A bird on a tightrope

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Movie
German title A bird on a tightrope
Original title Bird on a Wire
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1990
length 110 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director John Badham
script Louis Venosta ,
Eric Lerner
production Rob Cohen
music Hans Zimmer
camera Robert Primes
cut Frank Morriss ,
Dallas Puett
occupation

Bird on a Wire is an American action comedy from the year 1990 by John Badham with Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn in the lead roles.

action

Marianne Graves is a successful New York lawyer and is happy with her boyfriend Paul. When she has to go to Detroit on business , she makes a stop at Marvin Larson's gas station . She believes that in his employee Billy Ray Bowers she recognized her former life partner Rick Jarmin , who died 15 years ago in a plane crash. Billy Ray denies this - even though he is actually Rick, who was believed to be dead.

At the same time, the gangster Eugene Sorensen is released from prison and picked up by his boss and partner Albert Diggs . After a meeting with Colombian drug dealers, they both have a million dollar deal with the South Americans . To do this, however, Jarmin must first be eliminated.

It turns out that Jarmin is under the protection of a government witness protection program. After meeting Marianne, he feels startled and asks the FBI for a new identity and a different location. Rick notices that his old clerk and confidante Lou Baird has now retired and has been replaced by the opaque Joe Weyburn . After initial hesitation, Rick confides in this and reveals his name and location. What he does not know: Weyburn works with Sorenson and Diggs without being recognized, passes on Jarmin's whereabouts to them and deletes his files.

When the gangsters want to kill Rick in the gas station that evening, Marianne happens to be around too, and she still has doubts. Through her help, Jarmin escapes and confesses to her to be Rick. During the action, Marvin is both killed and the gas station destroyed. Sorenson and Diggs set a feint that Rick portrays as the murderer of Marvin.

Since Weyburn can access almost all computer systems, he is able to quickly find Rick and Marianne in their hotel. After the former couple managed to avoid an ambush there and a police arrest for the murder of Marvin, Rick has only one chance left to guarantee both his and Marianne's safety: he has to track down Lou.

On the way to Racine , where he once went into hiding, Rick tells Marianne the whole story: 15 years ago he and his mutual friend Jamie (brother of Marianne Graves) fell into the hands of Sorenson and Diggs during a small drug offense. Both were corrupt drug enforcement officers at the time and, with the charges still pending , forced them to transport drugs by plane from Mexico . On arrival there was a shooting with the police, which the investigators had already monitored. Diggs managed to escape while Sorenson shot and arrested Jamie in a scuffle. Rick got away with it, but had to testify as a key witness against Sorenson and go into hiding.

In Racine, where Rick used to have an identity as a hairdresser, he hopes to find his old notebook with contact information for Lou. Since he is still in the chalk with his boss Raun at the time, he has to trigger the book. During the bank transaction, they are targeted by the police through Weyburn's electronic manipulation. There is a chase through the city, where Rick and Marianne escape on a motorcycle and also get the book.

Rick finally finds out where Lou is: with his sister Molly in St. Louis . Since he has been tortured by a gunshot wound since the gas station shooting, the two of them have to stop at the veterinarian Rachel for medical treatment . Rick once lived here and had a relationship with Rachel, which is why Marianne - who Rick still loves - is foaming with jealousy. Before the situation escalates, there is another attempted assassination, which the couple escapes on an airplane.

After several quarrels that lead to mutual rapprochement, Rick and Marianne finally get to Lou. He now has a small job in the city zoo , but suffers from memory gaps and hardly recognizes Rick anymore. To make matters worse, Marianne informed Paul of her fate, who unsuspectingly passed this on to Weyburn, whereby the alarmed gangsters also reach Lou's house. At the last moment he remembers Rick and gives him the tip to go into hiding in the zoo, where he worked back then.

Rick and Marianne lure Sorenson and Co. onto the premises and try to take them out with stunning weapons. In a tropical show complex populated by alligators , piranhas , lions and tigers , the showdown finally takes place, in which Diggs and Weyburn fall victim to the wild animals. Sorenson fights against Rick on a suspension bridge and eventually dies after being electrocuted.

Rick and Marianne are reunited and in the end travel on a sailing yacht ( Mister Wiggly ) towards a life together.

Soundtracks

  • Bird On A Wire, Written by Leonard Cohen, Produced by DAStewart, Performed by The Neville Brothers
  • Blowin 'In The Wind, Written and Performed by Bob Dylan
  • Ramblin 'Man, Written by Dickey Betts (as Forrest R. Betts), Performed by The Allman Brothers Band
  • Get Your Face Off My Gas, Written and Performed by Luis Jardim
  • Fantan Fandango, Written and Performed by Luis Jardim

Reviews

Roger Ebert criticized the characters in the film as "untrustworthy" in the Chicago Sun-Times of May 18, 1990.

“Perfectly staged action comedy, which has to offer little surprises again and again within the very familiar genre and shows in a playful way that not only the woman has to stand 'her man' in rough life, but also the man has to face life got to."

- Lexicon of international film

Trivia

  • The title of the film is based on the song Bird on the Wire by Leonard Cohen . In the cover version of the Neville Brothers he forms the main theme of the soundtrack.
  • When Sorenson was released from prison, he wore dirty linen clothes with no undershirt, had long hair and had no shoes. This is a throwback to David Carradine's role as Kwai Chang Caine in the television series Kung Fu , which made him famous. In the background you can hear Age of Aquarius from the hippie musical Hair , which fits both his appearance and the time when Kung Fu was popular.
  • In contrast to most films, Mel Gibson is dubbed by Joachim Tennstedt instead of Elmar Wepper , who later also lent Gibson in Maverick - The Colt on the Belt, An Ace Up Your Sleeve and Bounty - One Will Pay His Voice.
  • Joan Severance and Mel Gibson were already in Lethal Weapon - Two tough professionals together in front of the camera.
  • According to Weyburn's computer, Rick Jarmin's aliases were:
    • Gordon Connover, Atlantic City, New Jersey, escort service
    • David Putnam, Hollywood, California, Columbia Pictures employee
    • Nelson Poole, Cambridge, Massachusetts, salesman
    • Jean De Forett, Presque Island, Maine, lumberjack
    • Harding Bennett, Cleveland, Ohio, salesman in photo store
    • Monte Archer, Miami, Florida, seller in bikini shop
    • Matthew Carlson, Racine, Wisconsin, Barber
    • Jodie Turnbull, Loyal, Wisconsin, Vet Farm Worker
    • Harvey Lightner, no further known
    • St. Louis Zoo employee, name not known
    • Billy Ray Bowers, Detroit, Michigan, auto mechanic

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by Roger Ebert
  2. ↑ A bird on a tightrope. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used