Dork Art: Hard Case Crime

Yowza!  When Hard Case Crime fled Dorchester Publishing I was worried that their brilliant pulp revival would come to an end.  Well, today at Barnes & Noble I purchased their new Trade Paperback edition (looks like they're not doing straight-to-mass markets anymore) of Donald Westlake's Somebody Owes Me Money.  When I got home I jumped over to their website to look at the rest of their publishing schedule.  That's where I discovered the amazing art seen above.  Again, Yowza!  They've had some nice saucy covers in the past, but that one absolutely takes the cake.  When am I gonna get some Hard Case Crime posters?

--Brad

Parker: Payback vs. Payback

VS.  

The 1999 theatrical release of Payback came and went without hardly a notice from this film fan.  I know that I saw it in the theater.  And I know that I thought it was "okay."  But in February of '99, I was 19 years old, and was probably more interested in offbeat horror flicks like Ravenous or the mondo genius of Being John Malkovich.  At the time I had no idea who Richard Stark or Donald Westlake was and I had only seen a smattering of films made before the 1980s.  Lee Marvin was a god to come; Mel Gibson had just lost his cool cred' with the abismal Lethal Weapon 4 and with Payback I was probably hoping for a return to action badassery.

The Payback theatrical cut is not a bad movie.  But...if you've never read The Hunter than the film will probably not stir a single serious emotion in your mind or body.  A solid, crime revenge film that doesn't really differentiate itself from a dozen other crime revenge films.  Mel Gibson is Porter.  Shot, left for dead.  On his belly with a back alley doctor clawing bullets out his back; a thin narration lets you know its all about the Seventy grand and maybe a little retribution if can score it.

Mel Gibson is a solid Parker (Porter).  As writer/Director Brian Helgeland says during a DVD extra, "You get Mel cuz Humphrey Bogart is dead."  He has that charming scumbag quality that Bogart displays in flicks like The Petrified Forest.  They say and do terrible things and you love them for that.  When Porter puts a pillow over a defeated colleague's face and pops a few rounds through, you crack a smile if not cheer outright. 

Payback has a taste of Richard Stark's novel and a taste of John Boorman's Point Blank, but Mel Gibson is never quite as cold as Parker or as angry vicious as Lee Marvin's Walker. There's too much heart in Porter. He's definitely pissed that his wife shot him in the back. And he totally wants to kill Val (not Mal like the book) for the double-cross, but he shows too much heart for Maria Bello's Rosie and he's missing that calculating distance.  Plus, you have that awful narration completely betraying the intelligence and the code of Parker, and if you've read the books than you're tearing at your scalp every time the inner monologue starts.  

Now, fastfoward seven years and Warner Brothers & producer Mel Gibson throw more cash into Payback and allow Helgeland back into the editing room.  See, in 1999 WB didn't understand or want the violent world of Porter; what they wanted was a quirky, post-QT/Lock Stock ironic crime action picture.  After a few test screenings, they fired Helgeland and hired Paul Abascal for ten days of reshoots completely altering the tone and rewriting the climax with this goofy, stupid Kris Kristofferson offspring kidnapping bit.

Watching the Payback: Straight Up Edition blu ray is a shocking, revelatory experience.  I have seen plenty of Director Cuts in my time (Blade Runner, Aliens, Superman II, Watchmen, etc), but I have never seen a director's cut that radically alters the movie as much as this one.  It's a totally different film with a completely different 30 minute climax and a much more vicious Porter.

Gone is the silly, very 90s blue bleached bypass print.  Gone is the horribly stupid narration.  Most of the quippy humor has been stripped from the script.  But most importantly, Parker's cold, mechanical rage has been restored.  

The film opens proper.  A new quote runs red over black, "principle n 1:  one's own rule or code of conduct or devotion to such a code."  Porter marches across the George Washington Bridge, bloody betrayal boils underneath.  He still steals the bums money, pulls the right cons to get him back on his feet.  But the whole vibe is different.  Chris Boardman's score has been completely replaced by the quiet cool of Scott Stambler.  Porter still door kicks Deborah Kara Unger, but it's not just a sudden burst of anger.  It's a seething anger.  It's almost Lee Marvin angry.  No punchers or knives or irons pulled.  

And No Kris Kristofferson and his god awful, horny son!!!  Yes!  In fact, Bronson doesn't even show up in Helgeland's cut; nope The Outfit's matriarch only appears as a voice seeping through a speaker.  Porter has to settle on proper low rent criminals like Greg Henry, William Devane, and James Coburn to beat and torture. 

