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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 23803
Released: July 12, 2005 |
| Our Price: $12.79 |
| Used Price: $11.99 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
An LA detective leaves his marital woes behind to pursue a missing person case the Florida Keys and reopens an old murder investigation.
Description of Night Moves:
This vastly underrated Arthur Penn film from the mid-1970s ranks as one of the era's nastiest and most fascinating pieces of business, a detective story that shuttles back and forth between Hollywood and the Florida Keys, with a plot nearly as complex as Chinatown. Gene Hackman stars as a tired, aging private eye who, as a favor to a friend, agrees to track down a runaway teen. But the case turns out to be something much larger: a smuggling ring of Mayan antiquities. The human impulses get darker and darker and Hackman's character gets pulled in deeper and deeper, even as his own life is falling apart. Ultimately, in one of his best and most unsung performances, Hackman winds up hurting the people he is trying to help. A great cast includes Susan Clark, Jennifer Warren, a young James Woods, and a very young Melanie Griffith. --Marshall Fine
Night Moves Reviews:
Gritty storyline 
2009-11-19 - The plot is sufficiently complex to keep interest up and the character development is great. What a bunch of flaawed people - kinda like all of us. LOL Good flick, saw it years ago on a submarine patrol and always wanted to see it again. Now that I have, I'll see it again.
A Great Surprise 
2009-08-23 - Ha, years ago when the Internet was young, I got a video short of a young Melony Griffin naked in the ocean. Meanwhile a man and women were watching her through the bottom (glass) of a boat making funny comments. I kept that video short thinking one day, I'll try to figure out which movie it is, buy it, and perhaps see more of Melony's beautiful body in her prime. Years and years went by; I didn't know I still had it.
Fast forward: I was cleaning out old files and stumbled on the old video short. Hmm, this movie is old enough that I didn't recognize Gene Hackman (too much hair, and mellow voice). So with today's Internet tools so advanced, I did a search on Melony figuring the movie had to be one of her first. (she's about 16 or 17 in the movie) I found this title that way only because Gene's name is Harry and the movie synopsis named the title character Harry. So, I bought the movie, in part because of a naked Melony, and in part because it's Gene Hackman. (whom I've always liked)
What a pleasant surprise this movie is! It's a classic murder "who done it" with many bodies piling up. Melony's nude scenes were completely innocent as she plays a girl who's quite used to being naked and not really one to like clothing. Typically, she's a teenage seductive of older men which doesn't work on Gene. This creates a very interesting plot line, and why she gets "loose with the clothes" in an innocent way. (which is very good) Obviously, the movie is dated, especially the clothing, but it takes nothing away from this good thriller.
So, Melony: When you get the royalty for the movie I bought, realize that a simple very short video clip of your naked body on the Internet, many years ago, is the ONLY reason I bought it. Well, having Gene Hackman as the main star certainly didn't hurt.
I highly recommend this movie to those who loved film before Hollywood films became computer programs, and simple nudity wasn't always porn.
Danny
excellent
2009-07-19 - Poor Harry Mosby, retired Oakland Raider turned detective. His father left him when he was a little kid. All these years later, he finds out his wife is cheating.
To get away from family problems, he flies from Los Angeles to Florida to look for the missing teen daughter of a haggard Hollywood starlet. He finds the permiscuous girl, has an affair with the women taking care of her, and meanwhile, uncovers a smuggling ring.
All of this is done in Night Moves 70s style. Fimled in 1973, the dialouge in the film has the sharp, hip momentum. Sex is now out in the open, and the middle class is absorbing a new cultural attitude. Even the straight charactors do and they say things that they never would have in 1969. Watergate was in full swing. People knew the rules had changed, and were not changing back.
If your into period style, yes, everybody is walking around with thick moustaches, sideburns, turtlenecks and blazers. Going one better, the entire score of the film is done on a Fender Rhodes electric panio.
But it is Gene Hackman's Mosby who makes Night Moves. He is a gentle giant. He only strikes when attacked, shown by his refusal to hit his wife's lover, or her when she is unrepentant about her daliance. The teenage girl he is looking for, and locates, comes on to him, but he does not accept her advances. He, however, does give her fatherly comfort when she has a nightmare. The hurt kid in Mosby connects with the hurt kid he finds.
