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Walter Hill is one of the most incredible directors of the last thirty or forty years, always capable of banging out a great, unpretentious, action packed flick. In the mid eighties, he sat down with a notebook and wrote a checklist of everything he wanted to see in the greatest movie ever, and the result was Streets of Fire, one of the all time cult eighties movie downloads.

The movie follows Tom Cody, a soldier who’s been discharged and returns to his old hometown when Ellen Aim, his old sweetheart, and a pop music sensation, is kidnapped by Raven, the leader of the local biker gang. The film works on the level of fantasy, mixing fifties and eighties aesthetics into a new kind of setting. The environment the characters inhabit is surreal and dreamlike, and the cinematography is beautiful, with rainy streets and neon signs dominating the screen.

The movie is really defined by the music, again, blending fifties and eighties styles. You’ll hear these great old fashioned fifties rock tunes with a layer of synth and aggressive, eighties style vocals. It really invents its own style of pop and Rock and Roll, even having led to the hit single, I Can Dream About You.

The story is fairly stock, but because of the setting and music, it’s really elevated to something more than just cliche. Rather, it’s archetypal, the film is elevated to the level of fairy tale or legend by the stock characters and situations. The girl is kidnapped, the hero saves her, the end, sure, but it really does play out as a Rock and Roll fairy tale or fable.

Hill has remained one of the most consistently competent and capable directors since his debut decades ago, and it’s really too bad that he doesn’t often get the respect he deserves. He tends to focus on action flicks, which tends not to earn the same sort of respect as other genres, but Hill really is one of the best directors out there right now.

The film also uses a guitar score by blues legend Ry Cooder to compliment the Rock and Roll. His bluesy, earthy slide guitar sound really contrasts the glitzy pop tunes and lends a certain contrast to Tom Cody, who is frequently accompanied by Cooder’s music.

If you want a great double feature, watch Streets of Fire alongside The Warriors. The Warriors is, similarly, a sort of Rock and Roll, street fable, but takes the concept in a rougher, tougher, more gritty direction, while Streets of Fire is a little more glossy, a little more pretty and colorful in comparison to The Warriors and its title street gang heroes.

There was to be a pair of sequels to the film, but, sadly, they never panned out, as Streets of Fire didn’t exactly set the box office on fire. Today, the film has become a major cult classic, but it wasn’t easy to market twenty odd years ago. Check it out and see why it’s one of the all time coolest action flicks.

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