The Straight Up Edition, miraculously (yep, it had to be divine intervention!), reveals a nearly spot-on adaptation of Richard Stark's The Hunter.  It's not perfect (again, that would be the Darwyn Cooke graphic novel), but the professional and amoral brilliance of Parker has been re-edited into Mel Gibson's Porter.  And, yes, we can now finally Root for the Bad Guy.

--Brad

Parker: Jason Statham In Flashfire?

The wonderfully obsessed website, The Violent World of Parker claims to have learned from "a reliable source" that the upcoming Taylor Hackford/Jason Statham Parker film will be based on the novel Flashfire, published in 2000 its one of the later novels that I haven't quite reached yet.  It appears to be a bank heist book with heaps of double-crossing.  Sounds good.  The 90s resurrection of Parker is most curious to me and I am anxiously awaiting the point in which I pass Butcher's Moon and move on to Comeback.  Does Stark/Parker still got it after a 23 year absence?  

But that's neither here nor there.  I am happy to hear that it's an adaptation and not an original Hollywood concoction. Although, Statham is hardly my perfect choice for Parker he can make the beast work.  Fingers crossed.

--Brad

Parker: The Outfit

The third in Richard Stark's Parker series, The Outfit sees our favorite hunter turned hunted as the criminal organization once known as The Syndicate fails in its first attempt on Parker's life.  Bad move, friends.  Parker knows that the only way to get out is to hit back and hit hard.  Once deemed untouchable, Parker lets all his low-rent criminal buddies know that The Outfit is free game and as he hits one Outfit association after the other so do his friends.  After all, how do you get revenge on a corporation?  You go for the wallet.

Darwyn Cooke takes a few more liberties with The Outfit than he did with his adaptation of The Hunter.  He condenses the second novel, The Man With The Getaway Face into 23 pages, setting up Parker's new mug as well as the rat who finks his location to The Outfit.  Sure, this makes sense but I'm a little bummed that the crazy switchbacking plot of Getaway Face will never get its proper moment in the sun as that armored car heist (and the complications that ensue) is one of my favorites from the series.  Second, Cooke introduces the criminal thespian Grofield into the series one book too early.  I find this to be most curious.  Grofield is a bit of a goof, a comic character that plays well in larger cast stories like The Score, but he sticks out like a sore thumb here.  Why does Cooke bring him into this plot?  He has a couple scenes and then he's gone.  Very strange.

Darwyn Cooke's work on the Parker books is some of his finest.  As much as I love The New Frontier (and  its animated adaptation), The Hunter & The Outfit are just unbelievably amazing.  Obviously, a lot of my love stems from my love of Richard Stark's character and the fact that even though we've had some pretty fine film adaptations (Point Blank, The Outfit, Payback: Straight Up Edition), we've never quite seen the real Parker outside of the novels.  Well, the only other place to find the real Parker is in Darwyn Cook's books.

The film adaptation of The Outfit has been unavailable on DVD for far too long.  However, if you you click on over to the Warner Archive you can score yourself a bare bones edition for $19.95 ($9.95 for a downloadable version).  Although, not a perfect adaptation of the Stark novel it is totally worth the twenty bucks.

Directed by John Flynn (Rolling Thunder, Best Seller, Lock Up), The Outfit is much more of personal revenge story than the book.  Since they didn't have The Hunter's narrative to fall back on as the catalyst, this film's plot is sparked when The Outfit kills Duvall's brother for an unsanctioned bank job.  Duvall in retribution starts hitting The Outfits payroll where and when ever he can.

Duvall is Macklin not Parker, but there are several familiar names sprinkled throughout.  In a much more prominent role than the book, Karen Black is Bett Harrow.  There is an Alma in Jane Greer.  A Madge in Marie Windsor.  A Jim St. Claire in Bern Hoffman.  But even though Joe Don Baker is obviously playing Handy McKay, he's called Cody instead.  Handy is a pretty big part of the series and I wonder if Donald Westlake had the same rules about his name as he did about Parker's.  And the villainous Robert Ryan isn't Fairfax or Bronson, he's just Mailer.

But Duvall is a pretty darn good Parker.  And if you watched that brief interview with Westlake I posted earlier in the week than you heard that the man himself thought Duvall captured Parker's attitude even better than Lee Marvin in Point Blank.  That Workmanlike Crook attitude.  And I guess I get that.  But Marvin is still my cinematic Parker.  But more on that later.

--Brad

Parker: Donald Westlake Speaks

Here is a great "mini-interview" with Donald Westlake about the creation of Parker and Parker in the movies.  My favorite bit  are the kind words he says about Robert Duvall's performance in The Outfit, calling it the closest version to the literary Parker.  Interesting.

