MULHOLLAND FALLS

US, 1996, 107 minutes, Colour.
Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Treat Williams, Jennifer Connolly, Daniel Baldwin, Andrew Mc Carthy, John Malkovich, Kyle Chandler, Ed Lauter, Rob Lowe, William S. Peterson, Bruce Dern.
Directed by Lee Tamahori.

On paper this must have been one of the most interesting projects of the year. It attracted the director Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) to Hollywood. It attracted a range of character acting stars, Nick Nolte, Chris Penn, Michael Madsen, Chaz Palmenteri, Treat Williams, John Malkovich, Melanie Griffith. It offered a film noir treatment of violence and betrayal in LA that is reminiscent of Chinatown. While it is entertaining and many of the above ingredients are arresting, somehow or other, it does not all come together credibly (too many plot gaps) and it lacks the drama that it promises. On a popular level, OK entertainment; but on the level of promise, it does not fulfil. More promise than fulfilment.

1. An attempt at a film noir in the 1990s? A police thriller? Crime thriller? The social background? Military background?

2. Los Angeles, the period of the 1940s and 1950s, audiences and their knowledge of this period and crime and police through novels and movies? The filter of fifty years later? The city itself, homes, the clubs? The scenes in the desert? The musical score, Dave Grusin?

3. The title, the reference, the irony, the police?

4. The credits, Allison, Jimmy, the general? The tone, air of mystery?

5. The introduction to the squad, the detectives, their personalities and style, the macho attitudes? Wearing the hats? Being together, driving, the friendship and banter between them? Driving, the keys? The restaurant? The presence of the gangsters? Leading to deaths? The moral and social background of this police squad?

6. Max Hoover and his leadership, a Nick Nolte character? The bond with his wife, Kate and a Melanie Griffith role? The presence of Allison? Memories, the film, Kate and her tears? Going out, the funeral? What future? Kate as the suffering wife?

7. Elleroy Coolidge, psychology, theories, talk? Buddies? The drive and the crash? The truth, the investigation, the General? The final flight, fight, death?

8. Eddie Hall and Arthur Relyea, henchmen, tough, personalities, their bonds, seeing them in action?

9. Allison, her death, Hoover not coping, the autopsy, the seeing of the film, Jimmy and the beach? The interrogation, the issues of the films? The relation to the General? To Hoover? To Jimmy? The clues? Jimmy and his being bashed?

10. The character of Jimmy, the relationship with Allison, the photos? Fruit, interrogation, death?

11. Bruce Dern and the special squad, accountability?

12. The FBI, the pressures on the squad, their reactions, trashing Hoover’s house? His response, the further bashings?

13. The film at the plant? The General and his reaction to the film? The character of the General, a John Malkovich character? The cancer? The theory of expenditures? Death?

14. Colonel Nathan Fitzgerald, the military, the rules? The film, the General and the flight? The killing, the fight – and the final deaths?

15. The background of the atomic tests? The crater, the desert, the cancers, the ward? The secrecy? The victims’ deaths?

16. The film and its loose ends, all coming together at the end, the funeral? The appeal of this kind of film noir to audiences, the interest in crime, investigations, villains, the background of social and moral ambiguity?