Ah, Lethal Weapon. Shane Black's masterpiece...and everybody else involved for that matter from Superman director Richard Donner and Mad Max star Mel Gibson. It's the grand-daddy of buddy movies, a rib hurting comedy, a pulse raising action movie, a warm family drama and a tough-as-nails crime thriller all rolled into one slick ride.
Despite everybody being on the top of their A-game it's Black's endlessly quotable script which pushes this into the stratosphere. While the sequels got progressively weaker, they were never able to top the original story due to the powerful focus on Martin Rigg's suicidal streak and how that's resolved through the family and partner that adopt him. Without that story arc Lethal Weapon would just be another entertaining cop movie (er, Lethal Weapon 2), but by showing the narrative from the perspective of both Riggs and Murtough, we learn to love them and want them to resolve their differences.
Three things that stood out on this, the 750th time, that I've watched the movie:-
1/ The score is a classic. Using Eric Clapton's bluesy guitar to represent Riggs and David Sandborn's laid back sax to represent Murtough, with Michael Kamen's orchestra being the gel that binds them, it gives a new, much needed (in 1987) twist to the tired Lalo Schifren-style cop scores of old.
2/ The shooting range sequence is one of my all time favorite scenes ever. Not only is it essentially there to provide a large exposition dump, it builds the growing camaraderie between the two lawmen as well as providing some of the biggest laughs of the film.
3/ The version I watched was the special edition with many of the early character building scenes reinstated. While they're interesting and fun in the way they set up both Riggs and Murtough (especially a tense school sniper sequence), it ruins the flow of a perfect movie. It's best to watch the theatrical release if you've never caught this flick before.
As with all classics, it's the kind of thing that you want to rewatch the moment it's finished. And I've sure done that a few times back in the late 80's with this beauty.
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