WILD THING

US, 1987, 92 minutes, Colour.
Kathleen Quinlan, Rob Knepper, Robert Davi, Betty Buckley, Maury Chaykin.
Directed by Max Reid, Ken Cameron.

Wild Thing is a city action thriller, a blend of comic strip hero with life in the ghettos of the big city. Wild Thing, portrayed by Rob Knepper (the villain in Renegades), is a superhuman hero living in a loft in an old apartment block. Below him is the ugly city, drug-dealing, police corruption as well as concerned social workers and clergy. The action sequences are exciting - even if the basic plot is familiar and routine. The screenplay is by director, John Sayles. Enjoyable in its way.

1.Action thriller? The ugliness of the American cities? The comic book super hero?

2.New York City, the Zone, its ugliness, ghetto life, drug-dealing, social work, prostitution? The musical score, the songs - especially the title song?

3.The prologue, the couple, flower children, their van and their child, giving the lift, the drug bust, their deaths? The policeman and his shooting Wild Thing's parents? The tattoo?

4.The baby and his being found by Leah, her helping him, teaching him? Her own madness and eccentricity, radio language, anti-police? Her scavenging, teaching him to get food? Her dying? The beginning of the legend?

5.Wild thing growing up, his skill at painting, his room? His radio style talk? Rescuing Betty? The fire and his rescuing the child? His attempts to explain himself? The blue coats and the white coats? In jail, the torment? Seeing the policeman, his death, the escape? The clash with Chopper and the rescue of Betty? His relationship with Betty, talking to her, sexual liaison? Her escape? His leaving - and the continuation of the legend?

6.Betty, her arrival from Wisconsin, in the Zone, meeting the boy, the warnings, becoming a victim? The rescue? Searching out Wild Thing and communicating with him? Her social work, the priest? The kids, the girl? Jail sequence, her trying to interpret for Wild Thing? Chopper kidnapping her and the final rescue?

7.The priest and his social work, the kids, victims, the young boy, the legless man?

8.Chopper and the police, the drug-dealing, the wealth, the henchmen, the women? The attack on Wild Thing? The death of the policemen? Kidnapping of Betty?

9.The picture of the police - corrupt and honest? Cover-ups, violent death?

10.The sequences of the ugly city? The cross-section of the difficulties in the American ghettos? And the legend of the super hero who can rescue from danger?