REPO MAN
*** out of *****

Genres
Comedy
Sci Fi

1984
Written and directed by
Alex Cox
Cast
Harry Dean Stanton .... Bud, Repo Man
Emilio Estevez .... Otto Maddox, Repo Man
Tracey Walter .... Miller
Olivia Barash .... Leila, United Fruitcake Outlet
Sy Richardson .... Lite, Repo Man
Susan Barnes .... Agent Rogersz
Fox Harris .... J. Frank Parnell, Driver '64 Chevy Malibu
Tom Finnegan .... Oly
Del Zamora .... Lagarto Rodrigues
Eddie Velez .... Napoleon 'Napo' Rodriguez
Zander Schloss .... Kevin the Nerd
Jennifer Balgobin .... Debbi, Punk
Dick Rude .... Duke, Punk

Harry Dean Stanton strikes me as a very bizarre individual (even before I viewed the interview on this DVD, see below), he seems like the quiet type that is reclusive and occasionally comes out to make a movie every now and then. Kind of like Marlon Brando only not fat, not insanely crazy and eccentric and certainly not dead. So reading the synopsis of Repo Man I wasn't really surprised to see Stanton was in it. It sounds like something right up his alley. Widely considered as one of America's finest acting talents Stanton has spent the last 30 year proving himself yet it seems like not many people have listened. Relegated to bit parts now, in the early '70s and '80s this guy was in one acclaimed picture after another (Kelly's Heroes (1970), Alien (1979), Escape from New York (1981), Paris, Texas (1984) and Pretty in Pink (1986), just to name a few). So why don't many people in the mainstream know who this guy is? I guess maybe he had a really shit publicist, that or he never cared for fame, just making a good flick.

Team him with Britain's punk director Alex Cox and the then rising star Emilio Estevez (I never thought I'd write a sentence like that) in a film about repo men and alien devices in the trunk of a car and you've got one very different, weird and confusing film. Yet it's also ultimately entertaining, even though a lot of the ‘80s references and statements are lost on me (a lot, but not all). Well can you blame me? I don't really remember the ‘80s since I was a child, I did most of my growing up in the '90s.

Repo Man tells the story of Otto (Emilio Estevez) a street punk who's recently lost his job as a stock boy at a supermarket. One day he is recruited to help steal a car for a repo man, Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) although at first he doesn't really know he's helping out a repo man. Turns out he's pretty good at it and soon enough he's got a new job repossessing vehicles for the company that Bud works for. He eventually gets thrown head-fist into the cutthroat world of repo men. Meanwhile someone has (I assume) stolen a car, its trunk's contents include some kind of alien death device that basically disintegrates anyone that looks at it. In an attempt to find this vehicle the government issues a reward to all the repo men in the area of $20,000 for anyone that finds and repossess the car. This of course sparks a rivalry between all the repo men to find this mystery vehicle.

Repo Man is not a particularly great film; its original release was mostly ignored yet over the years it has gained an audience on video, laserdisc and now on DVD. It has been 'discovered' by many people and means something different to the many fans of this film. Knowing very little I wasn't expecting much and that's what I got, I was also confused at the film's end. I think trying to explain this film is a futile effort; it would be similar in asking someone to describe a David Lynch film. But while Lynch can be overly confusing to the point of frustration, Repo Man is confusing but very entertaining and nowhere near frustrating.

I enjoyed the silly characters, especially Bud; who else but Stanton could play a guy who you felt is hiding many secrets but seems like someone you've know for years? This is basically his film, Estevez fills in now and then but Stanton runs over the show.

This film also feels like a portal into another time that seems very alien to me, the 1980s. A time of bad hair, bad clothes and the emergence of synth-pop and also the peak of crude punk music. There are many touches in the film that take us back to this time that many would wish to forget. I was also intrigued at the many statements this film was trying to make about where we as people and consumers are headed (especially with the generic brand products).

I'm still not quite sure what to make of this film, but I was entertained and this disc will sit proudly on my shelf.

Finger_Of_DOOM's reviews also appear on DVD Compare, where they include details of the DVD release. For this review click here.

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