The 1975 film,Night Moves, wastes no time in getting down to business. Neither doesGene Hackman’s character, Harry Moseby. A gripping neo-noir thriller, it’s one of the best to come out during the resurgence of the genre in the ’60s and ’70s. With the news ofHackman’s passing at the age of 95 this morning, alongside his wife, Betsy, it’s impossible not to look back at his formidable career. Playing good guys, bad guys, and the murky gray in between, each performance was intense, difficult, and tough.Night Moveshappens to be one of the most underrated thrillers of the 70s, and one of Hackman’s most compassionate characters. Riveting, brilliant, and bleak,Night Movesdeserves to be remembered and praised for its cutting-edge story, and Hackman’s astounding performance.
Directed by prolific director,Arthur Penn(Bonnie and Clyde),Night Movesis one of Hackman’s most overlooked films. A moody crime-craper that spawns across a gritty Los Angeles and dingy Florida, the film is written byAlan Sharp, who had a knack for focusing on dark stories. In this scenario, he wrote a subtle rebellion against Hollywood.Night Movesdoesn’t take it easy on the film industry, and depicts mechanics, actresses, stuntpeople, and directors as dirty dealers who care more about money than anything else, especially art.For Hackman fans, go beyond classics likeThe Royal TenebaumsandHoosierswhile honoring his legacy, and seep into something much more sinister.This forgotten neo-noir within Hackman’s incomparable filmography remains a must-watch.
What Is ‘Night Moves’ About?
Hackman stars as private detective, Harry Moseby, and he doesn’t have much to live for except solving mysteries that get him nowhere.When he catches his wife (Susan Clark) cheating on him, it’s the final straw. Having lost what once gave him something to live for, he decides to live for the job instead.Night Moveshas all but lost faith in the construct of marriage, and one of its main themes is losing faith in fidelity. Moseby is then hired by former actress, Arlene Iverson (Janet Ward), to track down her 16-year-old runaway daughter, Delly Grastner, played byMelanie Griffithin her first film.
Moseby begins a wild goose hunt that leads him to sleazy men, most of them involved in the stunt world in Hollywood. They’ve all had affairs with Dellyandher mother, which unsettles Moseby. A young and instantly creepyJames Woodas the mechanic, Quentin, is one of the many suitors in Delly’s life, and one of the many suspects in Delly’s disappearance. On a hunch, Moseby travels to the secluded Florida Keys, where Arlene’s ex-husband and Delly’s predatory step-father, Tom (John Crawford), lives. Moseby then finds Delly living with her step-father, and he uncovers a dark series of truths involving her family, while also falling in love with the woman Tom is seeing, Paula (Jennifer Warren). The result is a slow-burning,deeply underappreciated ’70s thrilleras he travels back and forth between swampy Florida and an ugly Hollywood where honesty is seldom seen.
‘Night Moves’ Speaks to the Dark and Gritty New Hollywood of the 1970s
Night Movesseems radical from today’s perspective, but in 1975, dark, gritty, and unflinching noirs and thrillers were released at a prolific rate. The 1970s,known as New Hollywood, was defined byushering in a new batch of exciting young filmmakers who, thanks to their eclectic cinematic taste and education in film school, radicalized mainstream Hollywood. They combined numerous Hollywood sensibilities with avant-garde trends from foreign cinema, all while reflecting on the tumultuous social and political climate of the decade. In fact,Night Movesdirector Arthur Penn changed the cinematic landscape for the foreseeable future with his film,Bonnie and Clyde, which portrayed crime and violence with an unprecedented level of shock and visceral energy.
Gene Hackman, a supporting player inBonnie and Clyde, was no stranger to daring genre films likeThe French Connection, or bleak psychological examinations of paranoia likeThe Conversation.Night Movesmay not have broken any new rules, but it belongs in the canon of gritty noirs insisting that, no matter how hard we try to make things right, we’re all doomed. The film is a fitting companion piece toChinatown, which similarly follows a moralistic private eye who submits to the corrupt system.It parallelsTaxi Driver, in that both protagonists capitalize on the danger of a guileless young girl to validate themselves as redeemable people.
Night Movesexists in a seedy world of Hollywood. As a new wave of filmmakers invaded Hollywood, they upended its glossy depiction as the world where dreams become reality. For classic noirs and neo-noirs,Los Angeles is the ideal backdrop for stories about jaded private eyes peeling back the layers of sinister conspiracies, as seen in films such asDouble Indemnity,The Long Goodbye,Chinatown, and a futuristic depiction inBlade Runner.
Gene Hackman Gives a Career-Best Performance as a Haunted Detective
Hackman was born for noir, and lucky for us, he got to take a swing at it withNight Moves.His face is lined with bitterness from a hard-lived life, which fits the genre like a glove.Hackman makes Moseby his own, and is unlike any other detective in noir.Drinking water instead of whiskey, Moseby is a unique breed of investigator. He’s got morals, believes in the truth, and naively thinks he can be a hero. As every man fawns over Delly, Moseby doesn’t, and becomes disgusted with the gross boys club swarming Delly like flies. Prior toNight Moves, Hackman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the tough New York City cop, “Popeye” Doyle, inThe French Connection. He was brutish, cold, and hard while trying to bust drug dealers, and was a playboy who indulged in various vices as a devilish antihero.Night Moveswas a major departure from the cold grit of Popeye.
