Since watching and reviewing London Town, I've getting back into punk for the first time in a while. Of course, I've long since been revisiting it from time to time, anyway, but this is slightly different in that I've also been re-watching a lot of movies associated with the genre and even re-reading the seminal punk biography Please Kill Me for the first time since I was a teenager, which I could not recommend more to punk fans.
One thing I've noticed is how the music and its message has changed for me over the years. When I first discovered it, as most do, I was in my early teens, and it was mostly about embracing the loudness and anger of it all. One's childhood and impending adolescence is a messy time, and it's no shocker that a lot of those going through it find themselves drawn to music that reflects that chaos and disorder.
Now that I'm older and somewhat wiser, I get it on a whole different level. I understand the politics of it better, as well as the sociological underpinnings of it all. I've also picked up on things that sailed right over my head back in the day, like the fact that The Ramones' "53rd and 3rd" is about male prostitution, which was pretty spelled out in the aforementioned book, but which I somehow glossed over.
Likewise, The Sex Pistols' "Bodies" is a pretty impassioned Pro-life plea, which isn't necessarily something one expects from a punk band, which just goes to show: it takes all kinds. To be sure, the politics of punk are messy and all over the place, which is part of what makes it all so fascinating. What seemed like mindless fun to me as a kid, I now realize had some pretty dark stuff going on underneath the surface, as obvious as it might seem to some.
Naturally, the movies associated with punk are equally multi-layered and more complex than they seem at first blush. I found that out revisiting Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains and I certainly found it re-watching today's selection. As many times as I've seen it, I still enjoy Repo Man in new ways every time I see it, and catch things I missed the first time, or understand things in a way I didn't before.
For instance, as I grow older, I certainly find myself relating more to the adults here, rather than the younger contingent, who often act in mindless, self-absorbed ways. I remember showing this movie to a slightly younger Millennial not too long ago and her just not digging it at all or finding it remotely funny. "Everyone is such an asshole," she said, not incorrectly.
Mind you, she was a hardcore punk fan herself, but I forget sometimes that younger Millennials/Gen-Z'rs came to punk via the more pop-oriented variation, be it Nirvana, Green Day or, God forbid, the likes of Blink-182 and Sum 41 or what have you.
Not that the old-school stuff didn't have a sense of humor, mind you, but bands like the Ramones and The Cramps notwithstanding (who certainly had their dark sides), it doesn't tend to be as silly as some of the stuff that came along in the 90's and beyond.
That's for a pretty simple reason: bands coming out of the late 70's-early 80's had more to be discontent about than the Mall Punks of the 90's and 2000's. That said, if ever there were a time for a punk resurgence, it's now, where there's plenty to be pissed off about, politically or otherwise. Not saying it ain't out there, but I'm not sure where it is at the moment.
(Ditto rap, which should be having a field day with this stuff, but mostly seems content to talk about the same old same old: sex, drugs and big booties. Where are the new Public Enemy? The new N.W.A.? The closest thing I'm aware of are Prophets of Rage, themselves a regurgitated amalgam of Rage Against the Machine, PE and Cypress Hill, none of which are particularly "young," per se. They're greatly appreciated, and nothing wrong with older cats raging against the machine, but where are the young upstarts?)
Back to Repo Man. My girlfriend wasn't wrong: the entire cast of the film are indeed a bunch of disgruntled malcontents, both young and old. And yet, I still find it hard to actively dislike any of them. While there's certainly been no shortage of films populated with such characters, from Pulp Fiction to The Big Lebowski to most of Whit Stillman and Neil LaBute's output in general, few movies have been as gleefully nihilistic and yet strangely endearing as the motley crew of Repo Man.
The film was the brainchild of writer/director Alex Cox, astonishingly enough making his feature film debut. According to frequent collaborator Dick Rude- who also memorably appears in the film as Duke, one of the thugs always up to "do some crimes"- he had written the script for a short film that Cox was going to direct, but financing fell through, so Cox took some of the ideas in the script, completely overhauled it and turned it into a feature-length script and started shopping that around.
