To Live and Die in L.A.

To Live and Die in L.A.

A 1985 action film directed by William Friedkin and starring William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Turturro, and John Pankow, written by Gerald Petievich (based on his novel of the same name).

Richard Chance (William Petersen), a U.S. Secret Service agent working for the Treasury Department as a fraud investigator in Los Angeles, becomes obsessed with avenging the death of his partner and friend. He embarks on a relentless pursuit to find and capture the culprit, forger Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), employing highly questionable methods, believing that the ends justify the means.

The director had previously experienced box office and critical failures, so it's no surprise that he had a small budget for this film. Consequently, he couldn't cast big stars, so he hired actors with emerging careers at the time, such as William Petersen (who would eventually solidify his career), Willem Dafoe (who needs no introduction at this point), and John Turturro (another actor who would solidify his career in the future).

Friedkin filmed almost everything outdoors, often using the first take with the actors to create a sense of immediacy and naturalness. This is noticeable in physical action scenes, particularly in the airport sequence, where, incidentally, Petersen didn't have permission to run over the barriers of the moving walkway, which infuriated airport officials. These kinds of things make the film very unique and different from others, as it marked the beginning of highly elaborate and choreographed action sequences.

The film is best remembered for its chase down a Los Angeles freeway (undoubtedly one of the greatest car chases in cinematic history). It was one of the last scenes filmed and took six weeks to complete. This chase wasn't originally in the book on which the film is based, but was inspired by an accident Petersen had in the 1960s. His intention was to achieve a better chase than the one in The French Connection (also directed by him), and he certainly succeeded. Petersen drove much of this sequence himself, and the stress reactions of actor John Pankow (Petersen's character's partner in the film) were completely genuine.

A true classic of the crime genre that deserves to be discovered or rediscovered, the film explores the moral ambiguity of its characters, with a raw and realistic atmosphere, and a distinctly 1980s feel, not only because it was filmed during that era, but also because it uses pop culture of the time to its advantage.