Hackman is haunting, and haunted as Moseby, and has a tenderness not often seen in his manytough guy characters and famous villains. He carries a father-like protectiveness over Delly, and believes if he can save her, he can save himself. This is his downfall, especially as he begins to fall in love with the enchanting Paula, played by an enthralling Jennifer Warren.Hackman drenches Moseby in loneliness, and finds all the right notes of obsessionas he fills the void of his loveless marriage with another case.
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Gene Hackman delivers a fiery performance alongside Rachel Weisz, John Cusack, and Dustin Hoffman.
With any other actor,Night Moveswould just be a thrilling detective mystery. But with Hackman in charge, it’s a much deeper story, about a lonely man in desperation for some connection after his wife’s infidelity. He’s heartbroken, andit reads all over lost-looking blue eyes that were so rarely vulnerable through his career. A look of silent desperation, confusion, and loss, all cross Hackman’s face in a moment as he watches his wife kiss someone else, and it’s a punch to the gut. It’s hard to pity a man as tough as Hackman, but inNight Movesyou do.
As Paula becomes an evasivefemme fatale, she sums up Moseby’s hunger for solving the case in one perfect metaphor. Many scenes in Florida take place on Tom and Paula’s boat at sea, and the ocean symbolizes the choppy waters Moseby wades into. Paula informs Moseby, “If sharks stop swimming, they die.” Moseby is a shark, unable to stop navigating dangerous waters, always on the hunt for blood. Hackman brings an intensity that cannot be matched. He’s an addict for answers, and only brings more people under the tide with him as he keeps swimming for clues.
Melanie Griffith’s Film Debut in ‘Night Moves’ Was Controversial
Daughter of Hollywood royalty andAlfred Hitchcockmuse,Tippi Hedren,Night Moveswas the first film Melanie Griffith ever made. Her character was mesmerizing, disturbing, and heartbreaking all at once as the tragic. Delly is presented as a promiscuous teen who embraces her sexuality at way too young of an age, when in actuality she really is making a plea for help. The only one who can see that plea is Moseby, but she refutes him all the same. With Griffith being 16,her role and the film were seen as risqué for the time, as Delly is exploited and eroticized.This is where the film shows its age, with how it treats its underage actor and character. However, Griffith flawlessly took on an upsetting character study of a troubled youth.
Griffith also makes for a fascinating character as Delly,who is at once a bully and a victim, using seduction to hide the damage done to her young life. Appearing nude in various scenes and oftentimes wearing scant outfits, the film’s nude shots would rightfully not fly in today’s culture. The film bluntly exploits both Delly and Griffith with a glaring male gaze, with its release date having to be delayed until Griffith turned 17 to minimize the controversy. But it’s Griffith’s performance that makes the film so devastating and unforgettable.
With Its Bleak Ending, ‘Night Moves’ Is One of the ’70s Darkest Neo-Noirs
The number one rule of neo-noir is that there are no happy endings.Night Movesis no expectation. A floundering Hackman as a naive detective who believes he can be the knight in shining armor to a damsel in distress makes for one of the darkest film entries of the 70s. Hackman also gets the opportunity toshow off his brilliant physicality as an actor in one of the film’s most gripping scenes. A brutal, raw fight that puts modern, neatly choreographed showdowns to shame, it will have you on the edge of your seat. With no weapons but bare-knuckled fists of rage, Hackman pounds into his adversary late in the film, and gets badly beaten in return. There is no point to the fight, and it will get him or his enemy nowhere. But he continues on swinging, and it’s hypnotizing to watch Hackman explode like the loose cannon he hides perfectly under those cold blue eyes. No one wins, and it just leaves the two men bloody. One of them is just losing the fight slower than the other.
The last scene ofNight Movesgoes off like a rocket. Hackman delivers his most distressing moments out on the choppy water, still needlessly treading. Film criticRoger EbertlistedNIght Moveson his great movies list, giving it four stars, andhailed it as a ’70s thriller masterpieceby highlighting Hackman’s devastating performance. It’s rare to see Hackman act so vulnerable as he’s near tears during the third act, which is what makes him and the movie so stunning. Paula’s words come back to haunt him, as he remains out at sea searching for answers. Sharks can’t stop swimming, and neither can he. So he’ll just keep going in circles forever, trying to keep his head above dark, dark waters.
Moseby was a friend to the downtrodden, lonely, and abandoned. While it’s a bleak movie full of liars and abusers,Hackman never loses the compassion in his face. Whether he was good orbad in whatever role he played, he played each role compassionately, and no character was more determined to save a victimized youth than Moseby. That desperation to save the teenage Delly all comes fromHackman’s dedication to his craft. It’s apparent in all the violent tussles he has with various criminals down in Florida, emphasizing how dominant his tall, imposing physique contributed to his onstage presence throughout his career. At the end of the day, Moseby was a hero, but in noir, heroes never win. They only learn lessons that sometimes the only way to win, is to let go. But with Hackman, it was always, all, or nothing.
Night Movesis currently available to rent or buy on Amazon.
Night Moves
Private detective Harry Moseby takes on a case to find the missing daughter of a former movie star. His search leads him from Los Angeles to the murky waters of the Florida Keys, where he encounters a mix of dubious individuals connected to the girl’s disappearance. As Harry digs deeper, he uncovers secrets that intertwine with his own life, complicating his sense of justice and duty.