Mosby is smart, and knows deep down that he is capable of more than the work he does. But he is trapped by a relentless impulse to track people down--people who he displaces for his father.He is always intent on the truth, except when it comes to facing his emotions. When he gets to the bottom of things, he never likes what he discovers. His behvaior reveals his sweet,wounded character.
Hackman is perfect at this and the rest of the cast are also perfect. But the film isn't. The most dynamic drama in Night Moves occurs in LA, particually between Harry and his wife. His sojurn to Florida changes the visual and dramatic texture of the film. The sequence there is long, and the screws of the film loosen just when they should tighten. Keeping the action close to home would have been a plausealbe option--who said the missing girl had to be across the country? It would have been more dramatic to keep all the events of the film in a small space, and keep the tention between the Mosbys cooking.
Still, this has some great acting and works as a period piece. Well worth seeing.
Slow Boat to China 
2008-09-19 - I had noticed "Night Moves" inclusion in the "New York Times Best 1000 Movies". I like a good detective movie and I was looking forward to seeing it which I did last night. I was disappointed in the movie. In all fairness, my disappointment was borne in high expectations. However, I found the plot unnecessarily complicated (many will probably like this aspect). The characters were too much. Our hero, for example, is a former All-Pro football player. Except for some access issues that could have easily been re-scripted to create the same scenarios, there was no need to create such an esoteric facet. We are treated to analysis of the private detective's incomplete relationship with his father which also took us aimlessly down a dead end. I could go on and on but the ending really caught me off guard. It wasn't until today I realized how impressive the conclusion was. The closing scene is of a small boat at sea. A person struggles to get the engine started. With great difficulty, this person is finally able to get the motor up to speed but was unable to steer the boat or see in what direction it was headed. I understood that the director was confessing his inadequacies. For such a marvelously symbolic statement, I gratefully offer him my absolution.
An Underdog of the 1970s PI Films
2008-03-24 - I'm a big fan of private eye movies and television series. I'm glad THE ROCKFORD FILES has finally come out on DVD, but I'm still waiting for MARLOWE, starring James Garner and Bruce Lee.
However, I don't have an excuse for not having already seen Night Moves. It's been out for over thirty years, and I bought the DVD a year ago. I did finally get around to watching it, though, and it was as good as I'd hoped it would be.
The story is pure 1970s, as evidenced by the cars, clothing, and some of the language. But it also tells a timeless story of confusion and betrayal, and the layers of secrets that add to those.
Gene Hackman stars as Harry Moseby, an ex-football player rather than an ex-cop. Moseby has been broken down by family problems and the loss of his career, and seems to be barely hanging onto life by a thread. Only the occasional missing persons case appears to keep him financially afloat and emotionally anchored.
Hackman has always been a personal favorite of mine. He can pull off any kind of role and look good doing it, even if the film is total cheese. He's just a guy I look at and immediately respect. His everyman stance and his charm just oozes from every pore. As Moseby, he was a well-known football hero, and a lot of his friends still see him as a standup guy, but he doesn't let anyone in too close.
Unfortunately, that same inability for closeness is what ultimately undermines his relationship with his wife, Ellen (Susan Clark). When he first gets handed the case of the little runaway rich girl, Moseby isn't too interested. Then he catches his wife cheating on him and tries to lose himself in the investigation.
I liked the way the movie dovetailed back into the movie industry the way some of the old 1940s movies did. Some of the best cinematic detectives have their roots in the twisted and sordid tales that came out of Hollywood. This one has stuntmen and used up actors to season the tale, and it adds more credibility to it.
The Florida footage on the case was extremely well done as well. Director Arthur Penn (LITTLE BIG MAN, BONNIE AND CLYDE) manages the Hollywood and LA scenes well, then zips the viewer down for a peak at what was then Travis McGee's tramping grounds as John D. MacDonald wrote his adventures. I liked the rough and tumble atmosphere of the land, the characters, and the twists and turns the plot took while down there. Jennifer Warren plays femme fatale Paula in a haunting and sexy scene.
Some of the most fun was watching a very young James Woods and Melanie Griffith taking their places on the stage. Woods hasn't changed much, but his presence on the screen is intense these days. He's another one of my favorites. Melanie Griffith, young and hot and nude in several scenes, just burns up the celluloid.
I really enjoyed Hackman's work in this movie. As I said, I own it and intend to watch it again. I'd really advise picking up TWILIGHT, with Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, James Garner, and Hackman to really round out a double feature private eye/noir night. Hollywood seldom makes films like these any more and it's a shame.
