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Extreme Prejudice Reviews

While Extreme Prejudice plays the Peckinpah elements straight, Hill throws some extra flavor in with intentional slices of outlandish embellishment to reality, as well as the long-simmering rivalry between its main characters.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Sep 29, 2023

Beneath its trendy veneer of covert operations, Extreme Prejudice is a whale of an old-fashioned Western.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 5, 2019

The film depends entirely on the more banal conventions of the western -- the only novelty is that the baddie wears a white hat.

Full Review | Apr 9, 2019

Though not perfect, Extreme Prejudice provides a steely Nick Nolte as the white hat hero and for those who pine for the days when Westerns were king, the film is worth seeing.

Full Review | Nov 8, 2016

Vintage Walter Hill. Mean and tough with vivid characterizations, intense confrontations and hard-edged action galore.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 10, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 23, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 16, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 7, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 5, 2003

The gritty and grim Walter Hill doin' his thing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 25, 2002

Walter Hill is the right director for this material. He specializes in male action movies where the characters are all a little taller, leaner, meaner and more obscene than in real life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

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FILM: 'EXTREME PREJUDICE'

By Janet Maslin

• April 24, 1987

ACTORS get leaner and meaner when they work for Walter Hill. The sun shines down with an angrier glare. The gunfire is sharper, the insults more ambitious, and the only gentle sounds are those of womenfolk, as they (vainly) importune their tough guys to stay. In this hard-boiled universe, nothing is too nasty: not a bomb inside a bunny rabbit, or a point-blank surprise shot to someone's forehead, followed by the off-handed comment ''I liked him, too.'' If Mr. Hill, whose best films have a genuinely hard-boiled glamour, never intends this as parody, neither is he ever more than a hair away.

Mr. Hill's films, like ''The Warriors'' and ''Streets of Fire'' and now ''Extreme Prejudice,'' are often more intent on being reckoned with than being liked or understood. At times, that can make their storytelling look complicated and their bravado rather thin. But even at their silliest, they never fail to command a certain awe. No one else does what Mr. Hill can do, though it may well be that no one else wants to.

Set in Texas and across the border into Mexico, ''Extreme Prejudice'' is one of his more vigorous efforts. It has a bold, bright look and a crisp tempo, propelling the action from one shootout to another until it finally reaches the most violent of its crescendos. By the time it has arrived at this last stage, the film is so close to being ludicrous that it's hard to know whether it is deteriorating or ascending.

''Extreme Prejudice,'' which opens today at Loews Astor Plaza and other theaters, has a story co-written by John Milius (with Fred Rexer), who is himself a creditable candidate for King of the Cowboys and who seems to be entirely on Mr. Hill's wavelength. The film (the screenplay is by Deric Washburn and Harry Kleiner) concerns two childhood friends who find themselves on opposite sides of the law. Jack Benteen (Nick Nolte) has grown up to become a tough-as-nails Texas Ranger, while his old pal Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe) wears an attention-getting white suit and controls local drug trafficking across the Mexican border.

Jack and Cash, who square off for some memorable name-calling at various points in the story, are ably matched, and both actors bring a lot of squinty-eyed, cold-blooded enthusiasm to their roles; Mr. Boothe even manages to find some measure of cynical, malevolent humor. Mr. Nolte winds up with more of the coolly businesslike dialogue, with lines like ''He died goin' forward, that means a hell of a lot down here.'' Some of the talk is also obscured by Mr. Hill's way of encouraging the cast to speak without any unclenching of teeth.

