The Big Easy – Der große Leichtsinn (1986)

The Big Easy – Der große Leichtsinn: Directed by Jim McBride. With Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, Ned Beatty, John Goodman. A corrupt lieutenant in the homicide division is threatened by the righteous DA while trying to solve a string of mysterious murders.

“This is by the same guy who did Breathless, the Richard Gere revamp, so naturally I was interested. That one was about life as a movie but a hotly incandescent wind, embodied in Gereu0026#39;s studly antics, blows through it and makes the heart beat faster. It was as youthful as Godard, more actually. It was an entry into his world seen through her fascinated eyes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMost viewers will note this as lukewarm failure, too much of a cartoon. In fact heu0026#39;s trying for a similar thing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOnce more the adolescent hunk who lives in the moment with no care, the girl who reluctantly is swept, a world set in motion and the two brought together by random violence. New Orleans in place of LA but as exuberant, a backdrop for sensual whim.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut Quaid is no Gere, Barkin is no Kapriskie, and heu0026#39;s a police lieutenant, sheu0026#39;s with the DAu0026#39;s office, so the same adolescent antics now register as simply juvenile. It was one thing for Kapriskie as a young student to be swept off her feet, another for a woman who is supposed to be investigating police corruption to be shown like a jittery schoolgirl with a crush.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s a case of botching the abstraction. The tacky crime plot about killings around town and police corruption we could wave off if seeing these two in a youthful light was a breeze that carried us outside. But seeing them as we do, it reduces. It is, eventually, about how she is strong enough to mind and strong enough to inspire a more noble cop out of him, but reduces too much to get there.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd itu0026#39;s another one erroneously mentioned as modern noir in some lists. The narrative drive is from the screwball, the complete opposite of noir, about characters retaining control of their world and the friction of both refusing to let go easily. Quaidu0026#39;s role in the 40s would have been played by Gable, not Mitchum.”