The resulting script got the attention of none other than Michael Nesmith- hey hey he's a Monkee!- who went to bat for Cox, and managed to secure funding with no less a studio than Universal. So, insanely enough, one of the most punk movies ever owes its existence to a member of one of the most cheesy, manufactured pop bands ever. Go figure. (Which is not to say I don't like some of their stuff, but come on, they didn't write most of their songs and none of them played instruments on most of their recorded material, only learning to play later on, after most people had lost interest.)
Interestingly, the famed soundtrack was released before the film and got so much positive feedback and sold so well that, even after the studio lost interest, it was enough to get them to pony up the money to finish the film and get it into theaters in the end. Indeed, it WAS the end that was the problem, as Cox had to rewrite the ending several times before coming up with something everyone was willing to sign off on.
The end result was an instant cult classic that managed to play well with critics and audiences alike, grossing around $4 million on about a $1 million budget. Not too shabby for a film with ostensibly such a niche appeal. It certainly didn't hurt matters that the film starred Emilio Estevez, then-hot off of Tex and The Outsiders, two successful adaptions of the Y/A cause célèbre, young author S.E. Hinton. (He would go on to film a third, That was Then, This is Now.)
Interestingly, after playing the quintessential punk, Estevez would go on to play the quintessential jock the following year, in the much-beloved John Hughes flick, The Breakfast Club. Talk about having all your bases covered!
Estevez, already showing an interest in directing himself on the set of this film, would go on to considerable success as a member of the so-called "Brat Pack," a group of young Hollywood actors that all but took over the industry at the time. He mostly directs these days, notably the engaging ensemble piece Bobby, about Robert Kennedy.
Repo Man chronicles the adventures of Estevez' character Otto, a disgruntled punk working at a grocery store, when he gets fired and stumbles into a job repossessing cars for a group of local wackos in L.A. While hesitant at first, he eventually gains a certain respect for the wild and crazy crew of malcontents, even when it endangers his life at times.
Complicating matters considerably is the arrival on the scene of a mysterious man in a green, glowing Chevy Malibu that quickly becomes a Holy Grail for the various repo men in the area, as it's worth a small fortune for some reason.
As we discover later on, it involves alleged aliens in the trunk which are deadly to all those who look upon them, which, in turn, garners the interest of UFO, aka the "United Fruitcake Outlet," a shadowy group of government agent types willing to kill anyone who gets in the way of them getting to said Chevy.
Needless to say, it's a pretty wild plot-line, but one which reaps many unexpected benefits, including some undeniably memorable set-pieces, revolving around car chases, a shoot-out with a wily car owner, run-ins with rival repo men, lots of great ride-alongs with the two central repos, Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) and Lite (Sy Richardson) and a frenzied showdown to see who ultimately takes possession of the much-desired automobile.
The script is filled to the brim with quotable dialogue that is so persistent in pop culture you might even be familiar with it even if you've never seen the film. I hardly know where to begin, but here are just a few of my favorite exchanges and lines of dialogue.
Bud: Look at these assholes. Ordinary people, I hate 'em.
Debbi: Duke, let's go do some crimes.
Duke: Yeah, let's go get sushi and not pay!
Bud: I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians, either.
Miller: The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.
Bud: The life of a repo man is always intense.
Agent Rogersz: It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes.
Lite: You like music? Listen to this. I was into these dudes before anyone. Wanted me to be their manager. I called bullshit on that. Managing a pop group is no job for a man.
Lite: I walk into someone's place of work, they shit scared. They know I'm not a cop. They think I'm there to kill 'em. And I would.
Bud: Don't care how long it takes, dildoes! Repo man's got all night, every night!
Leila: Laugh it up, fuck face!
And so on. Honestly, you'd be harder pressed to find a piece of dialogue that wasn't quotable over one that was. It's all pretty great, IMHO. There's no way that someone like Quentin Tarantino didn't see this and totally rip it off- if you're going to steal, steal from the best, right? (Jules, Samuel L. Jackson's character from Pulp Fiction, in particular seems like a thinly-veiled variation on this film's iconic Lite character.)