The supporting players are memorable-looking and photogenic, and they are caught up in a whole extra plot about supposedly dead ex-soldiers who engage in a covert mission on Jack Benteen's turf. All of this is complicated, and clear exposition is not Mr. Hill's strong suit, but he does make it move. The cold, clear cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti is also helpful, especially when Mr. Hill stages shootouts to make Sam Peckinpah seem a pacifist by comparison. Rip Torn makes a great if brief appearance as another Texas Ranger, and Maria Conchita Alonso has the extraordinarily thankless role of a woman torn between Jack and Cash. When Cash suggests, during one of the two men's fights, that she rip some clothes off to provide ''motivation,'' it's hard to know whether to laugh. Or spit nails. Or cry. A PRIVATE WAR - EXTREME PREJUDICE, directed by Walter Hill; screenplay by Deric Washburn and Harry Kleiner, story by John Milius and Fred Rexer; director of photography, Matthew F. Leonetti; film editor, Freeman Davies; music by Jerry Goldsmith; production designer, Albert Heschong; produced by Buzz Feitshans; released by Tri-Star Pictures. At Astor Plaza, Broadway and 44th Street; Sutton, 57th Street at Third Avenue; 86th Street Twin, at Lexington Avenue; Movieland Eighth Street Triplex, at University Place; 84th Street Sixplex, at Broadway, and other theaters.

Running time: 104 minutes. This film is rated R. Jack Benteen...Nick Nolte Cash Bailey...Powers Boothe Maj. Paul Hackett...Michael Ironside Sarita Cisneros...Maria Conchita Alonso Sheriff Hank Pearson...Rip Torn Sgt. Larry McRose...Clancy Brown Sgt. Buck Atwater...William Forsythe Sgt. Declan Patrick Coker...Matt Mulhern Sgt. Charles Biddle...Larry B. Scott Sgt. Luther Fry...Dan Tullis Jr.

On: Yorkshire Magazine

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Extreme Prejudice (1987) – Film Review

Director: Walter Hill Cast: Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside Certificate: 18

By Sarah Morgan

The 1980s… A time when more really was more and action thrillers were slick, full of manly men whose testosterone levels were off the scale.

“Mysterious group”

The film reteamed director Walter Hill with both Nick Nolte and Powers Boothe; the former had appeared in 48Hrs , while the latter popped up in Southern Comfort , both of which were well-received by critics.

Unfortunately for Hill and the rest of the team behind Extreme Prejudice , it didn’t share the same level of success, despite being based on a story by John Milius, perhaps then best known for being the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Apocalypse Now .

Nolte and Booth take the lead roles of men ostensibly cut from the same cloth, childhood best friends who now find themselves on opposite sides of the law.

While Nolte’s Jack Benteen is a straight-arrow, strong-but-silent Texas Ranger, Boothe’s Cash Bailey is a major drug trafficker operating out of Mexico – we know he’s tough and mean because his opening scene involves him crushing a scorpion with his bare hands! Their paths cross when a mysterious group of black ops military men arrive on a secret mission that’s sure to have far-reaching implications.

The film has a strong cast – the likes of Michael Ironside (in one of his earliest Hollywood projects following years of success in his native Canada), Clancy Brown and Rip Torn also appear – and although they do their best with the cliché-ridden script, ultimately they’re completely let down by truly awful dialogue.

“Macho posturing”

Unfortunately, Andrew Robinson, so memorable as the villain in Dirty Harry , was also meant to appear, but had his scenes as a CIA agent cut entirely; perhaps his presence would have added a little more weight to the proceedings.

Hill’s direction has obviously been strongly influenced by the ultra-violence seen in Sam Peckinpah’s movies, and as stunning as some sequences are, they’re only temporarily diverting the audience’s attention from the film’s shortcomings. But if you’re into macho posturing, you’ll probably love it.

The disc’s special features are rather intriguing, however, and include revealing interviews with Ironside, Brown and director of photography Matthew F Leonetti, who all discuss their own careers as well as the making of the film.

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Extreme Prejudice Review

01 Jan 1987

Extreme Prejudice

Made back in the dim and distant days when Walter Hill was a respected director and Nick Nolte was an actor on the up, this slow-burning Tex/Mex melodrama is not without its moments, but it fails to ever rise above its inherent (at best) quite-good-ness.

Nolte is a smouldering old-school cop, Powers Boothe his former friend now running an A-Team-style crew of crims. Well, it was 1987. And, in the spirit of that age's credo of spectacular emptiness, the appropriately explosive showdown between the pair has to be seen to be believed.

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Extreme Prejudice

Time out says, release details.

• Duration: 104 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Walter Hill
• Screenwriter: Deric Washburn, Harry Kleiner
• Powers Boothe
• Michael Ironside
• Maria Conchita Alonso
• Clancy Brown
• William Forsythe

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Metacritic reviews

Extreme prejudice.

