. A very great part of the movie was about the transformation of the villain (Silver). In the beginning, he is a man who made his money at the stock exchange. His profession and lifestyle and aggressive tactics at work, which were smoothly and quickly laid out before the audience, were intended to describe his character. We learn his obsession with money is actually his obsession with power after he witnesses a criminal getting gunned down by a cop (Curtis). Before he becomes a murderer, Eugene's life is threatened by a thief with a gun in a convenience store. It is in this moment that he realizes the power of the fear of death, firsthand. When the cop, Megan, guns down the thief, he has an epiphany: death can be defeated by whomever kills first. We don't know, but it may have been the first time Eugene ever even thought about dying. Watching Megan take down the gunman, who represented "death" to Eugene (in that the gunman was threatening to kill Eugene), "inspired" Eugene's lust for power to turn towards killing. It may have also been the trauma of almost being killed. Eugene pockets the thief's gun, the very gun that could have killed Eugene, and begins a fixation with it and with killing random people.After a few random murders, Eugene becomes demonically possessed. There is a scene of him "hearing" voices talking to him, telling him he's God. He orally translates the message he's hearing. One could argue he was schizophrenic, but considering he only hears the voices after he begins murdering people. He uses almost religious, spiritual language as he orally speaks the message he is receiving, which we can assume, based on his life that seems totally devoid of spirituality and dedicated to money, that this is new language, a new way of describing things for him. In other words, the movie implies the message aren't coming from his own mind. After these "messages," his murders take on a new, ritualistic feel to them: he kills a prostitute, for example, and gets off by rubbing her blood-soaked clothes on his naked body, after she is already dead. He had previously been clothed, leading the viewer to think that he didn't even have sex with the prostitute. It's a sequence of events very similar to what one would see in a supernatural thriller or exorcist movie. His attacks on Megan also become intense and unrelenting, and almost surreal and dream-like. This was something I completely didn't expect to see, but as a horror movie fan (especially of Italian horror movies, which often incorporate a "dream like" feel to them), it was an amazing surprise. However, it wasn't just written for horror movie fans: his possession is also essential to the plot and the theme of the characters' lives, which is power. In the course of his desire for power, which led to an interest in the power over life and death through murder, Eugene has lost all of his own personal power by opening himself up through his murders to having his will supernaturally possessed. Therefore he no longer has any power over himself because he has lost control over his will, actions, mind. He is working completely for evil, there is no more "Eugene," per ce, and therefore he has lost all of his power.Throughout the movie, Megan is asked numerous times why she became a cop. She always gives a flippant answer, after a pause (which indicates she's thinking of an answer to give other than the direct truth). In other words, you can't answer why she is a cop based solely on her words, you have to figure it out for yourself, through context. Slowly throughout the movie see her home life: her father has an anger problem and beats her mother regularly. We see she never got married, never established many relationships, and we start to piece together who this woman is and why she is a cop. She obviously comes from a broken home, never witnessed a positive relationship between a man and a woman so never was good as establishing her own relationship, but had a supportive mother so could make a close female friend. It's basic psychology, how early development at home translates to future relationships. She says she wanted to be a cop from the time she was young, and we can start to figure out its because, perhaps, neighbors called the cops on her father once or twice for domestic disturbance, or she saw a cops TV show and saw people doing something to stop violence, the kind of violence she witnessed against her mother by her father. Its easy to see that Megan wanted power: power over her father, power over people like her father, power to stop violence against other people.Both Megan's and Eugene's lives and careers are shaped by their desire for power: Megan wanting power over people who want to hurt others, and Eugene wanting power for his own personal gain without regard to who he hurts in the process. This common theme in both of their lives is made point when Eugene tells Megan, during one of his ramblings, that they are two halves to one whole. They both desire power, and he sees that, but because he never gave any thought to helping others, probably in his whole life, he can only see part of Megan. He can neither see nor understand her completely. This contrasts with the character Nick, the detective who, because he also wants to stop evil in the world, can truly connect with Megan.The fact that we have no backstory for why Eugene wants power may be to intentionally show that the reason is because of his own shallow-ness as a human being. He may simply be a narcissist or a sociopath, which would be in line with his deterioration, and not be as deep a person as Megan. Because of the thoughtfulness of the character development, script and environment (every moment of the movie works to telling you who these people are and why these things are happening to them), I don't doubt that things left out of the story, such as references to Eugene's childhood, are to tell us something, as well.The relationships between the characters is also something to indicate their shallowness or depth and are therefore very important symbolically. Eugene and Megan initially have a relationship but it is based off of nothing, it is shallow. It is based completely on him saying how much he thinks she's beautiful, how much he loved her at first sight, flowery language--"sweet nothings"--thrown her way, and sensational thrills he can purchase for her. There's no deeper relationship, no shared interests, nothing in common. This contrasts later with the relationship between Nick and Megan, who share everything deep, everything in common, and all loyalty and trust, even if they share absolutely nothing sensational or flowery or outwardly "romantic." The sex scenes are also symbols in themselves of these themes: Nick and Megan have consensual passionate sex, whereas Eugene rapes Megan, which is an emotionally shallow, selfish, violent act. It was interesting that even the sex scenes were not there to merely be titillating but were symbols of these reoccurring themes, indicated especially by their close proximity to each other (which was supposed to hit the viewer over the head with the contrast between the characters, their life meanings and choices, and who they are).The final showdown between Megan and Eugene was shot, edited and directed perfectly. It was like a dream, a nightmare. Megan hadn't slept much in a few days and the movie looked just like the world looks when you haven't slept that long. She had undergone tremendous stress and the ending also reflected a disassociation from reality that a person experiences when they have undergone tremendous, impossible stressors. I didn't know if anything was really happening or if it was a going to end up being Megan's dream, quite like it would be for the main character in an under-slept, over-stressed state. Events seemed surreal as they unfolded, but when you realized what had just happened, it was standard action movie events, just told in a different way. This took tremendous guts as a film maker to do because there would undoubtedly be people who didn't understand it or think about it and so got frustrated over it. Eugene also appeared and disappeared like a puff of smoke, almost, from Megan's torn down perception, like a supernatural being more than like a man.I watch a lot of Italian horror movies and sometimes American viewers who don't understand their method of storytelling get confused by continuity. Like, in Dario Argento movies, Americans wonder, "why is this character doing this, why are they going to slowly, how could this possibly happen?" The point of his movies are to describe events in a dream-like state that inspire horror in the viewer. Much like a terrible nightmare where you can't do anything correctly to save yourself and you find yourself in strange situations without knowing how you got there.Similarly, "Blue Steel" is told in a unique way that viewers used to Hollywood movies might not understand, only with this movie, scenes, environments and characters aren't set up to create a dreamlike state to frighten the viewer, they are set up to tell a message, make a point, and establish scenes. If you are wondering why Megan is doing this, or this scene is happening right after this other scene, keep watching and keep thinking about the themes throughout the movie, how each scene contrasts with other scenes similar to it, how each character contrasts with other characters, and what each tiny detail is telling you about the overall message about good and evil, and what power and strength really are, that Bigelow is trying to get across.The mood, cinematography, editing and script don't waste a second, a scene, an environment, or any of your time. The script is so carefully and perfectly balanced and the actors carry their parts. Many people have said this is Curtis' best acting job. If you are studying storytelling or film making, I definitely recommend this movie.If you are just looking for a simple cop action movie thriller (like I was), be prepared for a much deeper, larger, more literary and artistic story than you expected.

