Hidden within the soul of certain cops is the feeling that they’re above the law. I’m not saying they’re not, mind you. They do get to sample the best dope, beat on the innocent and drive way past the speed limit. To Protect and Serve, as it were. But whom?

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And speaking of The MAN, we slither into the City of Lost Angels in our latest thrill ride (and this one has a manic drive down the wrong way of a very crowded freeway), directed by William Friedkin, who made his name in the ’70s with two classics, The French Connection, and The Exorcist. The former, a tale about the devil on the outside; the latter, about the devil inside. In this week’s Hidden Flick, there is a sinister combination of the two wrapped into one character played by ex-CSIer William Petersen.

To Live and Die in L.A. should have been a comeback film for Friedkin, and a breakout performance for Petersen, who was a Chicago stage actor at that time (and, actually, went back to that role before, during, and after, his stint on that popular television show), while the director was mired in films that didn’t seem to capture the popular Zeitgeist. And who really gives a shit? What is popular? What is a stupid German term like Zeitgeist but an excuse to whip out the Andy Warhol card that says ‘15 minutes of fame happening’?

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Instead, it was a small gem because Friedkin dared canvassing a main character that was a complete asshole cop, who robbed a bag man criminal carrying a briefcase filled with cash, so that he could buy counterfeit cash from another complete asshole criminal. In the end, the famed director—helming a slice of sordid celluloid that would not leave much of a cinematic mark because of its harsh characterizations—portrayed a world that had evil sneering down upon a dull and hazy L.A. like the sunny suburban shithole it really is.

Oh, the other complete asshole is played by Willem Dafoe, and if one thought he was angelic in Oliver Stone’s excellent Vietnam document, Platoon, or the weird Martin Scorsese film starring Dafoe as the alleged messiah (don’t send me any nasty notes. You have no proof other than some random frat party beer chalice, or an image on an old Twinkie wrapper, or whatever the fuck that cloth manufactured 13 centuries past the time when George Clinton’s Mothership beamed the Holy Man back up to Alpha Centuri) in the What If He Was a Man? film known as The Last Temptation of Christ, or The Messiah takes a Detour into New York and Gathers Disciples with Brooklyn Dialects, which also came out in the 80s, then he erased that with his demonic performance here.

It’s hard to talk about To Live and Die in L.A. without discussing THAT car chase. The sequence is absolutely wrong-headed, insane, chaotic, suicidal, and yet, it is so realistic and chilling that when Petersen’s partner—the equally fine John Pankow in a great role that is subtle, complex, and the essence of slow-flame-burning—reacts, he does so in a way that is beyond realistic—he seems to be utterly losing his mind on film, shouting, yelping, pounding seats, and generally going as apeshit as the audience while Petersen—as he is throughout this magnetic performance—drives towards his inevitable fate. Friedkin, ultimately, helped along by Wang Chung’s stunning soundtrack, helped create a world inside a world where the devil is the only real character that lives above the law.

- Randy Ray

Randy Ray

Randy Ray is a Senior Editor at Jambands.com, and a Contributing Writer with Relix magazine. He has written Hidden Flick, a look into obscure films, for Hidden Track since early 2008, and is a published author in various fiction mediums, as well.

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