• 80 Chicago Reader Pat Graham Chicago Reader Pat Graham The character interactions are strong, especially for this depleted genre, and Hill's tight, efficient styling recovers a lot of lost formal ground: his framing and crosscutting are as sharp as ever, and the bloodbath finale is, improbably, a model of intelligent restraint, the classicist's answer to Peckinpah baroque.
• 75 Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert Hill doesn't really try to avoid the cliches in a story like this. He simply turns up the juice. Like his "Southern Comfort," "48 Hrs.," and "The Warriors," this is a movie that depends on style, not surprises. He doesn't want to make a different kind of movie; he wants to make a familiar story look better than we've seen it look recently. And yet there is a big surprise in Extreme Prejudice in the appearance and character of Nick Nolte.
• 75 TV Guide Magazine TV Guide Magazine A fierce and often compelling actor, Nick Nolte usually creates a riveting character, and when that character is coupled with a good film, the end product is something worthy of watching. Such is the case with EXTREME PREJUDICE, despite its abundance of violence.
• 75 Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr Chicago Tribune Dave Kehr The film leaves a sense of entrapment and despair. Its characters are caught in a shrinking world that leaves no room for notions as grand as "good" and "evil," but only a sordid, creeping malignancy that levels everything in its path. [24 Apr 1987, p.AC]
• 70 Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice is as red-hot as a Saturday-night special, an ultra-violent action-adventure fantasy so macho that it verges on parody--on purpose. Sensational rather than serious, it is an exploitation picture but one with class: it has style, a point to make that happens to be highly topical and, thankfully, a dry, saving sense of humor.
• 70 Variety Variety Extreme Prejudice is an amusing concoction that is frequently offbeat and at times compelling. Taut direction and editing prevail despite overstaged hyper-violence that is so gratuitous to be farcical.
• 60 The New York Times Janet Maslin The New York Times Janet Maslin It has a bold, bright look and a crisp tempo, propelling the action from one shootout to another until it finally reaches the most violent of its crescendos. By the time it has arrived at this last stage, the film is so close to being ludicrous that it's hard to know whether it is deteriorating or ascending.
• 60 Empire Empire There are flaws aplenty, but also some effective, old-fashioned Western style performances and a spectacularly over the top finish.
• 50 Time Out Time Out The action is lean and tough, the body count huge, and the final shootout an obvious reprise of Peckinpah's finale. But where the latter's vision transformed The Wild Bunch into a savage elegy for the passing of the Old West, Hill can only duplicate its choreographed violence.
• 30 Washington Post Richard Harrington Washington Post Richard Harrington But on the evidence of this twisted, high-tech "Wild Bunch" update, [Hill]'s still just the poor man's Sam Peckinpah. All the ethics and issues have been eliminated from Hill's nuevo western film, leaving only the violence, the spent bullets and the copious slo-mo flow of blood.
• See all 16 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for Extreme Prejudice

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Extreme prejudice.

Directed by Walter Hill

An army of forgotten heroes, all officially dead. They live for combat. Now they've met the wrong man.

A Texas Ranger and a ruthless narcotics kingpin - they were childhood friends, now they are adversaries...

Nick Nolte Powers Boothe Michael Ironside María Conchita Alonso Rip Torn Clancy Brown William Forsythe Matt Mulhern Larry B. Scott Dan Tullis Jr. John Dennis Johnston Luis Contreras Gary Carlos Cervantes Tommy Lister Jr. Marco Rodríguez James Lashly Tony Frank Mickey Jones Kent Lipham Sam Gauny Rick Garcia Richard L. Duran Larry Duran Jimmy Ortega Ken Medlock Lin Shaye Christina Garcia

Director Director

Walter Hill

Producers Producers

Buzz Feitshans Mae Woods

Writers Writers

Deric Washburn Harry Kleiner John Milius Fred Rexer

Casting Casting

Judith Holstra

Editors Editors

Freeman A. Davies David Holden Billy Weber Marcia Ross Carmel Davies

Cinematography Cinematography

Matthew F. Leonetti

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Dirk Petersmann Robert D. Simon Barry K. Thomas

