stevegordon9 This Frankenheimer film is beautifully done. Jerry Beck is a troubled cop whose journey across states after a neo-Nazi killer also becomes a personal journey of self-discovery. The cast, headed by Don Johnson, is wonderfully played by all and even includes Evans Evans, John Frankenheimer's wife and widow, in a chilling performance. (Yes,you read right, her name is really Evans Evans and she was married to JF for 39 years as well as being a terrific character actress mainly through the 1960s and 1970s.) There are many other cast surprises in what is a surprisingly grippingly tense and efficient thriller. This is a great Frankenheimer film, right up there with his best. I cannot speak too highly about Don Johnson and the Nazi villain of the piece. They give this film both tension and comic relief in what are beautifully measured performances. This is an 80s classic by one of cinema's great directors.

jzappa There's a specific brand of cop in film and on TV that apparently appeals to audiences. Typically, he's alienated from his family because he's too dedicated to his job and consumes too much of his time doing it and not enough with them. Or debasing brutality has taken too big a chunk out of his consciousness for him to frequent the society of women and children. Generally, he eats three meals of pizza or Chinese and drinks like a fish. The company he keeps does nothing for his lexicon. And the first thing everybody tells him is that he looks terrible. In Dead Bang, Don Johnson plays this classic brand of cop, to a tee.Has anyone ever made a movie about a good cop who is neurotically orderly? The one perhaps determining stroke contributed by Dead Bang is a scene in which the inebriated investigator heaves onto a suspect. His name is Beck and on Christmas Eve he's designated to probe the murder of another LA cop. He produces the name of a freshly paroled offender apparently affiliated with a disheveled band of white supremacists.There are a few rows and gunfights, and a Fed overplayed by William Forsythe imposes himself. Also, due to his wreckless ways, which appear somewhat restrained relative to that of most movie cops, Beck is ordered by the chief to obtain permission from a police shrink or be removed from the case. However since Michael Jeter's counselor resembles Woody Allen, Beck breaks up and the doctor grows annoyed and the opportunity of remaining on the case seems remote, that is till Beck has a very unclinical, clear-cut and inhospitable talk with the slightly built fellow.Near the beginning, there's an unwanted detour in which Beck beds Penelope Ann Miller who, unbeknownst to him, was the wife of the murdered cop. But when he faces her with the information, that's all and she never appears again. From then on out it's all boys, and there is some inexplicably evocative dialogue in which Beck and his contemporaries talk about "going through doors" together. Beck says there's only one thing that counts: Is there anyone who'd be afraid to go through a door with him? And later, his police chief replies, "I want you to know that I'd go through a door with you anytime." Johnson's eyes look aloof, but he's got some presence here, doing the work and really deriving something appealing out of the formula. As the burdensome G-man, Forsythe is the essence of trivial-mindedness. At one point, he looks at a shivering Beck with gravitas and says, "You didn't bring a cold-weather coat? What's wrong with you?" Also, Bob Balaban, as a whipped parole officer, and Tim Reid, as a local police chief, give their roles some punch.However, what the audience sees, actually, are a couple of white-supremacist psychopaths with a fixation on racial purity and homemade apple tarts. Their main advocates are a handful of dim-witted Hell's Angels sorts who, when they need funds, raid the Mexican bar right next door, kill everyone in it and then are astonished when the authorities appear. John Frankenheimer's control is tight enough but quite mechanical: He sustains the action but doesn't furnish much character. Then again, Robert Foster's script is speckled with crumbs of peculiarity, practically all of them minor. Frankenheimer, the director of three of the most sharply honed and deeply affecting conspiracy movies ever made, is also responsible for some of the more negligible.

hduck1 What kind of mentality writes this stuff? As much as I like Don Johnson and enjoy seeing him, I thought this story was pitiful. A handful of local cops with one FBI agent go after a compound of white supremacists? Yeah sure. Feds would have been there with tanks and flame throwers and snipers and an army of shooters. Grrr The writers or producers must have had an agenda. They don't seem to see too clearly. When you feel like you are being manipulated, you may be. I would like to see a more truthful, more balanced presentation of this subject. I haven't read the story in its original form, and it could be that the producers have messed with the story until it is one-sided beyond belief.

glinskym Don Johnson is pretty decent in this (and I'm a fan), though you could see the whole idea was to take the Crockett character from Miami Vice and make him a down-and-outer, to take away all the expensive trappings he had on Miami Vice.The biggest plot hole is that the bad guy kills a cop at the beginning of the movie, pretty much on Christmas Eve. Yet there is no big mobilization of the LA police force to catch the killer, just Beck going after him alone. In every other movie I've ever seen, and pretty much in real life, if a cop is killed in cold blood like this character was, every cop is going to be after the killer.Then, when the rural OK sheriff's cars are shot up with automatic weapons, and the downtown is blown up in a huge shootout with the bad guys, again, no-one really seems to interested. Not the LA police force, not the FBI that much. Usually these kind of egregious acts of violence get pretty big play in the media and with law enforcement types. So that whole premise was rather hard to swallow, although it says it's based on a true story.Interesting cameo by the porno star Ron Jeremy as one of the bikers. Several of the cast were on Miami Vice at one time or another.