--Brad

Parker: At The Movies

Donald Westlake never let any of the Parker film adaptations use the name of his beloved creation.  Lee Marvin was Walker.  Mel Gibson was Porter.  Robert Duval was Macklin.  Jim Brown was McClain.  Etc. Etc.  Supposedly, Westlake didn't want the name used unless there were going to be a series of films, and none of the actors were ever interested in a franchise.  A shame, cuz I could have watched Marvin's Parker through 3, 4, 20 movies.  He was hardcore.

So, that begs the question, who would I cast in a Parker franchise?  Hmmmm, my pal Dan just suggested Jon Hamm from Mad Men.  That's a damn good one and it's almost hard to argue.  Donald Westlake once stated that he wanted Jack Palance for the role.  Palance could do rage like nobody else and he's got the hard looks that fit.  Watch that beast in Panic in the Streets.  Recently, as seen at the end of my Hunter post, a youtube fake teaser postulates Clive Owen in the role.  That could be cool.

But I think if I was going to cast anyone as Parker I would go with Mark Valley.  Again, he's probably too handsome for the role, maybe even too suave.  But watch him in that first season of Fringe or his current run in Human Target, the man can play undesirable but somehow attractive violence perfectly.  And that's the biggest element to Parker that just has to get nailed in a movie.  He's a thug.  And he's a beast.  But that dark side glee in you loves it.  Valley can pull that off.  Crazy?  You tell me.

Anyway, the Parker novels have been adapted into seven films of varying degrees of success.  The Hunter was made into Point Blank and Payback (of which there are two cuts, The Straight Up Edition Blu Ray release being the preferred).  The Jugger was made into Jean Luc Goddard's Made in U.S.A. and it has a fancy Criterion edition.  The Outfit can be found via the Warner Archive.  But if you're looking for copies of The Split (adapted from The Seventh), Slayground, or Mise à Sac (aka “Pillaged” aka The Score) you'll have to go the bootleg route.

Below are the three Parker trailers that can be found on YouTube.

Based on The Hunter

Based on The Jugger

Based on The Hunter

--Brad

Parker: The Hunter

There are few (if any) protagonists in the world of crime fiction as intriguing or as compelling as that of Richard Stark's Parker.  But it took nearly 30 years before I ever dipped into his workmanlike underworld.  The first books I ever read were those of John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and Stephen King.  Bestseller Boys.  Obsessing on them via magazine articles and interviews I would gather a collection of namedropped authors that had to be consumed.  Through King and his novel The Dark Half, I discovered Richard Stark, the pseudonym of crime writer Donald Westlake.  

I read a few short stories and his novel The Hot Rock, but found them to be a little too light for my horrorhound tastes of the time.  And despite the mid-90s resurrection of his Stark/Parker novels, they never made it onto my shelves.  Now, jump ahead a decade and in 2008 The University of Chicago Press started rereleasing the Parker books.  On a trip to Germany I read The Hunter, The Man With The Getaway Face, and The Outfit.  I was hooked on Parker.

A professional criminal who works a job "every year or so, payroll or armored car or bank."  All work, no play.  He doesn't kill unless you give him no choice.  He doesn't care about you.  He can be ruthless, he can be evil.  But he's always cold; the only emotion you ever see on display is rage...and that really only reveals itself in the first novel, The Hunter.

Unlike most of the books in the series (at least the ten I've read so far, I just started The Black Ice Score), The Hunter doesn't deal with a job, but a job-gone-wrong.  So wrong in fact, that when the book opens he's crawled himself from the grips of death and prison and he's war-marching back into New York City to deal with the woman who plugged him and the man who took his loot.  Revenge.  For me, the best kind of narrative drive.

The Hunter has been adapted into two movies (Point Blank, Payback), but the best adaptation is withoutadoubt Darwyn Cooke's 2009 graphic novel.  It's so spot-on I would even say that if you've read the comic than you've pretty much read the book.  That's a bold statement and I might waffle a bit by saying that the book does a slightly better job at portraying Parker's constant state of anger-driven pursuit, but I don't think Cooke could have drawn every panel with RAGE FACE.  

Stark's words are there, Parker's hate is there.  "For You That Tree Is Dead."  Cold.  Villainous.  Parker is a character that you should not enjoy reading, but of course you do.  It's his confidence.  In a way, the Parker books have little suspense; that is to say, you know that Parker is going to achieve his goal.  He's going to get what he wants, he's just good at his job.  Kick him down, he gets back up and stomps your face in.  

Give him the money for pity's sake.  

--Brad