Night Moves Review (Criterion Collection)
“Where were you when Kennedy was shot?”
“Which Kennedy?”
“Any Kennedy”
Gene Hackman’s most nuanced performances, Night Moves is a treat for lovers of film noir and cinema in general.
Hackman plays Harry Moseby, a washed-up footballer turned private eye, hired to track down a missing teenage girl (Melanie Griffith, in her big screen debut). But what begins as a standard missing person case quickly spirals into a labyrinthine mystery involving a criminal conspiracy, and eventually, murder.
While the many tributes to Hackman celebrated his iconic performances in The French Connection, The Conversation, and Unforgiven, this quietly brilliant turn was sadly neglected. He gives an introspective, understated performance as someone fiercely intelligent but unable to communicate. Tough, masculine, but also startlingly vulnerable. Some have dismissed Harry as simply a bad detective, citing how he fails to even notice that his wife is having an affair. But the truth is more complex: he’s not incompetent, but his investigations are driven more by instinct than deduction, and as a result, he’s too trusting of first impressions, too focused on surface details. Much like the historical chess games he obsessively reconstructs, Harry can’t see the bigger picture until it’s too late. He isn’t a classic noir antihero; he’s just a man slowly realizing he’s out of his depth, but it’s that very human, fumbling quality that makes him such a compelling protagonist.
The ing cast is superb. Jennifer Warren is great as an unconventional kind of femme fatale, with the demeanour of Humphrey Bogart. In a more modern film she might be the protagonist, but for her ambiguous, fluid morality she’s cast in a more shady role here. Melanie Griffith and James Woods also make an impression in early, memorable appearances that marked them for stardom, while Edward Binns delivers a surprisingly layered performance as a stuntman-turned-director who aids in the investigation.
Penn isn’t spoken about all that much nowadays, but he’s another of those auteurs who was constantly playing around with genre conventions and subverting the expectations of his audience. In this film, he wanted to tell a detective story where the final resolution is only shown, with virtually no exposition, something he is able to accomplish thanks to the talents of master editor Dede Allen. And this all culminates in that final fateful scene, where we put together the mystery at the same time as Harry.
And what a final scene that is. It’s one of the most disturbing, haunting endings I’ve seen. The reveal of the murderer is one of the best examples of a twist that catches you completely off-guard and yet seems so obvious in hindsight. From the moment we see the face of the killer, we are forced into the same position as Harry, frantically trying to work out the sequence of events – and what makes the film work so well is how seamless this resolution is – once you have the answer you can piece it all together without the explanation. There are no words in the final scene, just a dawning comprehension on Hackman’s face as the pieces finally lock into place. Penn ensures we learn the truth at the same moment Harry does, forcing us to work it out visually, without spoon-feeding the audience. It’s a testament to his confidence as a storyteller, giving the film a distinctly modern feel.
Alan Sharp’s script is unapologetically aimed at cinephiles, loaded with allusions to classic cinema, from Humphrey Bogart (“Go on hit me, that’s what Sam Spade would do”), Lillian Gish, and Eric Rohmer. He brings a slyly subversive edge to a familiar genre. While the film’s closest contemporaries would be revisionist noir like Chinatown and The Long Goodbye, Sharp takes his cue from a very specific subset of film-noir set away from the looming cityscapes – films like Key Largo, The Breaking Point and To Have And Have Not and especially the films of John Huston, whose recurring themes of masculinity, existentialism and obsession were a clear influence on Penn.
Night Moves also carries the melancholic weight of its era. The disillusionment of Watergate, the Kennedys, the Munich Olympics (which Penn was present at while filming a documentary) all hang heavy over the film. And yet, the tone is never oppressive – there’s a breezy looseness to the film’s first half that makes its descent into darkness all the more chilling.
This wasn’t Penn’s last great film, (the similarly underrated The Missouri Breaks would follow one year later) but Night Moves still has the feel of a swan song. Not just for a man, or a case, but for a whole worldview slowly falling apart. It’s one of the best, most underappreciated films of it’s time.
On Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray from April 28th / Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Melanie Griffith, Edward Binns / Dir. Arthur Penn / Criterion Collection / 18
Special Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New audio commentary by Matthew Asprey Gear, author of Moseby Confidential
- New audio interview with actor Jennifer Warren
- Interview with director Arthur Penn from a 1975 episode of Cinema Showcase
- Interview with Penn from the 1995 documentary Arthur Penn: A Love Affair with Film
- The Day of the Director, a behind-the-scenes featurette
- PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Harris
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