Clip Art: Angel Heart

Angel Heart (1987)
dir. Alan Parker


It's funny that Mickey Rourke has made a comeback. I was a big fan of his when I was younger and watched Angel Heart over and over. I thought it was such an amazing looking movie and the way noir was melded with witchcraft, voodoo and satanism was just cool. Yes, I did like seeing Lisa Bonet naked, but once you see the entire film and know the whole story it loses a lot of it's sexual appeal, but adds to the disturbing atmosphere.

I'm always shocked when I run into people who haven't seen the film. I thought it was part of growing up. The film was so taboo when it was released I'd have thought everyone saw it. Now there is a whole new generation of people who don't even know about it. They need to be introduced to it now that Rourke is apparently entering the second phase of his career. We can hope he sticks around because he's really good stuff and plays well off of De Niro in this scene.

Portions of this scene were used a lot during it's release, but it's pretty damned fantastic in its entirety. The precision of the direction and how De Niro and Parker use action and editing to punctuate everything he says. Rourke is on the other side of the spectrum with something that is natural and out of place in this type of situation. The bit where he tosses the salt over his shoulder feels so right. It always reminds me of Brando plucking a feather out of the air in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).