Repo Man
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- For the person who repossesses property, see Repossession. For the professional wrestler, see Barry Darsow.
Repo Man is a 1984 cult film directed by Alex Cox, produced by Michael Nesmith, and starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton.
Contents
Plot
Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez), an alienated young punk rocker living in mid-1980s Los Angeles, is fired from his menial job as a supermarket stock clerk after talking back to his boss. Shortly afterwards, he finds out that his pot-smoking, ex-hippie parents have donated his entire savings account to a popular but sleazy televangelist. Leaving home, broke, Otto gets a job almost by accident with the disingenuously named "Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation," a small-time automobile repossession agency, where he is mentored by Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) a seasoned repo man who teaches the often hazardous profession.Soon, Bud, Otto and competing repo men all over town are searching for a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu from New Mexico, ludicrously overvalued at $20,000; this vehicle, unknown to them, contains something mysterious and dangerously powerful in its trunk, also sought by a strange female FBI agent, Agent Rogersz (Susan Barnes) and her staff. The film draws on the experiences of one of Cox's friends who worked briefly as a repo man in Los Angeles, but soon deviates into the surreal with aliens, the CIA, televangelism, punk rocker thieves and other strange characters and situations, all amid a long string of hilarious running gags and almost-impossible coincidences.
The soundtrack features now-classic punk rock tracks by Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies, Iggy Pop and others. Producer Mike Nesmith has a small cameo role.
Taglines
- ...It's 4 A.M., do you know where your car is?
- Meet Otto. He's a clean-cut kid in a dirty business. He's a Repo Man. He steals cars legally. Now, he's out to repossess a '64 Chevy Malibu...with an amazing reward of $20,000. But Otto is not alone. There are others who want the car and will do anything to get it. The risks are great, because hidden in the trunk is something so incredible it could destroy them all. We'll give you a hint... it glows in the dark.
Moments To Watch
- The picture of "four alien bodies" is allegedly two condoms filled with water and decorated with a pair of tiny grass skirts, arranged to resemble a plate of shrimp.
- Miller (Tracey Walter), a scruffy, oddball mechanic working for Helping Hand, refuses to learn to drive, explaining that the "more you drive, the less intelligent you are."
- In the edited-for-television version, the expletives have been dubbed by the original actors. "Fuck you, you mother fucker" was changed to "Flip you, you melon farmer". Cox also incorporated scenes absent from the cinema version into the television one.
Recurring themes and references
- References to "plates", "shrimp", or "plate of shrimp" throughout.
- In the hospital scene, a "Dr. Benway" and a "Mr. Lee" are paged. Both are characters from novels by William S. Burroughs.
- "Dioretix", a pun on L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics and the term diuretic.
- The dangerous glow emitted from the trunk of the Chevy Malibu may be a homage to the bright, glowing contents of the mysterious box in the 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly directed by Robert Aldrich.
- Food and beverages throughout the movie appear in generic white containers with blue-lettered labels reading among others, "drink", "dry gin" and "food". The film's paltry budget necessitated the generic products.
- Pine-scented car deodorizers shaped like evergreen trees are placed in most cars. These items were one of the few sponsored items in this movie and hundreds of these deodorizers were donated to the filmmakers for this movie, without scent. Miller, the mechanic-philosopher, also noted the pervasive presence of the scented pine tree deodorizers in repossessed cars, telling Otto, "You'll find one in every car, you'll see." (One even appears on a policeman's motorcycle.)
- Many of the "repo men" of Helping Hand are named after popular beers or allude to beer: Bud, Oly, Lite, Miller.
- Quite a few Los Angeles-based punk rock musicians cast in roles large and small include: Dick Rude and Keith Morris (with his band, The Circle Jerks) as well as The Untouchables (as the scooter guys). Also cast is Los Angeles club maven, Rodney Bingenheimer (aka "Rodney on the ROQ") in a cameo appearance as a club owner. The Circle Jerks perform as a very poor lounge act. Circle Jerks bassist Zander Schloss is seen in an acting role as a friend of Otto's who works with him at the supermarket.
- Posters for "Harry Pace for City Council" in the background throughout the film. (Alex Cox has said that "Harry Pace" was an indirect reference to "happy face." Leila (played by Olivia Barash) wears happy face pins. Otto is wearing a smiley face pin when he spots the Chevy Malibu.
- The scene when Agent Rogersz and Leila torture Otto appears to be a reference to the Milgram experiment.
- As Bud and Otto pursue repossession opportunities throughout the seedier parts of Los Angeles (at all hours of the day and night), their path seems to continually follow or intersect with that of Otto's punk friends. On more than one occasion, Bud and Otto will visit a convenience store just after (or during) a robbery committed by Duke, Archie and Debbi.
Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jennifer Balgobin | Debbi |
| Olivia Barash | Leila |
| Susan Barnes | Agent Rogersz |
| Harry Dean Stanton | Bud |
| Emilio Estevez | Otto Maddox |
| Fox Harris | J. Frank Parnell |
| Helen Martin | Mrs. Parks |
| Sy Richardson | Lite |
| Dick Rude | Duke, Punk |
| Miguel Sandoval | Archie |
| Zander Schloss | Kevin the Nerd |
| Eddie Velez | Napoleon 'Napo' Rodriguez |
| Tracey Walter | Miller |
| Del Zamora | Lagarto Rodrigues |
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was meant to capture an angry spirit and features a collection of punk bands of the time.
- "Repo Man" performed by Iggy Pop – 5:11
- "TV Party" performed by Black Flag – 3:50
- "Institutionalized" performed by Suicidal Tendencies – 3:49
- "Coup d'Etat" performed by The Circle Jerks – 1:59
- "El Clavo y la Cruz" performed by The Plugz – 2:56
- "Pablo Picasso" performed by Burning Sensations – 4:01
- "Let's Have a War" performed by Fear – 2:29
- "When the Shit Hits the Fan" performed by The Circle Jerks – 3:11
- "Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man)" performed by The Plugz – 1:46
- "Bad Man" performed by Juicy Bananas – 4:59
- "Reel Ten" performed by The Plugz – 3:09
Awards and nominations
1985 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)- Won - Best Supporting Actor (Film) — Tracy Walter
- Nominated - Best Writing — Alex Cox
External links
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