Themes: Obsessive Quests, Mercenaries, Kids in Trouble
Main Cast: Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Estevez, Olivia Barash, Tracey Walter, Sy Richardson
Release Year: 1984
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Alex Cox's directorial debut was a wickedly funny and willfully bizarre story that became a major cult item once it began making the art-house rounds a year after its release (an initial run in a string of Southern grind houses and drive-ins, where it was billed as an action film, was a resounding failure). Having lost his job and his girlfriend, punk rocker Otto (Emilio Estevez) meets a guy named Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) who offers him $25 to drive his wife's car out of a "bad area." When a handful of angry people start chasing Otto, he realizes that something is up, and he discovers that Bud repossesses cars for a living. With few immediate prospects, Otto joins Bud at the repo yard and is soon "ripping" cars with the best of them. When an anonymous source posts a $20,000 reward for a missing 1964 Chevy Malibu, it turns out that what's valuable isn't the car itself, but what's in the trunk, which is very hot, glows brightly, and kills anyone who comes in contact with it. A vaguely surreal modern-noir science-fiction comedy with echoes of Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Repo Man is packed with more incongruous sight gags than anyone can absorb in one viewing; keep your eyes peeled for the air fresheners, the generic newspaper box, and the watches without hands. Harry Dean Stanton gives a superb comic performance as the intense but laid-back Bud, Emilio Estevez delivers perhaps the best work of his career as the petulant but goofy Otto, and Tracey Walter is hilarious as the spaced out repo-yard man Miller. Iggy Pop wrote and performed the theme song and The Circle Jerks appear as a lounge band. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
A highly amusing synthesis of thinking man's science fiction, post-modern humor, and a punk rocker's jaundiced take on a culture at the point of collapse, Repo Man was destined to be a "cult film." It was too off-skew for mainstream audiences, but, if you're in tune with its wit and rhythms, it's hard not to love it. Writer and director Alex Cox has a great time picking off satiric targets in 1980s America (Los Angeles variety): generic food, UFO cultists, absurd pseudo-religions, suburban teenage angst, and the worship of the automobile, among many others; and the dialogue ranks with the most memorable movie writing in the post-Altman, pre-Tarantino era. After years of great supporting performances in movies good and bad, Harry Dean Stanton got one of his first leading roles and made the most of it; his bemused beatnik-noir cool fits Bud like a glove, and he's hilarious without ever playing the comedy too heavily. Emilio Estevez is his perfect foil as Otto, a punk's rage simmering just beneath his suburban slacker surface. And the score, by pioneering Latino punks The Plugz, combines the sound of Ennio Morricone's spaghetti Western scores with enough ironic distance to serve as both tribute and affectionate parody, a perfect combination for this film; the periodic blasts of Southern California hardcore from Fear, Black Flag, and Suicidal Tendencies match the mood and mark the time period. But why do none of the watches have hands? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Jennifer Balgobin - Debbi; Richard Foronjy - Plettschner; Del Zamora - Lagarto Rodriguez; Fox Harris - J. Frank Parnell; Vonetta McGee - Marlene; Susan Barnes - Agent Rogers; Jimmy Buffett - Blond Agent; The Circle Jerks - Nightclub Band; Tom Finnegan - Oly; Sue Kiel - Ms. Magruder; Helen Martin - Mrs. Parks; Jorge Martinez - Tennis Player; Ed Pansullo - Agnet E; Angelique Pettyjohn - Repo Wife No.2; George Sawava - Repo Victim No.1; Cynthia Szigeti - U.F.O. Lady; Eddie Velez - Napo; Biff Yeager - Agent B; Rick Barker - Stunt; Michael Bennett - Blond Agent; David Chung - Sheriff; Alex Cox; Dolores Deluxe; Bob Ellis - Soda Jerk; Jac McAnelly - Pakman; Tom Musca; Nancy Richardson - Tennis Player; Dick Rude - Duke; Zander Schloss - Kevin; Monona Wali - Nurse; Harry Wowchuk - Stunt; Rodney Bingenheimer - Club Owner; Logan Carter - Repo Wife No.3; Todd Darling; Kelita Kelly - Delilah; Steve Mattson - Agent S; Michael Sandoval - Archie; Jon St. Elwood - Miner; Michael Walters - Stunt; Bruce White - Rev. Larry; Dorothy Bartlett - Old Lady; Con Covert - Harry Pace; Eddie Hice - Stunt; Fred Scheiwiller - Stunt; Laura Sorenson - Repo Wife No.4; Rick Seaman - Stunt; Harry Hauss - Helicopter Pilot; Keith Morris
