ANGEL HEART / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ALAN PARKER / STARRING: MICKEY ROURKE, ROBERT DE NIRO, LISA BONET / RELEASE DATE: 14TH OCTOBER
Angel Heart belongs to a group of films which failed to find an audience back in the 80s, thanks in part to reviews which suggested that they were all style and no content, films such as The Hunger and Blade Runner. Like those films, Angel Heart is a striking visual experience, a noirish thriller in which the cinematography and production design play as significant a role as the script and performances. And, like those films, it’s now considered to be something of a genre classic. It’s an obvious choice for 4K restoration, and this new release provides a great chance to see the film in all its glorious, sweaty, bloody, hot, cold and sordid detail.
Micky Rourke, at the height of his attractiveness as a dangerous, unpredictable screen presence, stars a 1950s private dick, hired by the elegant and mysterious Robert De Niro to find a missing man who owes him a debt. But a trail of grisly murders takes Rourke across New York and New Orleans, deep into the southern heartland of voodoo territory until the supernatural elements that have been leading events hurtle Rourke towards a hellish climax.
While what’s actually going on in Angel Heart doesn’t take Hercule Poirot to figure out – you’ll see the twist coming a mile off – the journey towards it is a thrilling, twisty, superbly-composed one. The film simply looks stunning, director Alan Parker allowing every noir opportunity and cliche into his visual palette. Parker has always been a strong visual storyteller, much like his contemporaries the Scott brothers, and never mores than in Angel Heart.
As a horror film, it’s not exactly terrifying but it still grips, the detective elements of the story and the array of interesting characters propelling you along. Rourke, De Niro and a young Lisa Bonet are superb (one particularly effective scene mixing sex, blood and violence ran into considerable censorship trouble back in the day), making Angel Heart an essential part of any genre fan’s collection.
With this new release comes a host of extras, only a few offering anything new from previous releases. There are a tiny number of glimpses behind the scenes plus a stills gallery, a curious documentary about voodoo, and, best of all, a commentary from Parker plus a lovely recent interview with him. Parker hasn’t made a film since 2003 so it’s safe to say he’s retired. This new release of provides the chance to evaluate where Angel Heart sits within his impressive cannon – from hits like Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Fame and The Commitments to smaller works of great beauty like Shoot the Moon and Birdy (why does nobody talk about that film any more?).
Angel Heart sits somewhere in the middle of Parker’s career and proves, quite literally, that with this director, the devil really is in the detail.
