Warner Bros.
Lethal Weapon was one of my dad’s favorite movies.
He didn’t have many, and another one was Curly Sue, so I don’t know what that says about him. What I do know is that he took me to see this film when it came out, and it was one of the only movies he personally taped off of cable when it arrived on HBO, The Movie Channel, Cinemax, or Showtime.
It was the only R-rated movie that I knew him to watch regularly.
He called it “Legal Weapon” and always said it was a “Good Pitchah”
A good pitchah it is.
I love this movie. It was the first real, modern “action movie” I remember seeing in the theater. Even back then, I knew it was good because it held my attention for the full 109 minutes of runtime it presented to me.
In case you were born after 2000 and only know Mel Gibson as the bigoted, strangely confrontational, problematic Christian asshole, back in the mid 80’s Gibson was still all those things but no one really knew or talked about it if they did.
Back then, he was Mad Max, the mentally disturbed police officer who lost his wife and kid when a motorcycle gang ran them down. Now, in Lethal Weapon, he is Martin Riggs, the suicidal ex-narcotics officer who lost his wife in a horrible car accident that is later revealed not to be a random accident at all.
Lethal Weapon was Gibson’s big American breakout movie. It was also the start of a beautiful onscreen partnership with Danny Glover, who plays his reluctant partner, Roger Murtaugh. Roger is about to retire when he is saddled with the disturbed Riggs.
After a prostitute commits suicide and it is revealed that Murtaugh knows the girl’s father, he and Riggs begin to investigate this tragedy. The further the pair digs Murtaugh and Riggs unravel a growing, mysterious ring involving an ex-military-run drug smuggling ring. The two unlikely partners find they have more in common than even they were willing to admit. Can they put their differences aside and solve this murder, put away the mercenaries responsible, and keep Murtaugh’s family safe?
Lethal Weapon is a great action film. Helmed by Superman director Richard Donner, Lethal Weapon doesn’t exist without the masterful leadership of this veteran director. With an original script by Shane Black, who would go on to write and then direct some of the best action films of the 80s and early 90s, it is Donner who injected some of his signature humor and character development to an already well written, brilliantly paced screenplay to make it the gem it is. This is a perfect piece of 1980s cinema, only to be followed the following year by John McTiernan’s Die Hard.
Many of the common tropes in modern action buddy cop films begin with Lethal Weapon. Donner and his wealth of cinematic history borrowed from past films himself to add to the dynamic relationship between Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh. That is what makes this film work so well. Lethal Weapon balances the danger and the suspense perfectly with the action and violence. However, Donner knows that to really have those scenes hit even harder, there needs to be a fair amount of humor to enhance the impact of those sequences.
That is what makes the first Lethal Weapon film so special. It is such a perfect storm of performance, writing, direction, cinematography, and editing. Added to that is Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton’s score. Not only does it enhance the moments it also adds the perfect atmosphere to the already striking visuals.
As the franchise continues through the next decade, the repeated formula continues to work to some extent. By the fourth film, the tropes set in and get tiresome. What originally made the first Lethal Weapon so brilliant gets watered down, and the balance between the action, suspense, and humor gets completely out of whack, and everything suffers because of it.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love the entire franchise. I have my issues with the subsequent films in the series; however, on the whole, they make for an entertaining watch, and each film has its high points.
This new 4k release, complete with the original theatrical release as well as the 2000 “director’s cut“ (which features 7 minutes that show more of Riggs’ suicidal tendencies and Riggs and Murtagh’s personality differences). In. addition there are two new featurettes, a “Remembering Dick Donner” tribute and a retrospective documentary “I’m Too Old for This…”: A Chemistry That Became Iconic
It is hard for me to recommend Mel Gibson-related projects. His being so problematic is such a non-starter for many, and I completely understand. It sucks because he has been in some fantastic films. I do still recommend this one, though, because the whole is much greater than the part that is Mel Gibson.
As my dad used to say, “That Legal Weapon is a good pitchah, Benjamin. Throw it in the VCR.”
And who am I to argue with him?
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