Auteur archieven: Jeppe Kleijngeld

Streets of Fire

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘A Rock & Roll Fable’

Director: Walter Hill
Written by: Larry Gross, Walter Hill
Cast: Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis, Willem Dafoe

Year / Country: 1984, USA
Running Time: 90 mins.

Walter Hill, who brought us many cinematic treats during the 1980s, now delivers a rock & roll fable. Streets of Fire makes a fitting companion piece to Hill’s own cult classic The Warriors. It offers an unusual mix of action, musical, and romance. The idea behind it – from Hill, screenwriter Larry Gross, and producers Joel Silver and Lawrence Gordon – was to create ‘the perfect film for teenagers’. They only partially succeeded.

Tom Cody (Michael Paré) is a badass who once had a love affair with Ellen Aim (Diane Lane), a rock goddess. She’s kidnapped during a benefit concert by a biker gang led by the strange and menacing Raven (Willem Dafoe). Cody agrees to rescue her, but since he feels she abandoned him for her career, he demands a reward from her suave agent and current boyfriend, Billy Fish (Rick Moranis). Cody also brings along the tough, hard-drinking McCoy, played by Amy Madigan in a role that strongly resembles Holly Hunter.

What follows is a fairly enjoyable ride that – unfortunately – holds only a few surprises. The dialogue and art direction are pretty fantastic, but the film lacks intensity. Not one situation in the screenplay is fully exploited for drama or tension. Had more of these opportunities been seized, this could have been a dream of a movie. As it stands, it’s just an entertaining action flick – nothing more.

Streets of Fire was poorly received both commercially and critically. It was released as a major blockbuster but failed to turn a profit. Still, it retains a cult following, thanks in part to its soundtrack featuring original songs by Ry Cooder, Stevie Nicks, and Tom Petty. It was intended to be the first in a trilogy of action films starring Michael Paré as Tom Cody, but due to its disappointing box office performance, it never got to that.

Rating:

Biography: Walter Hill (1942, California) has been an active member of the Hollywood community since 1967 when he became a 2nd assistant director. Ever since, he has produced, written and directed a significant number of movies. He once said in an interview that he considers all the films that he directed as westerns. If you look closely, you can see western touches, such as revolvers, Winchester rifles and cowboy hats in all of his work. Hill frequently works with character actors James Remar, David Patrick Kelly, Brion James and Ed O’Ross.

Filmography (a selection): Hard Times (1975), The Driver (1978), The Warriors (1979), The Long Riders (1980), Southern Comfort (1981), 48 Hrs. (1982), Streets of Fire (1984), Brewster’s Millions (1985), Crossroads (1986), Extreme Prejudice (1987), Red Heat (1988), Johnny Handsome (1989), Another 48 Hrs. (1990), Tales from the Crypt (1989-91, TV-episodes), Trespass (1992), Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Wild Bill (1995), Last Man Standing (1995), Deadwood (2004, TV-episode), Broken Trail (2006, TV), Dead for a Dollar (2022)

The Warriors

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘Warriors! Come out to play!’

Director: Walter Hill
Written by: David Shaber, Walter Hill
Cast: Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright, David Patrick Kelly

Year / Country: 1979, USA
Running Time: 89 mins.

Under the glow of neon lights, a bloody war takes place within New York’s underworld. The armies of the night are 100.000 heads strong, five times bigger than the entire police force. But instead of taking over the city, they are fighting each other. Cyrus, leader of major gang ‘The Riffs’, wants to unite the gangs and calls for a meeting. Nine representatives of each gang come to listen to Cyrus’ takeover plans.

But it is not meant to be. The insane leader of a small gang called the Rogues blows Cyrus away. ‘For no reason. He just likes doing things like that.’ Another small group called the Warriors get wrongfully accused of the attack and have to run for their lives. It is going to be a dark, long night riddled in fear. Not only do they get the police on their case, 100.000 bloodthirsty gang members are looking for them as well. Will all the Warriors make it back to their home base in Coney Island?

Based on the novel by Sol Yurick, Walter Hill has delivered an action film that shows a subculture involved in a gang war around Coney Island. The Warriors have to fight for life or death within an immense asphalt jungle. Only loyalty in the group can lead them to survival. But this is easier said than done. After all in any group, like in a bunch of chimps, leadership conflicts arise. So besides having to deal with gangs and police, they also have to overcome internal problems.

Can we dig it? Yes, we can. The Warriors is a cult classic. The minimalist plot works to the film’s advantage, because the focus lies on art-direction and creating tension, two elements that are executed extremely well. All the gangs look amazing. So does their environment. The tension comes mainly from the fight- and chase scenes, in which the Warriors make one narrow escape after another.