On top of her Being Super Bad A**, Jamie is Great acting too!!!

I hadn't seen this movie in years and honestly had forgotten the plot. It was good to see this 80's classic film again.

I gave this DVD to a friend who worked on the making of this movie and he was happy to have and add this to his collection.

Will not play on older United States player. Works on computer and newer player.

Jaime Lee Curtis plays as a New York cop.First day on the job, she stops an armed robber. What she didn't count on is being suspended and then falling for a dude who is a total psycho. Like discount Patrick Bateman crazy.The lady who directed The Hurt Locker and the dude who made the music for Terminator go all in. This movie was pretty awesome. Totally recommend it.

Exactly as described.

Quite an underrated gem of a film. Bigelow always shines as a director and this is no different. It's quite a showcase for Jamie Lee's talents, I've always been impressed with Mrs. Curtis's work but I think was her first "all in" dramatic role and she really nailed it. If it has one flaw I would say that I wish it was 30 - 40 minutes longer so the characters could get more fleshed out. All in all a great flick and well worth the wait for delivery from Europe :)

Super Film. Jamie Lee Curtis super Frau

Pacco arrivato in anticipo e condizioni perfette! Veramente un ottimo servizio.Sul film, semplicemente un bel cult degli anni’ 90 di una regista che adoro!

Blue Steel (1990) Blu-ray. Import version on the Lionsgate / Studio Cannel label.German Import Blu-ray on region B.102 mins (1 hour 42 mins 10 seconds)Europe age rating 16Widescreen 1.78:1 (it fills the screen without any black bars)Audio in English or Deutsch PCM stereo.Subtitles are available in Deutsch only.Bonus content:Trailers for Terminator 2 & Blood Simple in German (these two are only watchable as the disc is first loading).Original Blue Steel Trailer in English.Plus German trailers for:The commuterThe GraduateGold.It comes in a slim Blu-ray case, thinner than chunky UK ones and has a reversible sleeve/inlay - one side removes the large age rating box, all info is in German on both sides bar the title. Menus are easy to navigate.Looks good on Blu-ray, good picture, natural colours, it’s not grainy and the audio is clear. It’s not been painstakingly restored so there are the odd white flecks on screen but it looks like a top quality transfer from an original print.Love this movie which can hard to track down to buy, I’ve not even seen it on TV since the 90’s.Jamie Lee Curtis proves she is more than a horror ‘Scream Queen’ in this very serious and dramatic role. It’s a slow burn thriller about a cop in training after a killer. Takes a while to get going then really builds up the suspense.

