The Big Easy
“This is a film to listen to as well as watch. Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin enter so effortlessly into the cadences of Louisiana that the sound track provides an uncanny sense of place. Quaid plays a vice cop who is not above participating in the department’s illegal “widows and orphans” fund. Barkin is a local prosecutor. They become friends, survive some scrapes together, fall in love—and then wind up on opposite sides of a case in court.
Directed by Jim McBride, “The Big Easy” is one of the most definitely regional American films ever made; the music on the sound track underlines the specific sense of place, and the Barkin and Quaid characters seem to grow naturally out of the story. Neither the movie’s romance nor its thriller aspects seem familiar; McBride and his actors particularly put a new spin on everything, even including the usual clichés about one-night stands. The late Charles Ludlam provides brilliant supporting work as Quaid’s lawyer—but then all the supporting work in this movie is offbeat and precise, and so are the leads.”
Our Hollywood South game mentions this movie. While it’s not necessary to see it before playing our game, watching it beforehand certainly adds to the adventure.
