Angel Heart (1987)

This whole discussion is one big spoiler…so be warned.

You’re not an actor worth your salt if you haven’t played the devil. Or is that Hamlet? Some have done it with panache: AL Pacino (The Devil’s Advocate), Jack Nicholson (The Witches of Eastwick), Vigo Mortensen (The Prophecy), Peter Stormare (Constantine). Some go for laughs: Harvey Keitel (Little Nicky)  and Elizabeth Hurley (Bedazzled).

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None comes close to Tim Curry in Legend. Ahhhh, the costume and make-up alone took five hours a day to put on. That’s right boys and girls FIVE hours every day of shooting. Curry is such an underrated actor. He also gave us Pennywise from It and Frank N Furter, frightening characters for very different reasons.

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IT (1990)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Then there’s Robert De Niro in Alan Parker’s film Angel Heart. The movie caused a stir because it made use of a sexy Lisa Bonet (who was known then for the family sit-com The Cosby Show). In an attempt to either shed her squeaky clean image or be taken seriously as an actor, she literally has sex with costar Mickey Rourke until the freakin’ walls bleed.

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Yeah, kind of puts his 9 ½ Weeks work to shame.

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Yes, it's THAT Mickey Rourke. Here he is in Iron Man 2. Still lookin' Good Mickey.

De Niro’s plays Louis Cyphre a business man, very refined and sophisticated. He hires Herald R. Angel (Rourke) to find a singer named Johnny Favorite whom he has a contract with and you know those never turn out well. Of course, we’re not meant to know that De Niro is the devil until the reveal at the end, but come on…he introduces himself as Louis Cyphre…Louis Cyphre? Really? Lucifer…get it? And Bonet’s name is Epiphany … ay ay ay…

De Niro’s scenes are effective because he’s not the main focus of the film. He’s there to move the plot along whenever Angel gets bogged down by sleeping with Lisa Bonet or harassing Blues singers while they pee. The problem is that everyone Angel interviews ends up dead after he talks to them. Hmm…

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There’s a great scene where De Niro is eating. He holds up a boiled egg and he tells Angel, “The egg is the symbol of the soul.” He then devours it with gusto. Nice! Again, suave and sophisticated with manicured pointy fingernails and a cane…a m*therf*ckin’ CANE. Who can pull that off these days?

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You can’t get more supernatural than the big guy downstairs. Then you add voodoo ceremonies where Bonet kills a chicken in a way that health inspectors would not approve, more noir shadows than you can shake a stick at, a sexy sax-laden soundtrack by Trevor Jones (trying desperately to be Vangelis), a funeral procession in New Orleans and asphyxiation by one’s own genitalia…and it’s a mix that brews up a very atmospheric movie…and that’s Alan Parker’s jam. Atmosphere. This film is textbook stuff for anyone wishing to create mood on film. The pacing may be slow, but it’s forgivable due to the images, effects, and juxtapositions Parker creates.

Finding out about De Niro ISN’T the big reveal…thank God…or…well… The story takes a very Jacob’s Ladder kind of turn in the end and if you’re duped…it’s right up there with The Sixth Sense. It explains a lot of the movie, but then that’s what resolutions are supposed to do.

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The best scene is De Niro meeting Angel in a church. Yeah, how cool is that? He’s sitting there, hair slicked back, votive candles dancing behind him, Gregorian choir chanting placidly in the distance. When Angel tells him about a guy who “got choked to death with a part of the body meant for pissing with,” De Niro, covers his mouth for a moment feigning shock then quickly says, “This is a church, Mr. Angel.” Masterful. Add to that, Cyphre asks Angel if he’s an atheist and he replies, “Yes, I am. I’m from Brooklyn.” So many gems. Angel also has a very Raiders of the lost Ark moment…Chickens, why did it have to be chickens?

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In his final scene of the movie, De Niro’s true identity gets revealed along with other plot twisters and Rourke chews the scenery. Cyphre quotes Sophocles: “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise.” Then he reveals some special effect creepy eye-age and before you know it Angel is in a cage-like elevator heading down…we can only assume (literally and symbolically) to hell. If you listen at the very end, you hear both names “Harry?” and “Johnny?” whispered as the last thing in the film.

Now I have to be all English Lit professor on you for a moment and say my favorite symbol in the movie had to be the use of Cyphre’s lawyers’ names: Winesap and Macintosh…both the names of types of apples. Nice nod to the Garden of Eden story! Well played, Mr. Parker. Well…plaaaayed.    

The Tag Line: Harry Angel is searching for the truth…Pray he doesn’t find it.

Best Line: “There’s too many bodies floatin’ around. Even for Louisiana.”

Best De Niro line: “They say there’s just enough religion in the world to make men hate one another, but not enough to make them love.” WOW

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