Credit
Lynda Burbank - Art Director, J. Rae Fox - Art Director, Gerald T. Olson - Associate Producer, Victoria Thomas - Casting, Theda Deramus - Costume Designer, Alex Cox - Director, Dennis E. Dolan - Editor, Michael Nesmith - Executive Producer, Iggy Pop - Composer (Music Score), Humberto Larriva - Composer (Music Score), Tito Larriva - Composer (Music Score), Iggy Pop - Songwriter, Henry Rollins - Songwriter, Robby Müller - Cinematographer, Allen Alsobrook - Production Manager, Peter McCarthy - Producer, Jonathan Wacks - Producer, Roger George - Special Effects, Steve Nelson - Sound/Sound Designer, Alex Cox - Screenwriter
Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez), a young punk rocker living in mid-1980s Los Angeles, is fired from his menial supermarket stock clerk job. At a party, he finds his girlfriend having sex with his best friend. He soon finds that his pot-smoking, ex-hippie parents have donated the money they promised him for finishing school to a televangelist, supposedly to supply Bibles to El Salvador. Depressed and broke, Otto falls in with Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), a seasoned repossession agent, or "repo man", working for the disingenuously named "Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation", a small-time automobile repossession agency. While repelled by the concept at first, Otto's opinion is rapidly changed when he is paid cash for his first "job".
Otto soon learns that "the life of a repo man is always intense." He enjoys the drug use, real-life car chases, the thrill of hotwiring cars and good pay. His old punk-rock lifestyle seems boring by comparison, and he begins to develop a rapport with his fellow repo men as well. When he returns to a punk club to see a lounge act (played by real-life hardcore punk band Circle Jerks), he is amazed at how terrible they now seem.
Soon, Bud, Otto and competing repo men all over town are searching for a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu from New Mexico; this vehicle, unknown to them, contains something mysterious and dangerously powerful in its trunk, also sought by a strange female CIA agent, Agent Rogersz (Susan Barnes), and her staff.
Repo Man was voted as the eighth best film set in Los Angeles in the last 25 years, by a group of Los Angeles Times writers and editors, with two criteria: "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list".[2]Entertainment Weekly ranked the film #7 on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films"[3] and ranked it #3 on their "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list.[4]
Awards
1985 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)
Indie rock label American Laundromat Records announced plans to release a tribute to the film in 2008 with some of their favorite artists covering songs on the soundtrack. At the suggestion of Cox himself, the tribute included the bonus track "Burning Down The House" by Talking Heads. The song was supposed to appear in a scene of the original film, but the scene was cut due to song clearance issues.
A semi-sequel titled Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday was written by Cox in the early 1990s, but the project was never able to progress to production. Cox made the screenplay freely available, and this was eventually adapted as a graphic novel in March 2008. The novel is published by Gestalt Publishing and is illustrated by Chris Bones and Justin Randall and follows the screenplay nearly word-for-word.
On December 3, 2008, a spiritual sequel was reported to be going into development with the working title Repo Chick. The film will be produced by David Lynch. The story will be set against the backdrop of the present economic downturn and a boom in repossession that extends far beyond cars and homes.[6][7] On 13 February 2009, Cox announced on his personal blog that shooting had finished and the film was now in post-production.[8] The bulk of the film was shot in front of a green screen, with backgrounds filmed and composited in during post-production.[9] Universal sent Cox a cease-and-desist, since Cox does not possess the rights to do an official sequel, but he ignored it, as his film uses none of the characters from the original. The film premiered on September 8 at the Venice Film Festival. Plans for a proper theatrical release have not yet been announced.
At least one celebrity cameo has been announced. Danbert Nobacon (of Chumbawamba) will reportedly have a small role.[10]