Another essential part of the film is that it's expertly cast across the board. Kudos to Victoria Thomas, who would go on to a long career in the casting department, working for the likes of Tim Burton, Tony Scott, and, you guessed it, Tarantino himself.
Stanton, in one his signature roles, had over 200 credits to his name before his untimely passing just last year. Some of the more notable ones include: Cool Hand Luke, The Rebel Rousers, Kelly's Heroes, Two-Lane Blacktop (a fave of director Cox's), Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Dillinger, The Godfather Part II, Farewell My Lovely, The Missouri Breaks, Straight Time, Alien, The Rose, Private Benjamin, Escape from New York, Christine, Paris Texas, Red Dawn, Fool for Love, Pretty in Pink, The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Alpha Dog, Inland Empire, Seven Psychopaths and Lucky.
Sy Richardson started out in exploitation flicks like Cinderella (the X-Rated one, with Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith), Fairy Tales and Petey Wheatstraw (with Rudy Ray Moore, aka "Dolemite"), before Repo Man got everyone's attention and he started cropping up everywhere. Director Cox used him in many of his films, including another punk classic Sid & Nancy and the watchable train wreck Straight to Hell, which lives up to that title.
Other notable credits include: Tapeheads, Dead Man Walking, Bad Dreams, Colors, They Live, Mystery Train, Men at Work (which reunited him with Estevez), Posse, The Glass Shield, Killin' Me Softly, Human Nature, Larry Crowne, Faith of Our Fathers and TV's Pushing Daisies.
As the quirky Miller- note that all the Repo Man crew are named after beers- we have Tracey Walter, who has a pretty extensive list of credits to his name as well. They include: Serpico, Annie Hall, Blue Collar, Goin' South, Hardcore, The Hunter, The Octagon, The Hand, Raggedy Man, Timerider, Honkytonk Man, Rumble Fish, Conan the Destroyer, At Close Range, Something Wild, Mortuary Academy, Midnight Run, Married to the Mob, Batman, Young Guns II, The Two Jakes, Pacific Heights, The Silence of the Lambs, Liquid Dreams, City Slickers, Guncrazy, Cyborg 2, Philadelphia, Fist of the North Star, Larger than Life, Matilda, Kiss the Girls, Beloved, Erin Brockovich, How High, Bundy, The Manchurian Candidate (remake), I Spit on Your Grave (remake), 31 and TV's Nash Bridges.
As Otto's quirky love interest, Leila, there's the equally quirky Olivia Barash. After a host of TV guest spots, she made her motion picture debut in the retro musical American Hot Wax and was all over 70's and 80's TV (notably a starring role on the TV version of Fame), going back and forth between that and the occasional feature film, including Tuff Turf, Patty Hearst, Dr. Alien, Grave Secrets and the heretofore unknown sequel to this film, Repo Chick, which, from the looks of the reviews, did not capture lightning in a bottle twice.
Susan Barnes, who played Leila's boss, Agent Rogersz, was in Swing Shift, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Zombie High, Bad Dreams, They Live, Scrooged, Meet the Applegates, The Vanishing, Speed (as well as the sequel), Leaving Las Vegas, Freeway, Inventing the Abbotts, Nothing to Lose, Nurse Betty, Tiptoes, Kicking & Screaming and TV's Titus, so lots of cult-friendly stuff on her resume, for sure.
Perhaps one of my favorite things in the movie is the beyond out-there turn by Fox Harris as J. Frank Parnell, who, by most people's accounts was just as much of an oddball IRL. He's also got a solid cult-driven resume, including roles in the likes of Forbidden World, Human Highway, My Favorite Year, Lookin' to Get Out, Evil Spawn, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Deep Space, Warlords, Terror Eyes, Dr. Caligari, Alienator and lots of Cox's other movies, including Sid & Nancy, Straight to Hell and Walker.
