Night Moves (1975)

Strong and Moving!

Sick Product of a Sick System

People are voting emotionally.

It is a performances centric movie

I don't get why this movie gets such a high rating. Maybe because it's from the seventies and we don't expect much quality from that period of time. Because Night Moves has absolutely not enough qualities to make it a great movie. The first hour nothing happens and you're struggling to stay interested in the movie. The last part of the movie finally gets some action, but not much, but it still doesn't make it a good a movie. To me the only interesting part was to see how some of the actors and actresses looked while they were young, but that's about it. The story is just too slow and boring to justify such a high rating. If this movie would come out in this age it would totally bomb. There are good old movies but this one ain't one of them.

NIght Moves falls into that category of movies that was not so loved when it came it but since time has passed, people have come around to it. It also benefits from being from that new golden era of cinema, the 70s, where the films showcase a gritty side to characters, often played by some of the best anti-hero actors of all time -- Hackman, in this case. Night Moves is a good movie and a lot of fun but it has some limitations which keep it from being more than that.First of which, the story really doesn't make sense. It's clear when the case is more or less solved about an hour in that the movie is really going to be about something else. In this case, it's more about Hackman's character, a guy who despite his love of things like chess, can't seem to really figure stuff out. So we are taken through his marriage, his wife's infidelity. an attempted reconciliation, etc. All that stuff is great for a great actor like Hackman who makes you feel how lost he is. The problem is that the ties that connect that to the real story, that of the art smuggling, which is the real mystery, are very thin. Also, the ties that connect the plot points of the smuggling story are very week. Too much coincidence, too many people happen to be exactly where they need to be. Too much crossing the country - - LA to Florida in the blink of an eye. One second Gene Hackman is chasing James Woods around LA on a motorcycle. The next scene, he finds him in Florida. I read that the film was shot in 1973 and then shelved until 1975, meaning that there must have been issues with it then. There must have also been a lot scenes cut, because a lot is in there, it's just hidden very deeply with no way to get at it. I think this is a film to check out and enjoy for some very good elements. I just don't think we can put our blinders on and make it a 70s classic. Good film. Worth a watch.

One of the great American films of the 70s and would be generally recognized as such if it weren't so confusing. Hackman as a private detective with problems of his own (naturally) and a simple new case (find the runaway girl). He finds the girl easily but complications ensue. If you watch this film pay very close attention to everything. One of its charms --and frustrations-- is that nothing is as it seems. Everyone in it is 'acting' in their perceived self-interest but their perceptions about that are mostly wrong. Hackman is terrific. The film has a zillion things going for it but might be as flawed as its subject matter. Set in LA and the Florida Keys it's a sunny but blindingly bleak view of the mid-70s. Stunning work by Arthur Penn.

In "Night Moves", Gene Hackman plays Harry Moseby, a private investigator from L.A. who takes on the case of a missing daughter. The trail leads him to Florida, where he becomes entwined in the lives and laid back lifestyles of the family and their associates.Harry's profession involves delving into the details of others' lives, but his own life is largely unexamined. His marriage is unfulfilling due to his inattention. As he focuses on his cases, he misses the peripheral details of his own life and the clues to remedy the situation.The film's title is a variation on "knight moves", which refers to a famous chess game and implies that Harry might be more successful in life if he thought creatively (instead of getting bogged down in minutiae).Directed by Arthur Penn, "Night Moves" may not appeal to viewers who prefer traditional story arcs. It features Jennifer Warren in her second big screen role, a young James Woods two years after "The Way We Were", and teenage Melanie Griffith in her first credited performance. Her first appearance on screen might be an homage to Bardot.I would not call this film noir, and Harry's language and mannerisms are less intense than a Sam Spade (and more like Philip Marlowe, which is appropriate for L.A.).