THURSDAY

US, 1998, 87 minutes, Colour.
Thomas Jane, Aaron Eckhart, Paulina Porizkova, James Le Gros, Paula Marshall, Michael Jeter, Glenn Plummer, Mickey Rourke.
Directed by Skip Woods.

Thursday is a bizarre film written and directed by Skip Woods (who wrote and produced the John Travolta film Swordfish). It has a very strong cast led by Thomas Jane (Original Sin, The Punisher) and Aaron Eckhart.

The film is bizarre and brutal. It starts on Monday – there are plenty of days and times indicated in the film – and offers a confrontation in a convenience store ending with a brutal murder. The film changes to Thursday and shows the episodes on Thursday where Thomas Jane as Casey does not want his former crime partner Nick to come to visit him in Houston. He is tense with his wife (Paula Marshall) and wants to develop as an architect. However, Nick arrives, takes his car, leaves drugs behind. When a black drug dealer comes in and threatens to shoot him, Casey turns the tables on the dealer. However, various people come to the door including the doctor to interview him and his wife about prospective adoption (Michael Jeter), Nick’s friend whom he had betrayed (James Le Gros) and the femme fatale, Dallas (Paulina Porizkova – Her Alibi, Wedding Bell Blues). Finally Mickey Rourke turns up as a corrupt policeman. All the problems concern the drugs which Casey has put down the sink.

The film is particularly brutal in some torture scenes and murders, on Dallas’s attempted rape of Casey, of bloodthirsty shootings, of a final shootout between drug dealers and corrupt police.

The characters are immoral – or amoral at best. So is the tone of the film – with Casey finding the money that Nick had earned from the drugs, offering his wife to come to Paris with him – and her accepting. A happy ending.

1.The impact of the film? A bizarre story? Violence?

2.The title, the focus on times and places, Houston on Thursday? The prologue on Monday? The bright colour photography, suburbia? The musical score? The songs?

3.The moral tone of the film, the characters, Casey and his trying to reform, Nick and his friendship for Casey, the brutality of the other characters, sexual and violence?

4.The prologue in the convenience store, Nick and Dallas with Billy Hill, their guns, the issue about the price of the cup of coffee, the free cake? The shooting? The policeman’s arrival, the conversation – and his returning, his death?

5.Thursday, Casey, the flashbacks to the violence of his past, brutality, drugs, working with Nick? His reform, studying to be an architect, the passing of four years, his not telling his wife? The tensions with his wife, her being bored, loving him, her own career? Going off for the day? Casey at home, the phone call from Nick, Nick’s arrival? Taking his car, leaving the case? Casey discovering the drugs, phoning Nick, pouring the drugs down the sink? The arrival of the pizza man – and the irony that he was the drug dealer, his musical career, violence, the gun? Casey turning the tables, tying him up, hanging him up? The arrival of Doctor Jarvis, the discussions about adoption, Casey and his being nervous, the gun? Doctor Jarvis and his pursuing the questions, his intensity? The arrival of Dallas, Casey wanting to get rid of her, her sexy style, verbal abuse, her flirting with Doctor Jarvis? Doctor Jarvis going? Dallas tying up Casey, wanting the drugs, the money? Her sexual ambiguity, the attempted rape? Her being shot by Billy Hill? The confrontation, Casey getting the better of Billy Hill and tying him up and hanging him up as well? Nick and his phone calls? The final arrival of the police, Kasarov and his corruption, the deadline for the money? Casey and his shrewdness, ringing the Jamaican drug dealers, agreeing for the police to come at seven? The two groups coming – the shootout? Casey and his having to think where Nick would have hidden the money, in the car tyres, getting it, driving to the airport, putting the situation to Christine, her choosing him? Revealing the money – and the ticket to Paris? A character stud, in crisis, sex and violence, love and ambition, the ending?

6.The character of Nick, friendly, ruthless, the drugs, the car, the deals? His death? Dallas, cold-blooded, the shooting in the convenience store, pursuing Nick, confronting Casey, with Doctor Jarvis, her death? Billy Hill, betrayed, violent? His death? The irony of the police shooting the two men hanging?

7.The overall impact of the film – film noir in bright colour?