BEVERLY HILLS COP
US, 1984, 105 minutes, Colour.
Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhard, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Steven Berkoff, Ronny Cox, James Russo, Jonathan Banks.
Directed by Martin Brest.
Beverly Hills Cop capitalises on the talent of Eddie Murphy who showed he was an excellent comedian in 48 Hours and Trading Places. This time he is a Detroit policeman with an unorthodox talent for his work. On alleged holiday in Los Angeles, he investigates the murder of a friend, upsetting both local police and a well-organised art dealer, drug racketeer. The cop story is familiar but excitingly done, but it is Murphy who carries the film - his larrikin style (doing and saying things cheekily that we might like to say but never would), his mimicry, timing are excellent. The film was directed by Martin Brest (Going in Style), received an Oscar nomination for its screenplay for Daniel. Petrie Jnr. It has a lot of contemporary music including 'The Neutron Song' by the Pointer Sisters. Very popular box office success of the mid80s.
1. The popularity of Eddie Murphy? Police stories? A box office blend?
2. The film as a piece of Americana: lock, sound, crime, violence, law and order?
3. The Detroit atmosphere: the credits and the suggestions of the car manufacturing, poverty, racial ghettoes etc.? The opening sequences and the money deals, the chase, the Precinct, the apartments, the clubs? The contrast with Beverley Hills, the streets, the Precinct with its computers, the lavish hotels and clubs, art galleries, strip joints? The light of California? The comment by contrast? The background of the musical score and the popular songs and rhythms?
4. Eddie Murphy and his persona: young, brash, streetwise, reformed, maintaining law and order, an individual, canny, emotional, cheeky, smart, his ability to jive, his comic routines, mimicry, his own laughter at his behaviour and enjoying it, tall stories, heroics? A black performer? His intruding on pretensions, wealthy classes? The audience being on his side?
5. The opening and mood, the spectacle of the car chase and crash, the rhythm and song? Humorous and exaggerated? Axel and his role in the police, the reaction of his fellow policemen, of his superior? Meeting his friend, the pool game, the bet, the sudden drama of his murder? The effect on him?
6. His going on vacation, his first impressions of Beverly Hills, the hotel management and forcing his way in, the encounter with Serge at the gallery, the Customs officers and their deference to him, the office of Victor Maitland and being thrown through the window, arrested, the police station and the computers, his behaviour in the club, the visit to Maitland's mansion and the confrontation? Beverly Hills style?
7. The police story, detection, swift pace, shrewdness, Axe! moving quickly, definite, the coffee and the drugs, the Customs interrogation, the stakeout, confrontation?
8. Jenny and her background, friendship, help, Joining in the action, driving, in the warehouse, taken hostage, punching Victor and escaping?
9. The Beverley Hills police - Axel's arrest and their treatment, Taggart and his interrogation, hostility, punch? Rosewood and his slow genial nature? His naivety? His giving Taggart all the information eg about diet etc? The stakeout and Axel sending them the meal, the banana in the exhaust? The strip joint and Axel helping them arrest the criminals? The tall story for the Chief? Their learning to admire him? Decisions about the warehouse and the mansion? Taggart and Rosewood in the attack? Rosewood and his naivety, making decisions, coming to the rescue - and his final assertion for arrest of all the criminals? The boss and the letter of the law, the possibility for Axel to fine charges against Taggart, listening to the tall story, interested in the possibilities, lack of evidence for arresting Maitland, his tall story to the Commissioner at the end? The commissioner and his exasperation? The details of police work?
10. The criminal world - brutality, henchmen and murders, Victor and his cover with the gallery, art? Smooth style? Office and the throwing out of Axel? Deals? The encounter with the club - and Axel's satire on the homosexual? The confrontation, violence, the warehouse? The mansion and the surveillance, the machine-bun battle? Deaths?
11. Popular ingredients of 80s entertainment?
