Film Review: Malone (1987)
Burt Reynolds, unlike his fellow 1970s action stars like Charles Bronson or Clint Eastwood, struggled to maintain his stardom in 1980s. Attempts to compete with younger and “cooler” action icons usually failed, and one of such attempts was Malone, 1987 film directed by Harley Cokliss.
The film is based on Shotgun, novel by William Wingate, which was, in its essence, a retelling of classic western Shane in modern setting. In the beginning we are introduced to protagonist (played by Burt Reynolds) who uses “Richard Malone” as one of the many aliases necessary for his work as CIA assassin. Through the years he became increasingly disillusioned and recently developed distaste of killing. Despite his friend and colleague Jamie (played by Lauren Hutton) warning him not to do so, he decides to quit and wander through America in his Ford Mustang. One day car breaks down in small town in rural Oregon, but he is being helped by Paul Barlow (played by Scott Wilson) kind-hearted owner of gas station, as well as his teenage daughter Jo (played by Cynthia Gibb). Place looks idyllic, but population is dwindling due to all property being bought by Charles Delaney (played by Cliff Robertson), wealthy and politically well-connected tycoon. Townspeople who, like Barlows, refuse to sell are subjected to all kinds of intimidation and during one of those incidents Malone displays some of his deadly skills in a way to leave strong impression on Delaney. Property tycoon actually wants to take over the town as springboard for much more ambitious project of taking over entire country and cleansing it from “traitors” and “mongrels”. Malone is offered to join Delaney’s small army of dedicated followers, but when he refuses, increasingly violent confrontation becomes inevitable, and Malone’s former superiors from CIA also take notice and dispatch Jamie with orders to permanently solve that problem.
The main problem for Malone is the script by Christopher Frank and Rudy Wurlizer, which isn’t quite successful in melding the classic western plot with setting and motives more likely to appear in 1970s conspiracy thrillers about shadow government. On the other hand, director Harley Cokliss does decent job, makes couple of interesting action scenes and keeps the good pace, except perhaps in the middle section of the film, which also features potentially problematic albeit aborted romantic subplot featuring middle-aged Malone and clearly underaged Jo. Cast is, for the most part, very good, although Burt Reynolds makes serious mistake of basing his performance on Clint Eastwood and his “man of few words and plenty of action” screen persona. Malone could have benefited more from Reynolds’ 1970s screen persona and characters that like to joke and laugh. Reynolds is capable in his role, but clearly not up to his full potential, despite final scene that also features one of the first examples of “walk-from-explosion” trope that would become staple of action films in next few decades. Cliff Robertson as megalomaniacal villain is, on the other hand, also solid but not too memorable. Supporting cast leaves much better impression, especially Scott Wilson and Cynthia Gibb, as well as Kenneth McMillan in the role of corrupt and ineffective sheriff. Music by David Newman, which is obviously inspired by classic western scores, is quite adequate. Malone succumbs to cliches in the second part of the film, which makes finale annoyingly predictable, just like in so many 1980s action films. However, the fans of old school action films would probably appreciate opportunity to watch star like Burt Reynolds even when he is not at his best.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/27342-malone
Critic: AA