One of the things we’ve done here at Pulp Intl. occasionally is examine modern remakes of vintage noirs, with an eye toward changes brought about by loosened censorship standards. For our purposes, modern is any film from 1980 onward, and as we’ve explained before, in film noir the plot catalysts were often directly related to sex, but it couldn’t be explicitly stated. Like any new cinematic tool, like computer graphics or color film processing, receding censorship gave filmmakers the option to improve on what came before. That didn’t always happen, but considering Hollywood’s love of remakes there was never a shortage of opportunties.
We decided to have a look at Against All Odds, which premiered today in 1984 and was a remake of the top-tier Robert Mitchum/Jane Greer noir Out of the Past. Jeff Bridges is coerced by gangster acquaintance James Woods into going to Mexico and tracking down the Woods’ girlfriend Rachel Ward, who’s fled with no intention of returning, having stabbed Woods and allegedly stolen $50,000 in cash. In Out of the Past the main character’s secondary story involves his trusting girlfriend; in Against All Odds, it involves Bridges’ NFL career slipping through his fingers, causing both emotional distress and financial pressure. When Bridges arrives in Mexico, he gets a gander of Ward and forgets his deal with Woods. He wants her for himself.
That’s exactly what happens, and after a few idyllic weeks of wearing out each other’s sex organs and moving about the Maya Riviera to throw Woods off their trail—because clearly he’ll have sent someone else when Bridges doesn’t report back—the inevitable happens when they’re discovered in Chichén Itza and a deadly shooting results. Now with a body on their hands, the question becomes whether the two infatuated lovers can weather the storm, or if they’ll be torn apart by the gravity of the dilemma. That’s all the plot we’ll give you. For the rest you’ll have to watch the movie. But should you?
Against All Odds is like the result of a studio exec’s hypothetical question: What if we hired the two best looking people we can afford and put them in a sexually charged thriller? We support the idea. We love watching beautiful people onscreen, especially if they can act.
But there’s the rub. Director Taylor Hackford tried to push each of the movie’s life-and-death set pieces to the absolute height of stressful intensity, but the screenplay by Eric Hughes fumbled the ball in those moments, leaving the film’s stars hanging in the wind trying to emote poor dialogue to a level beyond their ability, while a dissonant soundtrack raked the nerves of viewers. And the climax was botched, period, as everything came down to an armed standoff that would have left Leone or Tarantino (had he been a director at that point) aghast.
That all sounds like a full spectrum slam, but the movie actually isn’t a failure. Literally everything else about it is good. It’s beautiful, it’s sleek, the plot works, the performances outside of those overcooked sequences are good, the locations are spectacular, and even the music is fine for the most part. And, just to state the obvious, Bridges and Ward are pure masturbation material. Even Ward’s misfire of a hair-do—which we suspect was meant to echo the sculptural cuts of yesteryear—can’t diminish her beauty. She looks as good as anyone weighing probably 110 pounds at five-seven can look. With all that was done well, we can’t possibly suggest avoiding the film, even though it folds under pressure.
In terms of direct comparison to Out of the Past, stylistically Against All Odds attempts to be more blockbuster than modern noir. Its move toward eroticism makes Bridges’ dick-driven decisionmaking plausible in a way the sudden romantic obsessions of film noir sometimes aren’t. Additionally, he and Woods are frenemies because of a shared recklessness that’s cleverly illustrated by a dangerous Porsche vs. Ferrari just-for-kicks race up Sunset Boulevard. As viewers, then, we understand Bridges well, and because of Ward’s sexual electricity, we likewise understand his infatuation with her, as well as Woods’ unwillingness to let her go, even though she stabbed him. Toxic behavior all around? Sure, of course.
Critics were reasonably kind to Against All Odds. Audiences enjoyed it too. In the final analysis, the movie can be summed up this way: It’s good, but not nearly as good as it should have been considering its high quality ingredients. It was an attempt to vault Ward into the top ranks of Hollywood performers, but it failed there. Her hair-do, by the way, isn’t the only backwards wink. Jane Greer has a supporting role, and noir baddie Richard Widmark is present as well. Ultimately, yeah, watch Against All Odds. In fact, why not double it up with its inspiration? That would be a fun night, because they’re different enough that one doesn’t give away too much about the other.
