Blue Steel (1990 film)

Blue Steel
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Produced by
Written by
Starring
Music by Brad Fiedel
Cinematography Amir Mokri
Edited by Lee Percy
Production
companies
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
Running time
 101 minutes[2]
Country United States
Language English
Box office $8.2 million[3]

Blue Steel is a 1990 American action thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver and Clancy Brown.[4]

The film was initially set to be released by Vestron Pictures and its offshoot label Lightning Pictures, but it was ultimately acquired by MGM due to Vestron's financial problems and eventual bankruptcy at the time.

Plot

Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a rookie NYPD patrol officer who shoots and kills a suspect (Tom Sizemore) with her service revolver while he's holding up a neighborhood market. The suspect's handgun lands on the floor of the market in the shopping area as the suspect is blown backward through the front window.

As she continues to the checkout area, Turner nearly steps on the suspect's handgun directly in front of Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), a commodities trader, who is also a latent psychopath. Hunt takes the gun and slips away, using it to commit several bloody and brutal murders over the next few days. Because the robber's weapon was not found at the scene, Turner is accused of killing an unarmed man.

While the officer attempts to clear her name with Chief Hoyt and her superiors, Hunt begins to romance the suspended Turner in a twisted love fetish. Turner arrests him but he is freed by his attorney, Mel Dawson. He begins to stalk Turner at her family home, an uncomfortable place where Turner remembers her mother being physically abused by her dad.

Turner fights to keep her badge and solve the murders with the help of Detective Nick Mann (Clancy Brown), while trying to figure out her relationship with a killer. Hunt turns up at her apartment, injures Turner and kills her best friend, Tracy. This causes Turner to have an emotional breakdown.

She spends the night with Mann, her fellow officer. Mann is ambushed by Hunt when he goes to the bathroom. Turner doesn't hear the shot because it was muffled. Hunt attacks and rapes her, and she shoots him, but he runs off. Mann is unconscious and taken to the hospital.

Determined to find Hunt and finish him off, Turner finally shoots and kills him after a long and violent confrontation and a bullet wound to her shoulder. She is then taken away in an ambulance.

Cast

Release

Critical reception

The film gained mixed to positive reviews,[5][6][7][8] garnering a "fresh" 71% rating on rotten tomatoes based on 21 reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert compared it to John Carpenter's Halloween, noting: "Blue Steel is a sophisticated update of Halloween, the movie that first made Jamie Lee Curtis a star. (...) What makes it more interesting than yet another sequel to Halloween is the way the filmmakers have fleshed out the formula with intriguing characters and a few angry ideas."

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[9]

Box office

The film was not a box office success.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Black-Leather Director in a Business World : Cult Favorite Kathryn Bigelow Brings Her 'Dark' Style to an Action Film". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  2. ↑ "BLUE STEEL (18)". British Board of Film Classification. June 5, 1990. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Blue Steel (1990)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Thrill Me! : 'Blue Steel' and 'Impulse' put a new twist on conventional crime films--the lead cops are women, and so are the directors". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  5. ↑ "MOVIE REVIEW : 'Blue Steel': A Low-Caliber, Bloody Thriller". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  6. ↑ "Review/Film;A Deranged Yuppie With a Thing for His Lover's Gun". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  7. ↑ "Blue Steel". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  8. ↑ "Blue Steel". Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  9. ↑ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
  10. ↑ "WEEKEND BOX OFFICE : 'Red October' Doing Fine in March". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
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