Réalisé par Katheryn BIGALOW, qui en a également co-écrit le scénario, ce thriller de très bonne facture, surprend dans le bon sens et reste d'actualité 30 ans après sa production, n'ayant pas pris une ride. Inattendu dans sa forme et plein de faux semblants, il parvient à distiller une tension qui s'intensifie de plus en plus au fur et à mesure de la progression de l'intrigue, avec un rythme nerveux qui vous porte jusqu'au final, où l'ultime confrontation a lieu. Faisant partie des premières mises en scène de la réalisatrice sur grand écran, elle prouve qu'elle n'a rien à prouver en matière d'efficacité et rend une copie à effet coup de poing, qui pourrait être comparé à l'acier, dont le titre du film fait directement référence, en parlant du reflet bleuté de l'arme de l'héroïne principale, qui la fait basculer dans une aventure dangereuse et incertaine pour elle, mais hautement captivante pour le spectateur.Le Blu Ray délivre un bon rendu du côté de l’image, les couleurs sont réellement superbes, la définition reste nette, il n’y a aucun grain et le contraste fait très bien son travail et magnifie les scènes sombres durant la nuit, qui sont assez nombreuses. Le traitement du son restitue parfaitement l’ambiance du film dans toute son ampleur, les dialogues sont de très bonne qualité et s’entendent clairement. Les pistes audios contiennent la Version Française, ainsi que la Version Originale avec Sous-Titres Français, toutes deux présentées en DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, c’est pourtant cette dernière qui est à privilégier, plus précise et beaucoup plus dynamique, certains sont étant quasiment imperceptibles dans la langue de Molière et qui permet d’entendre les véritables voix des acteurs au niveau des dialogues, ce qui en souligne encore plus la crédibilité et l’efficacité. Chacun fera selon son choix.Jeune élément de la police, Megan Turner, sort d'une session d'entrainement qui sert à noter les recrues. Elle prête serment pour son entrée dans la police. En patrouille, alors qu'elle s'arrête pour prendre un café avec son co-équipier, elle entrevoit un braquage dans l'épicerie d'en face. Elle intervient sur les lieux et tire plusieurs fois sur le braqueur afin de le désarmer. Mais l'inspection ne permet pas de retrouver l'arme de l'agresseur et Megan se retrouve suspendue. Le mystère s'épaissit, quand un homme est retrouvé mort, avec une balle gravée de son nom complet, le capitaine décide d'affecter Megan en tant qu'inspecteur, afin d'enquêter sur l'affaire. Elle fait également la connaissance d'Eugène, un trader de Wall Street, qui la met en confiance sur ses intentions. D'autres crimes surviennent avec la même signature, il devient urgent de faire la lumière sur la personne qui a pris la jeune policière pour cible.A première vue, voici un petit film, dont le thème mainte fois éprouvé, risquait de s'engouffrer dans une fin convenue. Mais il ne faut jamais se fier aux apparences, car rien n'est moins vrai. Dès le début du visionnage, il est évident qu'il s'agit d'une pépite, dont les multiples péripéties s'enchainent, pour le plus grand plaisir des amateurs du genre. Il bénéficie d'un casting crédible et très convaincant, qui sait parfaitement délivrer les émotions au degré voulu, sans surenchères exagérées, tout en sachant mixer les bons mélanges afin de servir un cocktail justement équilibré.A commencer par Jamie Lee CURTIS, qui assume avec conviction son rôle, elle incarne Megan Turner, une femme qui débute sa carrière dans la police, qui se heurte aux mentalités fermées et machistes de son entourage professionnel et qui se retrouve avec un tueur rusé et calculateur, dont elle est devenue la principale obsession. Elle maintient parfaitement les multiples facettes de son personnage, s'affichant à la fois forte et fragile, affichant une détermination sans faille, malgré la situation. Face à elle, on retrouve le regretté Ron SILVER, parfait en psychopathe, qui intensifie la traque de sa cible à un niveau toujours plus élevé, rendant ses amis comme sa famille, des personnes très fragiles à ses attaques. Sachant dissimuler sa dangereuse personnalité derrière une façade élégante et respectueuse, ambigu à souhait, il manipule tout son entourage avec une facilité déconcertante. L’acteur, aidé par un jeu subtil et tout en nuances, le fait passer en quelques secondes du commun des mortels à un prédateur en puissance.En conclusion, voici un thriller mené de main de maitre par une excellente réalisatrice, qui exerce brillamment son talent afin de briser les codes du genre, qu'elle s'attelle à réinventer. Nerveux et créatif, il sort du carcan des sentiers battus en apportant une modernité nouvelle, à l'image de sa protagoniste principale, qui doit faire face à de nouveaux défis pour s'en sortir.

A fine allegorical film that implicitly sees director Kathyrn Bigelow worrying if she will be gunned down by a more powerful director like NYPD Officer Megan Turner-played by Jamie L. Curtis-is gunned down in the end by a pscyhotic killer. Watch it.:>)