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Canada · 1980
1h 29m
Director Dennis Hopper
Starring Linda Manz, Dennis Hopper, Sharon Farrell, Raymond Burr
Genre Drama
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Dennis Hopper is a hard-drinking truck driver who loses control of his truck under the influence and slams it into a busload of screaming children. After serving his five year jail sentence, Hopper finds his daughter, Cebe (Linda Manz), the love of his live, grown into a rebellious punk in a backwater town, having barely been looked after by her junkie mon (Sharron Farrell). Cebe's hopes of once again becoming a "normal" family painfully proves to be doomed, as she desperately tries to hold everyone together. Hopper's loose, naturalistic style and sympathetic, yet critical attitude infuses the drama with a painful power that finally erupts in a devastating and thrillling conclusion.
The acting in Out of the Blue is galvanic, conveying extreme emotional states with raw power, and Hopper often presents scenes in long takes that preserve the intensity of the performances. Watching the film, you get absorbed in the characters’ self-destructive behavior even though you know it will come to no good.
It’s a movie that can feel like several you’ve seen before, yet never distorted in quite this style, beat, or fashion. When the messy trajectory seems as though it might be on its way to the point of reflection, dissension re-ignites, and counter-cultural discord combusts through expressive punctuation, once again.
For orchestrating lurid goonishness, Hopper can't be beat.
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
The theme music, from Neil Young's "Rust Never Sleeps" album, is a haunting accompaniment to Mr. Hopper's sometimes stunning imagery. The best moments of "Out of the Blue" have both the beauty and the banality of found art.
Hopper keeps things light and off-the-cuff, allowing his performers free rein - sometimes too much, as in the case of the screechy and shrill Farrell - to explore grim territory without falling into heavy-handedness.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
A bitter, unforgettable poem about alienation.
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