“Trespass” (1992)
Aside from his excellent work on the pilot for “Deadwood,” much of the late 1980s onwards saw diminishing returns from Hill, but there’s one often-overlooked gem right in the middle of that period that deserves a second look: “Trespass.” A script that had been penned years earlier by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, long before they made their names with “Back to the Future,” it centers on two firemen, Vince (Bill Paxton) and Don (William Sadler), who are given a map to hidden gold in an abandoned building in East St Louis. When they go to retrieve it, however, they accidentally witness an execution by a gang led by King James (Ice-T) and his number two, Savon (Ice Cube), who try to off them before going for the gold themselves. They’re only two factions in a complex cast of characters chasing the MacGuffin in a script that consciously nods to “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” and there’s a morality play feel to Zemeckis and Gale’s script that goes as far back as Chaucer. But one shouldn’t read too much into the movie. It’s ultimately an unpretentious B- movie at heart, and one that’s genuinely thrilling, tense and enjoyably mean-spirited throughout, with Hill handling the action in a way that was somewhat lacking in the previous year’s “Another 48 Hrs.” The film also works as a kind of canny time capsule, with Cube and T both at the height of their fame and demonstrating the impressive screen presences that saw them move away from rap to acting. You suspect that if “Bullet to the Head” had antagonists of their charisma (and a script as taut as the one Hill had to work with), people would be a lot more excited about it.
Honorable Mentions: While they don’t have the stripped-down action purity of his very best work, “Extreme Prejudice” and “Johnny Handsome” all have worthwhile elements to them, and his westerns, in “Geronimo: An American Legend” and “Wild Bill” are also admirable in places. His last notable film, “Last Man Standing,” has its charms too, in its 1920s spin on “Yojimbo.” And one shouldn’t forget Hill’s power as a writer and producer, from early gig “The Getaway” (which he was originally meant to co-write with Peter Bogdanovich, before penning it on his own) to his crucial uncredited work, with frequent collaborator David Giler, on the original “Alien.”
Below, a quick exclusive clip from ShoutFactory of Keith Carradine looking back on “Southern Comfort”
–Oliver Lyttelton, Rodrigo Perez, with Jessica Kiang
