I just thought I'd add a few words about this great movie. First of all, it is great, and I hope you reading this will side with the large number of positive reviews and see this movie. The few people who didn't like it must be pinheads (or short attention span types)!
*** Spoiler Alert *** This movie is not new, so I don't feel shy about discussing some spoiler type info.
Louis Cyphre = Lucifer; this should be easy, and tipped me right at the beginning the first time I saw the movie. But I still wasn't sure until the scene a little later where Mr. Cyphre says that in some cultures, the egg is the symbol of the soul. He then proceeds to eat the egg (hard boiled), in a creepy shot. He eats souls! At this point I said to one of the guys I was seeing the movie with "he's the devil!"
To those who may be confused by the details of the soul-switching scenario, and why the devil took so long to come after Harry Angel/Johnny Favorite: the ceremony they performed back at the beginning of WWII was to give up Harry Angel's soul in substitution for Johnny Favorite's, thus cheating the devil. Then Johnny was going to take on Harry Angel's life and escape the devil indefinitely. But then Johnny was shipped off to war, got a head wound and amnesia, and ended up really thinking he was Harry Angel (okay, I'm a little unclear on this bit, but I haven't seen the movie in a couple of years). So what it comes down to is, Harry Angel is really Johnny Favorite, even though he doesn't know it. And since he is, and his soul belongs to the devil, Lucifer can command him to commit murders, even without his conscious knowledge! This is how Johnny/Harry killed the blues musician, and the astrologer/former girlfriend, and the old addict doctor without even knowing it! And you realize then that the Lisa Bonet character is really his own daughter! One of the only movies I've seen where incest is part of a movie yet not the main point of it.
This movie is just beautifully shot as well. See it in widescreen if you can, Alan Parker always has great shots that deserve it. I remember a shot of a spiral staircase at one point that was just beautiful. And I will never again see a fan in a movie (an electric fan) without thinking of this movie. That's another clue: every time you see a shot of a fan, and the blades start moving, the devil is in the room! It starts right at the beginning, when Angel first meets with Mr Cyphre. It's winter time, but fans are going! (On a side note: isn't it appropriate that the devil has a French name? Given current political feelings, I mean; of course, I'm biased -- an Anglophile -- so I don't like those weasely Frogs to begin with.)
There is so much to recommend this movie that it's hard to pick things: from the humorous touches ("Do you know what today is? It's Wednesday -- it's anything can happen day!" I never was a Mouseketeer, but it's a great reference to the period.) (Also funny: "I got a thing about chickens."); to the great music -- that haunting song, which seems so real, like it was a real song from a crooner of the '40's, as well as the real blues featured in the movie; even the end credit sequence is great, with the elevator cutting back and forth with the credits -- an elevator going straight to hell! The movie also shows a creepy movie version of New Orleans which could seem cliche to some, but is so well done, and fits so well with the period of the movie -- reminds me of another great one, "Southern Comfort," where there's this whole community of Cajuns living in the bayou, just oblivious to the outside world.
I also love movies that blow up the illusion that the past was better than the present. Every culture tries to promulgate that, but it is just resistance to change. The '50's was no happy time, people were just a lot more deluded than they are now.
This is a great movie to watch, a great movie to listen to (I eventually bought the soundtrack), and one with a great story. Alan Parker is one of the sort of underground geniuses of filmmaking. He directed Pink Floyd's The Wall, too. Another great movie of his is "The Road to Wellville," not a mystery, but another period piece, this time about the 19th century (and how squalid it could be), and the exploits of Kellogg, the guy who founded the cereal company. See that one too (it's a lot funnier than "Angel Heart," and stars Matthew Broderick, Bridget Fonda, Anthony Hopkins and Dana Carvey in another overlooked movie. Perhaps not as "great" as "Angel Heart," but still really good)!
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