CORPORATE LINE: Otto (Emilio Estevez) is a Los Angeles punk, a loser with no direction and no role models. But he discovers a code of honor and higher purpose when he joins a select group of latter-day knights: the repo men. As a fledging apprentice, Otto slowly learns the ways of these high-caliber, overmedicated auto repossessors. And when a $20,000 bounty is placed on a mysterious missing car, Otto eludes the police, feds, religious cultists, and other repo men in a frantic search for this holy grail. Could one man’s destiny lie in the back of a 1964 Chevy Malibu? Alex Cox’s feature-film debut boasts a clever, satirical script that combines the larger-than-life edginess of urban L.A. with a bizarre array of science-fiction conspiracy theories. The film also features a strong soundtrack by an array of early 1980s punk and new wave bands and a terrific lead performance by Estevez.
THE REVIEW: The Repo Man was indie before it was cool to be indie. This was the quintessential punk rock style on celluloid. As bizarre as much of Repo Man, its independent look and feel puts out an aura of false truth.
Seeing Repo Man as a kid was much more profound than seeing it today. It’s odd how a film at the time could get an almost teen into punk rock and seeking something more than what they are taught or told to think. Repo Man isn’t revolutionary now—but twenty years ago it did more than movies that claimed to be revolutionary. Interestingly, Repo Man has more depth than guys stealing back cars—kind of like Fight Club.
THE EXTRAS:
Commentary by: Writer/Director Alex Cox, Executive Producer Michael Nesmith, Casting Director Victoria Thomas, Actors Sy Richardson, Zander Schloss and Del Zamora.
“Up Close with Harry Dean Stanton” – Stanton acts as if he’d rather be anywhere but sitting there discussing the film. As bizarre as the interview seems it’s interesting from beginning to end—maybe because Stanton always seems to be in his own realm and we just want to be there for one minute.
“Repossessed” – An extremely interesting featurette with discussions from the director talking about firing Stanton for being difficult and how they found Emilio Estevez.
“The Missing Scenes” – There are some interesting deleted scenes which are a lot of fun to see.
FRANKLY: For those who see Repo Man for the first time might not enjoy it as much as those of us who have seen it before. It’s not quite a classic and was more interesting and important in context of that era. Today it feels almost a bit stale because so many movies have been made since that have copied it’s sense of irony and the grittiness. In context Repo Man was every bit as revolutionary as Fight Club.
+ Charlie Craine
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