Page 8 DTH ' Omnibus
Thursday September 17, 1992
Film mixes riveting storyline, powerful message
One False Move
Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, BillyBob Thornton
directed by Carl Franklin
Chelsea
968-3005
very once in a while, there
comes a movie that simply
has to be made.
One False Move is such a
I movie.
Chronicling the most deep-seated
conflicts that exist in America today
the basic conflict between blacks and
whites and the conflict between rural
and urban mentalities One False
Move is a film to be reckoned with.
The movie opens in Los Angeles
with Fantasia (Cynda Williams, Mo'
Better Blues) and her two partners in
crime, Ray (Billy Bob Thornton) and
Pluto (Michael Beach), carrying out a
well-planned drug heist. Five people
die, and it would've been more if Fanta
sia hadn't acted compassionately and
without the knowledge of her partners.
She then flees with the high-strung,
coked-up Ray and his buddy, Pluto, the
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JOHN STATON
ice-cold sociopath with a 150 1Q who
goes about the business of stabbing a
teenage girl to death casually, like he's
gutting a fish.
The scene soon switches to Star
City, Ark., a sleepy Southern town
where Sheriff Dale "Hurricane" Dixon
(big brother Chet from Weird Science)
has had "10 years of bustin' peepin'
Toms and stop sign runners."
With help from two jaded LA. de
tectives (who are actually good guys in
this one), Dixon finds out that the trio
is heading his way, setting up a gory,
realistic ending.
But while the storyline is no less
than riveting, what's important about
One False Move are the themes.
Black-white relationships abound,
both healthy and destructive. There's
Fantasia, a mulatto, and her abusive
white boyfriend, Ray; there's Ray and
his cohort Pluto, who exist in constant
suspicion of each other; there are the
two cops. Dud and John, who are basi
cally alike except their difference in
skin color, and then there's Fantasia and
Hurricane, who have a secret past that
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Fantasia (Cynda Williams) and
is the crux of the film.
So what does all this mean? Accord
ing to Thornton, who co-wrote the
script, all the racial stuff is "just there,"
but that's hard to believe when a little
mulatto boy's birthday cake is choco
late with white icing.
There's something going on between
blacks and whites, in the film and in
America, something akin to the cli-
Star-powered film ain't no 'Ishtar7;
'Sneakers' creates onscreen magic
Sneakers
Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley,
Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix
directed by Phil Alden Robinson
Plaza Mil
967-4737
eeine Sneakers will be a reaf-
""Nl firming experience for those
J F who have once again lost
their faith in Hollywood af
ter yet another summer
showcase of slick, soulless moneymakers.
True, they really don't come much
slicker or, for that matter, much more
Hollywood than Sneakers, but this movie
is done the old-fashioned way, hear
kening back to a time when big Holly
wood projects meant magic, not medi
ocrity. You might think that with all the
potential for ego here considering a
cast that includes Robert Redford,
Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River
Phoenix and Ben Kingsley the final
product could get lost among the super
star names (case in point: lshtar). But
these savvy vets couldn't work together
more smoothly if they were a traveling
actor's troupe. That's why this movie is
so simply successful, on so many differ
ent levels all the pieces fit together
just so.
Ray (Billy Bob Thorton) are on the run
ched love-hate relationship. I think
blacks and whites want to like each
other, but there are major, unspoken
obstacles that keep it from happening.
In One False Move, we begin to under
stand, however vaguely, this paradox.
More clearly, the film also examines
the radical differences between rural
and urban peoples. If there is a weak
point in the film, it is that "country
NED DIRLIK
For one thing, the action is built
around a clever reunion that any script
writer would find loaded with intrigu
ing potential. The players are two obvi
ously gifted computer "hackers" who
got busted in the late '60s trying to do
things like break into Richard Nixon's
campaign fund (via computers). When
one goes to prison and the other gets
away, the confrontation is set, even
though it's decades (or, cinematically
speaking, about an hour) away.
Robert Redford is Martin Brice, the
one that got away, and he's spent his life
on the run, working with other high
tech outlaws and one discharged gov
ernment agent (Sidney Poitier).
Though decidedly low-profile, this gang
of "sneakers" (and, like me, you'll have
to forgive the dismally cheesy title) has
built up quite a reputation by breaking
into a company's high-tech defenses,
under the contract of that company, in
order to discover if security needs beef
ing up.
But when two men come to their
HQ claiming to work for the U.S. gov
ernment and possessing dangerous info
on Brice's shady past (which he has
tried to cover up with a completely new
identity), the relatively harmless gang
of industrial pirates is forced to take on
(and thirsty) In 'One False Move'
folks" are stereotyped to a degree, but
this actually serves a purpose, as we
discover later .
Ultimately, One False Move is a must
see if you're into intelligent, entertain
ing movies. I know, I know, that's hard
to believe because it was co-written by
and stars a guy named Billy Bob, but
seeing this film is one false move you
won't make.
a risky new assignment.
Without revealing too much about
what happens next (because this is when
the movie takes off with a bang), 1 will
say that most of the suspense comes
from a little black box of incredible
power by the time Brice's old partner
in crime (Ben Kingsley) comes on the
scene, the suspense is no-holds-barred
excitement.
I think that both mathematicians
and spies might find a few of the film's
premises based on some pretty shaky
logic. Once again, to go into great de
tail would reveal too much, but suffice
it to say that if this little black box was
at all feasible, the existing world order
would probably be radically altered. But
this movie is so much fun and the
actors are clearly having as good a time
on screen as any audience could seeing
it that it's impossible not to forgive
its eccentricities.
Just as in his earlier Field of Dreams,
director Robinson worries more about
creating some magic than reproducing
reality.
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