The cult movie Robert De Niro admitted “fell apart”
Some movies are atrocious from the off and never take off, and other movies take a while to get going but ultimately satisfy. The real tragedy, however, is when a movie sets out on a strong foot but withers under the light, leaving the audience all the more dissatisfied with the false hope aroused. Some, Robert De Niro included, will argue this was the case for Alan Parker’s 1987 psychological horror movie Angel Heart.
“Imagine you have a chocolate bar, and half of it was made from delicious milk chocolate, and the other half was made of human shit. Wouldn’t you just break off the half made of shit?” This quote from Peep Show sprung to mind when I watched Robert Rodriguez’s 1996 cult classic From Dusk till Dawn. After thoroughly enjoying the movie’s introduction, I was left bitterly disappointed with the monster-raving lunacy encountered overnight in the Mexican strip club.
Of course, this crucial facet of From Dusk till Dawn is what supplies the esotericism. While Marmite is very much to my taste, I’m afraid this movie wasn’t. In a much subtler and more avoidable echo of this mid-movie decay, Angel Heart sadly loses some of its initial allure and narrative impetus; the magic trick was set up expertly, but the prestige was underwhelming.
The issue lay in Parker’s screenwriting. The dense and convoluted script lays out a compelling adaptation of William Hjortsberg’s 1978 novel Falling Angel, wherein a private investigator living in New York City is hired to solve the disappearance of a man nicknamed Johnny Favorite. The investigation takes him to New Orleans, where he becomes entangled in a series of interconnected murders.
Despite a brilliant performance from Mickey Rourke and an entertaining build-up, the movie leaves the audience feeling a little short-changed, with an unsatisfying finish. De Niro, who was cast in a small cameo role, discussed Angel Heart in a 1989 interview with Playboy.
“I’ll do a cameo if I like it, and I don’t have to carry the whole movie,” De Niro explained. “I can concentrate on just that, it’s more fun, and I don’t have the pressure.”
When asked whether that was what attracted him to the Alan Parker project, De Niro explained: “I just wanted to do it; it was more like an exercise. I thought it would be fun and I wouldn’t have to carry the whole movie. I liked Alan Parker. He offered me the other part, but I felt there was something wrong with the script.”
“You’re not alone,” the interviewer agreed. “John Huston thought the first four-fifths of Angel Heart was one of the best films he had ever seen but that it fell apart in the end.”
“That’s what I felt,” De Niro added. “There was a very, very strong texture to it—what you hoped for—but if some things aren’t there structurally, they’ve got to be worked out. It has to have a certain kind of payoff that comes together, and if it’s not there, it’s not easy to come up with an idea to fix it.”
Watch the trailer for Angel Heart below.