For fact fans, here are the names of all the major gangs; The Baseball Furies, The Blackjacks, The Boppers, The Electric Eliminators, The Fire Tasters, The High Hats, The Jones Street Boys, The Lizzies, The Moon Runners, The Orphans, The Punks, The Riffs, The Roques, The Saracens, The Satan’s Mothers, The Savage Huns, The Turnball AC’s, The Van Courtland Rangers, The Warriors, The Zodiacs.

Rating:

Biography: Walter Hill (1942, California) has been an active member of the Hollywood community since 1967 when he became a 2nd assistant director. Ever since, he has produced, written and directed a significant number of movies. He once said in an interview that he considers all the films that he directed as westerns. If you look closely, you can see western touches, such as revolvers, Winchester rifles and cowboy hats in all of his work. Hill frequently works with character actors James Remar, David Patrick Kelly, Brion James and Ed O’Ross.

Filmography (a selection): Hard Times (1975), The Driver (1978), The Warriors (1979), The Long Riders (1980), Southern Comfort (1981), 48 Hrs. (1982), Streets of Fire (1984), Brewster’s Millions (1985), Crossroads (1986), Extreme Prejudice (1987), Red Heat (1988), Johnny Handsome (1989), Another 48 Hrs. (1990), Tales from the Crypt (1989-91, TV-episodes), Trespass (1992), Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Wild Bill (1995), Last Man Standing (1995), Deadwood (2004, TV-episode), Broken Trail (2006, TV), Dead for a Dollar (2022)

This is the Significant Moment When Everything Went to Hell for America

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

America is turning into an autocracy very fast. Every week there are new lows – like last week the arrest of a judge and the week before that Trump (He/him) regime’s refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison camp – despite the supreme court ordering them to do so.

Of the 71 million Americans who voted him in office, some might be wondering; how did we get here? I’ll argue that one significant moment played a key role in creating this disaster.

On the eve of the election day, on October 26, 2024, the extremely popular podcaster Joe Rogan interviewed Trump. I couldn’t bear to listen to his horse crap, but I recently watched one minute of the three hour interview on YouTube. In the fragment, Trump asked Rogan: “Come on, you’re not a Harris guy”.

And you see Rogan thinking: ‘shit, this guy is right. I am not a Harris guy’. Joe Rogan is manipulated at the spot. He lets himself be fooled by this con man. After that, he lets Trump get away with blatant lies about the 2020 election, which looks very bad for his interview ethos. I stopped viewing right after that.

What I took away from this short moment is that Trump – terrible person that he is – has at least one ‘quality’ that enabled him to become the 47th president of the USA: he knows just what to say to people to make them vote for him.

Of course this won’t work with everybody, but then again, he didn’t need everybody. He needed 71 million voters. He already had his loyal fan base secured, so he had to convince millions of others to vote for him. He and his campaign team put in all their efforts to convince right leaning people like Rogan to go for the Orange Turd. They were successful.

After the show, Rogan did something he had previously said he wouldn’t do: he endorsed Trump. With his immense reach amongst people for whom Rogan is their single source of news – tragic as this may be – he may have decided the fate of the United States.

How will he feel now, three months after Trump took office, and the country is sliding fastly into an authoritarian regime?

What we are watching right now might be the End of the American Empire.

The country is ruled by a mad king. Trump’s cabinet meetings are excruciatingly horrifying to watch. Every cabinet member that speaks, including Musk, first praises Trump for the absolutely brilliant leader that he is. And what an incredible honor it is to serve in his cabinet.

Then they proceed to tell absurd bullshit to cover up for their criminal actions. In the last cabinet meeting, Musk – in full Dr. Evil mode – bullshits about how he found 150 billion dollars in waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. He says that ‘people are receiving social security that aren’t even born yet.’

This is just too much bullshit to handle.

Everybody knows how he is going to get this 150 billion. He will do it by slashing social security, medicaid, and other programmes for the poor – and recklessly fire tens of thousands of essential government employees. And Trump is gonna let him do it. The money saved will be given to billionaires like them as a tax cut.

Some still consider Trump a brilliant businessman, but he’s terrible in business – and that’s a fact. I mean, he bankrupted a casino once. Now, he’s going to bankrupt the country. He’s a fuck-up and a major fraudster.

The financial markets – who foolishly believed Trump would be good for business before – have now realised the terrible truth. Trump is so totally unstable and deranged that the risk for the world economy (countries, companies, currencies, and debt) is great. They finally realised, just like some voters did, that having a psychopathic gangster in charge of the largest economy in the world, might be bad for business.

It would have been exactly the same if they would have handed the reigns of the American government to Vladimir Putin or Kim Jung Un. That’s what the American’s did who voted this nut job into the White House.

Thank you, Joe Rogan.

Now maybe I am thinking too much of his endorsement. On the other hand, Trump thanked Rogan especially at his inauguration. Imagine that; that you would be responsible by having a cruel psycho elected who would then go on to create terrible suffering for millions of people. Who would send innocent people to an El Salvadorian prison camp to be tortured.

