Themes: Southern Gothic, Haunted By the Past, Private Eyes
Main Cast: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling, Stocker Fontelieu
Release Year: 1987
Country: US
Run Time: 112 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The time is the 1950s: seedy Brooklyn private eye Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is hired by shady Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to locate a pop singer who reneged on a debt. Harry ventures into Harlem, the first step of a Heart of Darkness-inspired odyssey. Each time Harry makes contact with someone who might know the singer's whereabouts, he or she is killed in a horrible, ritualistic fashion; a Satanic cult seems to be at the bottom of all the carnage. Harry solves the mystery, all right. He just didn't know that he had the answer all along -- even before Louis entered his office. Also available in the "unrated" video version, Angel Heart is best known as the film that nearly got an X-rating due to a no-holds-barred sex scene involving Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Always teetering on the edge of perversity, Angel Heart polarized audiences and critics; the squeamish considered it dehumanizing drivel, the unflappable applauded its daring. The truth is somewhere in between. Alan Parker's graphic forays into amorality do often seem to exist primarily for their shock value, including -- but by no means limited to -- the famous sex scene between Lisa Bonet and Mickey Rourke. But the clever script more than redeems its seedier elements by the close, making Angel Heart more like an extension of Parker's fascination with mental torture (following Midnight Express and Pink Floyd: The Wall) than the kind of sleazy late-night noir that would soon become synonymous with Rourke. At the brief height of his career, Rourke radiates the mounting hysteria of a man caught in purgatory, surrounded and eventually engulfed by sadistic evil. By the time he pieces together the mystery, the audience has walked in his shoes enough to absorb his emotional outpouring. Although the "look what I can do" quality of Parker's envelope-pushing will never agree with everyone, Angel Heart does offer rewards to those viewers willing to penetrate its grisly surface. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Brownie McGhee - Toots Sweet; Michael Higgins - Dr. Fowler; Elizabeth Whitcraft - Connie; Eliott Keener - Sterne; Charles Gordone - Spider Simpson; Dann Florek - Winesap; Kathleen Wilhoite - Nurse; Judith Drake - Izzy's WIfe; Gerald L. Orange - Pastor John; Peggy Severe - Mammy Carter; Loys T. Bergeron - Mike; Nicole Burdette - Ellie; Hope Clarke - Voodoo Dancer; Valerie Jackson - Voodoo Dancer; Courtney Peldon; David Petitjean - Baptism Preacher; Pruitt Taylor Vince - Delmos; George "Buck" Flower - Izzy; Rick Washburne - Cajun Heavy; Sarita Allen - Voodoo Dancer; Murray Bandel - Bartender; Yvonne Bywaters - Margaret's Maid; Oakley Dalton - Big Jacket; Karen Davis - Voodoo Dancer; Viola Dunbar - Concierge; Joshua Frank - Toothless; Karmen Harris - Harlem Mourner; Roselyn Lionhart - Voodoo Musician; Kendell Lupe - Oyster Cajun; Percy Martin - Oyster Cajun; Rickie Monie - Oyster Bar Pianist; Jarrett Narcisse - Epiphany's Child; Neil Newlon - 2nd Cajun Heavy; Toots Sweet Band; Ernest Watson - Oyster Bar Saxophonist; Mark Taylor - Voodoo Dancer
Credit
Armin Ganz - Art Director, Kristi Zea - Art Director, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Risa Bramon - Casting, Louis Falco - Choreography, Aude Bronson-Howard - Costume Designer, Ric Kidney - First Assistant Director, Alan Parker - Director, Gerry Hambling - Editor, Mario Kassar - Executive Producer, Andrew G. Vajna - Executive Producer, Trevor Jones - Composer (Music Score), Sunny Clapp - Songwriter, Anthony Evans - Songwriter, Eddie Green - Songwriter, Brownie McGhee - Songwriter, David Forrest - Makeup, Robert Laden - Makeup, Carla White - Makeup, Michael Roberts - Camera Operator, Brian Morris - Production Designer, Michael Seresin - Cinematographer, Alan Marshall - Producer, Elliott Kastner - Producer, Robert Dattila - Producer, Robert Franco - Set Designer, Leslie Pope - Set Designer, J.C. Brotherhood - Special Effects, Danny Michael - Sound/Sound Designer, Steve Maslow - Sound/Sound Designer, Harry Madsen - Stunts, Shirley Walker - Stunts, Jeff Ward - Stunts, Webster Whinery - Stunts, Roy Thomas - Stunts, William Hjortsberg - Screenwriter, Alan Parker - Screenwriter, Gus Arnheim - Featured Music, Arthur Freed - Featured Music, Abe Lyman & Band - Featured Music, Spencer Williams - Featured Music, William Hjortsberg - Book Author
