Repo Man (Review)

Repo Man (1984)

Comedy, Crime, Sci-Fi

Directed By: Alex Cox

As a huge movie geek and a die-hard fan of the weird, twisted, out-of-the-box stuff there is no better decade than the eighties. Yeah they had hair metal, disco, and way too much cocaine but underneath all that crap we had a small cinematic revolution. Countless genre films from that decade have grown to have huge cult followings in the movie world and many of them have become quintessential films of the time. One such film is 1984's science fiction thriller Repo Man, directed by Alex Cox and starring a young Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton. The movie plays as a genius social satire and comedy, as well as a great, thrilling science fiction.

Emilio Estevez plays a young, nihilistic, punk lost in the eighties. He hates the way the majority of the world live their lives and he expresses that hate through anarchistic rage. That is until Harry Dean Stanton’s character, a weathered old repo man, recruits his assistance in a small job. The money is decent and he finds the work to be rather enjoyable so he decides to give the repo life a try. It seems like he struck gold on the greatest job around until they begin tracking a mysterious gold Chevy Malibu with a huge price for delivery. They all have plans for what they could do with the big score but it all relies on who finds it first. What they find in their hunt for the car can only be described as otherworldly and beyond our comprehension.

Much in the same vein as John Carpenter's They Live, Repo Man uses a clever and amusing science fiction tale to emphasize a much larger idea. They are alerting us to the fact that the majority of the world has fallen to consumerism and societal parameters and that because of this; hidden agendas and secrets are able to be hidden from the masses. I always love the scene where Emilio comes into his house asking if they have any food and proceeds to remove a can from the fridge simply labeled 'Food'. It represents a society that doesn't think for themselves and instead relies on someone else to tell them the right way to live. For a movie made in 1984 the message seems to echo quite clearly into our modern times.

What makes this movie so quintessential to the eighties is how much it mirrors the actual decade. Even with all the over exaggeration and social satire this movie is a spot on representation of life as a young punk in 1984. Right down to the soundtrack, this featured some of the most popular punk songs of the decade, allowing this film to drop you right into the time. That's not to say this is a pro anarchy movie, this film gives you both sides of the spectrum. Following the young nihilist's old friends throughout the movie we get to see the hypocrisy of a lot of the punk movement in America. They may have preached a big game but many of them resorted to violence and crime in their life, blaming the government for making them that way. This is pointed out in a very on-the-nose fashion, as is much of the other satire of the film.

When watching this film now, what makes it so mesmerizing and inspiring is the dialogue. The effects may not hold up and we may not have too many punks around anymore but the language of this movie fits right into today. Harry Dean Stanton's "ordinary people" monologue is still one of the most impressionable pieces of dialogue I have ever heard in a film. His words have rung through generation after generation and haven't lost an ounce of their meaning. I quite often see it quoted in movies or television, and on the internet. They are speaking to the people that don't follow societies guided path, the ones who live creatively and try to stray from common thought. This is a movie for the thinkers and the open minded, the people who like to think there is more out there for them than the next iPhone coming out.

What Alex Cox created thirty one years ago has inspired film maker after film maker to create art that questions society and that questions our collective way of thinking. He may not have known it then, but he created one of the greatest cult films of the entire eighties. With the help of a young Emilio Estevez and the captivating Harry Dean Stanton this film lives on as strong as it ever has, three decades after its creation. If you are a movie geek and have yet to see this film, track it down immediately (Criterion is having their annual July sale, just saying) because everyone should see this film.

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!