Movies - Mulholland Falls

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	Movies - Mulholland Falls

Mulholland Falls is a neo-noir 1996 film directed by Lee Tamahori. Nick Nolte plays Max Hoover, the head of an elite group of four Los Angeles cops (based on the real life "Hat Squad") who stop at nothing to maintain control of their jurisdiction.

Plot

This film starts in the late 40's with the squad of super-corrupt LAPD detectives who murder a man by throwing him off a cliff on Mulholland Drive, which has been nicknamed "Mulholland Falls" for all the men they threw off it. There is no waterfall. Later on the men are called to investigate a suspicious death of a young lady who Max had an affair with (Allison Pond). The evidence shows she fell from a great height, like off a cliff or airplane. Radioactive glass is found in Allison's foot, which leads the DT's to the Nevada Atomic Testing Site, where they illegally break in and investigate. The Dt's find movie films of Allison having sex taken by a secretly hidden camera behind a one way mirror. Allison's Gay friend tells of making the films, but is murdered before he can testify, by a conspiracy. Their investigations leads them to find out about the Atomic Soldiers who were used as guinea pigs for A-Bomb tests. Two of the DT's get too close to the truth and almost wind up just like Allison, being thrown out of a DC-3 by murderous Army officers intent on keeping everything secret. The DT's fight for their lives during a shootout on the plane and with the pilot fatally shot, crash land. Dt. Elleroy Coolidge dies of a bullet wound on the ground. Max cannot reconcile with his wife at the funeral, because she feels betrayed and Heartbroken after seeing a X-rated movie starring Max & Allison. She leaves Max for good and alone in Forrest Lawn Cemetery.

Reactions

Most critics panned the film. The look of the film was praised, including the work of cinematographer Haskell Wexler, but the film was criticized for the misuse of a talented cast and a confusing plot.

In addition, the only relationship to the true-life "Hat Squad" was the theft of the name. LAPD's Robbery-Homicide "Hat Squad" were the elite and least corrupt detective division in any major city in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. While many of their tactics would not pass legal muster today, during the years of the Hat Squad such things as "reading him his rights" were in the future. However, to portray them committing murder is pure fabrication.

Peter Stack writing for the San Francisco Chronicle notes:

Mulholland Falls falls flat a lot. The best of the old noir detective dramas had lively pacing and crisp tough-guy dialogue. This movie seems at times like an exercise in slow motion and in dull, cumbersome writing (the script is by Pete Dexter, who wrote the Rush
screenplay).

Cast

Some of the cast included:

Nick Nolte
as Max Hoover
Melanie Griffith
as Katherine Hoover
Chazz Palminteri
as Elleroy Coolidge
Michael Madsen
as Eddie Hall
Chris Penn
as Arthur Relyea
Treat Williams
as Colonel Nathan Fitzgerald
Jennifer Connelly
as Allison Pond
Daniel Baldwin
as McCafferty
Andrew McCarthy
as Jimmy Fields
John Malkovich
as General Thomas Timms

In addition, there are cameo appearances from actors Bruce Dern, William L. Petersen and Rob Lowe.

Quotes

Hoover: We go where the case takes us. Fitzgerald: Not if it takes you here you don't.
Coolidge: Max, I'm shot. Hoover: Oh my God. Oh, no. Oh, no. Coolidge: My psychiatrist is not gonna like this, Max.
Lieutenant Maxwell Hoover: This isn't America, Jack. This is L.A.
General Timms: Some people die before their time so that others can live. It's a cornerstone of civilization.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Mulholland Falls ]

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