A movie like The Dead Pool is now more famous for its supporting cast and the unrelated media franchise its named spawned.
It is the fifth and final Dirty Harry movie as Clint Eastwood was well into his 50s by the time of the movie’s release in the summer of 1988. My thinking Eastwood made the movie as a bargaining quid pro quo deal so he could direct Bird with Forrest Whitaker playing Charlie Parker. Eastwood would make The Rookie so he could make White Hunter Black Heart which was a loose interpretation of John Huston’s production on The African Queen.
Dead Pool is directed by Buddy Van Horn who had previously made Any Which Way You Can. However, coming five years after Sudden Impact which had Eastwood’s Inspector Harry Callahan utter the phrase “Make my day,’ it seemed things had changed. Sudden Impact was a huge blockbuster even though it had elements of the rape-and-revenge flicks of the 1970s. Now, Eastwood had to fight with younger action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, who made a lot of critics eat crow with his surprise blockbuster hit Die Hard which opened around the same time.
It was time for Eastwood to hang it all up. And let’s face it, it actually helped his career as he went into the 1990s focusing more on directing a wider range of movies and choosing his acting roles more carefully. Yes, The Dead Pool is the biggest bomb of the franchise. But it boosts a supporting cast of Jim Carrey, Liam Neeson and Patricia Clarkson as well as minor roles played by Justin Whalin who would have some fame in the 1990s and Christopher Martinet, who would become a famous voice actor most notably as Mario.
As the movie begins, Harry is being attacked by Mafia goons under the direction of Lou Janero (Anthony Charnota), the crime boss of the San Francisco Bay Area. Janero has just been convicted and sentenced to prison thanks to the police work by Harry. The conviction has made Harry a celebrity, which is something he doesn’t want, as he graces the cover of local magazines.
After an attempt on his life fails, Harry’s supervisors pair with with a younger officer, Inspector Al Quen (Evan Kim), so they can handle lower profile cases. Their first case is actually the death of actor/rock star Johnny Squares (Carrey). Johnny was filming a horror movie, Hotel Satan, in the Bay area under the direction of Peter Swan (Neeson), who is known for his volatile maniacal behavior on set.
Johnny is addicted to drugs and during a break in filming, he goes to his trailer outside a meat-packing factory to shoot up. The production was filming a scene that is a “homage” to The Exorcist in a refrigerated area so the actors’ breaths could be seen. This is actually a reference to The Exorcist where they used high-power refrigerators to make the set cold so it could look that way on screen.
While shooting up, an unidentified person walks in and pours poison down his throat as Johnny is vulnerable from the drug effects. He dies but when Harry and Al investigate, they just presume it was an overdose because all the paraphernalia is present. However, when Johnny’s wife appears outside the trailer wanting to see him, the media crowd her including TV reporter Samantha Walker (Clarkson). Upset over their insensitivity, Harry grabs the camera and throws it on the ground breaking it.
Samantha is willing to give Harry a pass if she gives him an exclusive about his career, which he doesn’t want. Later, Harry and Al apprehended robbers at a Chinese restaurant in the Chinatown district which led to a customer getting shot and killed. It turns out the customer was one of the producers on Hotel Satan and on his person was found a list of celebrities including both Harry and Johnny. It turns out that Peter and some other crew members were playing a “dead pool” game.
Al tells Harry that celebrities often die in threes. And when they question Peter, he says it was just harmless fun he and others did given the fact that Johnny had a history of drug addiction. Other celebrities on Peter’s list include a film critic and and a TV talk show host. It’s revealed Peter included Harry because he was watching a news report where Harry’s name was mentioned while he was making a list.
But is Peter really the killer? If so, why would he jeopardize his own career? Harry and Al note that Peter doesn’t have much sympathy for Johnny’s death and continues to film even while the police are investigating outside. Because Peter often makes horror movies, Harry’s supervisors feel that he may be acting out stuff he’s put on screen.
The movie is referencing a growing trend in the 1980s where critics, church organizations and parental groups were critical of violent movies, most notably horror. It’s no surprise that one of the victims is a film critic and possible reference to Pauline Kael, film critic of The New Yorker. The TV talk show hosts seems to be modeled after Phil Donahue. And Peter seems so cocky and arrogant about his movies, it leads to reaction by Harry and Al because he basically makes low-budget horror movies.
There’s also a scene where Samantha must make a moral choice when a disturbed man claiming to be the killer wants to set himself on fire in front of the news cameras. The question of violence on the news has been around for decades before this movie. I’m sure the filmmakers were inspired by the Jan. 22, 1987 on-air suicide of R. Budd Dwyer, who was the Treasurer of Pennsylvania and had been convicted of criminal charges. Dwyer pulled out a .357 Magnum revolver during a press conference and fatally shot himself through the roof in his mouth. It was broadcast throughout most of Pennsylvania and since it was during winter, many young children reportedly saw it as they were home from school due to inclement weather.
Ironically Siskel and Ebert were some of the critics to praise and recommend the movie. However, just like Rob Liefeld’s comic creation, the movie has some metafictional jokes, most notably a car chase scene meant to parody the one in Bullitt in which Harry and Al are chase by the killer and a remote control car that has a bomb in it. Also, Harry has some of Wade Wilson’s rapid-fire quips with zero fucks about who it offends, telling his supervisors “Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one.” Later when the lieutenant says something unintentionally offensive about Al, Harry asks him if the lieutenant has any children. The lieutenant says no and Harry responds, “Lucky for them.”
During a shooting of Hotel Satan, Johnny lip syncs to Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.” All band members appear in non-speaking cameos throughout the movie. Slash is shown filming a scene in Hotel Satan. Incidentally, the use of Guns N’ Roses would have an unintended connection to a real horror/slasher Bad Dreams released in April of 1988 which had “Sweet Child of Mine” play over its end credits. At the time, the band was relatively unknown even though their studio album Appetite for Destruction had been released a year earlier.
Carrey would go on to appear very briefly in Eastwood’s next movie Pink Cadillac also directed by Van Horn where he plays a stand-up comic doing a bad Elvis impersonation and saying his signature phrase, “Alrighty then.” Carrey would then appear in Earth Girls Are Easy alongside Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum and a young Damon Wayans Sr. which would lead him to appear on In Living Color where he would become a household name.
Neeson would go on to appear in bigger movies in the 1990s including Schindler’s List and Nell, where he would meet his wife, Natasha Richardson. In the 2000s, he would move into a more action hero role with the Taken franchise and other movies. Clarkson, who I was surprised to hear had studied at one time under one of the same theater professors as myself, was only in her second film role here. She has since gone on to become a well-regarded, highly acclaimed actress.
And Eastwood himself still continues to make movies in his 90s, mostly behind the camera as a director-producer. While The Dead Pool didn’t have the biggest box office draw as the other Dirty Harry movies, it’s shown to have as much of a legacy. Part of the problem is the killer, Harlan Rook (David Hunt), lacks the sheer terror and creepiness of the Scorpio Killer (Andrew Robinson) in the first Dirty Harry.
There’s just so much you can do after five movies and it’s best to just hang it up after 17 years. If only other franchises would follow suit.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 