As a sexy member of Duke's crew, there's Jennifer Balgobin,
who should have had a bigger career than she did. Nonetheless, she cropped up in the likes of Weird Science, Out of Bounds, Cox's Straight to Hell, Baby Boom, Cherry 2000, Tapeheads, Vibes, Dr. Caligari, Roadside Prophets, Clockwatchers, Contact, TV's Babylon 5 and the aforementioned Repo Chick.
Rounding out Duke's gang is a downright unrecognizable Miguel Sandoval as Archie. Sandoval, of course, would go on to become one of Hollywood's most respected character actors, with over 150 credits to his name. Like a lot of the above names, he also cropped up in a lot of Cox's films, as well as a whole lot of TV. You probably know him from Jurassic Park, Clear and Present Danger, Get Shorty, Blow, Collateral Damage, TV's Medium and Entourage and lots more where that came from.
Last but not least, there's Repo Chick Vonetta McGee, the lone lady of the pack, who plays both sides against the middle. McGee was in the Blaxploitation classics Blacula, Shaft in Africa and Detroit 9000, as well as The Eiger Sanction (her kiss with co-star Clint Eastwood was the then-rare early example of an interracial relationship between a black woman and a white man). After that, she mostly did TV (notably L.A. Law), with the occasional feature here and there.
I won't get into the rest, but suffice to say, there's a lot of talent on display here. Keep a quick eye out for director Cox as a diner at an outside roadside cafe, and, of all people, laid-back rocker Jimmy Buffett (!) as one of the UFO agents. Also cropping up are the bands The Circle Jerks, as the lounge band, and The Untouchables as a scooter gang. Fun fact: Zander Schloss, who plays the proto-Napoleon Dynamite-esque Kevin, went on to play with the Circle Jerks after this movie.
Speaking of which, the soundtrack to the film is one of the all-time greatest soundtracks to ANY film, IMHO. Though heavy on the punk, including the title track by the legendary Iggy Pop (with an assist from Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and two members of Blondie), and tunes from Fear, Burning Sensations, Black Flag, Suicidal Tendencies and Fear (whose singer, Lee Ving, was considered for a role); it also includes left-of-center tracks from Latin rockers The Plugz (singer/guitarist Tito Larriva would later form Tito & Tarantula, who figure prominently in From Dusk Till Dawn), who also scored the film, plus classic tunes from The Andrew Sisters and Louie Armstrong. And how could you not love the funky Juicy Bananas, with vocals from star Sy Richardson?
I just love this movie, and wouldn't change a damn thing about it, though the alternate endings certainly sound interesting. In one, a nuclear explosion caused by the Malibu levels L.A. at the end. In another, Otto goes over to South America and joins a group of Revolutionaries! Also, an idea for a sequel that was never filmed was turned into a graphic novel called Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday.
Repo Man really does sum up the punk attitude of the times, particularly the California strain of the venerable genre. It may not be overtly political, though it's not without some commentary to that end, but it does serve as a caustic take on what life in the mid-80's was like, with it's ever-present generic foods and drink, the rambling televangelists and bent philosophies on life in general.
It was certainly influential, and though frequently imitated, no one has ever quite come close to replicating its vibe- even Cox himself, though Sid & Nancy is a worthy, much more serious-minded follow-up that would make for a decent double feature. Regardless, if you haven't seen it, by all means check it out!
Repo Man is readily available on home video, on both DVD and Blu-Ray, including a Deluxe Criterion Edition that's well-worth the extra cash and includes the excellent soundtrack as a bonus and a nifty booklet on the film's history.
One last thing: this article is dedicated to the memory of cinematographer Robby Müller, who sadly died earlier this week. His work in this film is just fantastic, and I highly recommend checking out some of his other stuff, notably Paris Texas (also with Harry Dean Stanton), To Live and Die in L.A., Down by Law, Mystery Train, Until the End of the World, Dead Man, Breaking the Waves, Ghost Dog, 24-Hour Party People, Dancer in the Dark and Coffee and Cigarettes.
RIP, Robby! 😢
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