I have no idea how he feels about it, but this is a wound that he will have to live with. The same goes for all Americans, whether they voted for Trump or not. This is a national trauma and it will take decades to recover from it.

But first, they will have to remove Trump from office. Can it be done?

It will be very hard, that’s for sure. And even if they succeed, they will have a massive challenge waiting for them.

Let’s say they’ll have a revolution and remove Trump from office, will the two sides – the MAGA and the WOKE – reconcile and together restore the damage the Trump regime has caused? Will they think: ‘let’s go look at the root causes of this whole thing? Where did we go wrong? What laws are we going to introduce together to make sure something like this never happens again?’

The probability that this will happen is very small. Trump is a very severe symptom of a lethal disease: a mind virus that once it spreads through society – enhanced by anti-social media and AI – makes the country divided and ungovernable.

To stop this mind virus, we – the world – must regulate social media and AI. With AI becoming more powerful every day, we need to move fast to prevent every other democracy from sliding off the rails in the coming years and decades.

This will not be an easy feat – and America is in terrible shape. Still, the possibility also exists that the right leaders arise out of this sink hole and put the country on the right course again. A crisis can do that sometimes.

Right now, the crisis is not yet big enough. There are still many people, inside and outside of the USA, deluded by Trump and think it might not be so bad. But if enough people conclude: ‘this is not what we want’ and start fighting back in every way they can, it might bring about a new era of hopeful change.

Is this the end for the USA of merely the passage into a new prosperous era? Only time will tell.

The Worst Dealmaker in the World

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

AI-GENERATED POLITICAL CARTOONS: Ghibli-style cartoon of Putin and Trump cutting and dividing a cake as a symbol of Ukraine.

In the early days of his young presidency, Donald Trump’s cabinet members couldn’t stop praising his dealmaking skills. I think it was his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who said Trump was probably the only person in the universe who could negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Lately, it’s been a little quieter on that front. Now that America is heading towards a recession and trillions in stock market value have been wiped out thanks to Trump’s tariffs, it’s hard to argue that he’s a great dealmaker – especially since he hasn’t secured a single trade deal to make up for the carnage he caused. How embarrassing.

During the campaign, Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours – a promise anyone with half a brain could see was complete nonsense. After all, to negotiate a successful deal, you need information about the other party that’s hard to come by. Trump doesn’t know anything about the conflict, and he doesn’t care either way. He just wants them to stop fighting and freeze the conflict as it stands. In other words: he wants to reward Putin for starting a war of aggression by handing him over occupied Ukrainian land. And when Zelensky refuses, Trump blames him for the war. Anyone can end a conflict by rewarding the bully and punishing the victim.

The USA has made it clear in the past week that they want both Russia and Ukraine to agree to a peace deal. In this proposed deal, only Ukraine is expected to make significant concessions – like giving up large swaths of land. Russia, on the other hand, is rewarded with the lifting of Western sanctions. If they don’t agree, the USA will simply walk away from the conflict.

J.D. Vance said the USA has engaged in “an extraordinary amount of diplomacy”. That’s total crap. What did they actually do? First, they sent an amateur delegation to Saudi Arabia to meet with Russia’s hardened negotiation team. The main topic of discussion? Restoring economic relations with the USA. Before that, Pete ‘Bourbon Pete’ Hegseth – already the worst Minister of Defense of all time – gave away all of Ukraine’s bargaining chips before negotiations even began.

Trump also proposed a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, which Zelensky agreed to – only for Putin to reject it without facing any consequences. More recently, the USA sent another amateur diplomat to Russia, special envoy Steve Witkoff, who praised Vladimir Putin in glowing terms as such a nice and trustworthy guy – while women and children are being raped and murdered in Ukraine under Putin’s orders.

Through all this so-called “extraordinary diplomacy”, the Trump regime hasn’t made a single demand of Putin – the aggressor in the conflict. Not one. What it has done is try to extort Ukraine – the victim – out of its rare earth minerals and natural resources. That effort failed, too.

You don’t have to understand negotiations to know this is the lowest level of dealmaking imaginable. It’s not even a serious attempt. It’s obvious that Trump wants nothing more than a cozy relationship with Putin, whom he so deeply admires. He couldn’t care less about what happens to Ukraine.

At this point, a few things are crystal clear. First, Trump is a terrible dealmaker who doesn’t understand history. Second, there’s clearly some kind of relationship between Trump and Putin, the nature of which remains mysterious. Is Trump just a fan of Putin’s authoritarian style – or is he a Russian asset?

Finally, it’s time for Europe to take the lead in Ukraine and step up efforts to pressure Putin and ensure a long-term Ukrainian victory. In its current state, America is a useless friend and ally. Let them first get rid of the disaster that is Trump – then, maybe, we can be friends again. Until then, it’s best they get out of the way.