Additional Directing Add. Directing

Bennie E. Dobbins

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Mario Kassar Andrew G. Vajna

Lighting Lighting

Pat Blymyer

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Michael St. Hilaire Ed Morey Michael D. O'Shea

Production Design Production Design

Albert Heschong

Art Direction Art Direction

Joseph C. Nemec III Craig Edgar

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Ernie Bishop Beverli Eagan

Special Effects Special Effects

Thomas L. Fisher

Stunts Stunts

Bennie E. Dobbins David Cadiente Jimmy Ortega Allan Graf Thomas Rosales Jr. Wayne Montanio George P. Wilbur Jeff O'Haco Jerry Wills Marian Green

Composer Composer

Jerry Goldsmith

Sound Sound

Richard Bryce Goodman Fred J. Brown Michele Sharp Jay Wilkinson Teri E. Dorman Margie O'Malley Evelyn Dutton Robert W. Glass Jr. Michael Minkler Gregg Landaker Gary Ritchie Robert Nichols II

Costume Design Costume Design

Makeup makeup.

Michael Germain Edouard F. Henriques Joe McKinney Sherry Caudle

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Dagmar Loesch

TriStar Pictures Carolco Pictures

Releases by Date

24 apr 1987, 16 may 1987, 28 may 1987, 01 oct 1987, 05 nov 1988, 01 sep 1991, releases by country.

• Theatrical 18
• Physical 15

South Korea

• Theatrical R

101 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★½ 48

I believe Walter Hill's biggest strength is creating memorable characters. He's helped develop the Colonial Marines, the crew of the Nostromo, Reggie and Jack, Frank and Jesse, The Driver and The Detective and Spencer and Reece. I could go on and on. When Walter Hill is involved with a movie via director, writer or producer; the characters don't get overlooked. Extreme Prejudice is no different. It's a modern day western with a lot of Sam Peckinpah flavor. A Texas Ranger. His former best friend and now drug lord of Mexico. A woman caught between them. Plus, a special forces unit which reminds me of the A-Team. Saddle the fuck up!!

Nick Noltle vs Powers Boothe. Hold my beer, this is…

Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 2

Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Rip Torn, Clancy Brown, and William Forsythe in a Walter Hill-directed-neo-western packed with shootouts, poetic masculine language, and an explosive bunny-rabbit.

Five stars.

Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 8

Walter Hill takes a psycho border narcotrafficking conspiracy thriller script from John Milius ("a right-wing Costa-Gavras film," his words) and ends up updating The Wild Bunch for the corrupt, cocaine-and-tequila, CIA drug war Reagan 80s.

Meaning you get two movies for the price of one violently crashing headfirst into one another in the form of a lean, mean neo-western: 1) Nick Nolte as the old-school mustache & blue jeans "stone age cowboy" Texas Ranger whose childhood best friend Powers Boothe has become a Miami Vice -style CIA informant drug kingpin that needs to be put in the ground by a western sheriff, and 2) a bunch of rogue, disillusioned US special op/death squad soldiers involved in Post-Vietnam Iran-Contra drug smuggling and money…

Review by Christian Di Leo ★★★★ 11

"I TOLD YOU BEFORE, AMIGO! I'M IN TOO DEEP!"

TUNE IN AND LISTEN TO ME AND THE BOYS FROM ACTION, ACTION ( JAMES , DUSTIN AND JOHN) AS WE TALK ABOUT ONE OF WALTER HILL'S MOST UNDERSEEN AND UNDERRATED 80s BANGERS: EXTREME PREJUDICE !

Click on the links at the bottom to have a listen! 🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽🔽

A Texas Ranger. A Narcotics Kingpin. Both former childhood friends and now on opposite sides of the law. Not enough of a draw for you? Okay then, let's throw in: a team of "officially dead" soldiers who are pulling off a secret mission, a woman who is torn between two men of power, one of the most stacked casts of character actors to ever grace the screen,…

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 12

Action! - The Unlikely Rumble: Hill v Hyams

In preparation for his next confrontation, Walter Hill clearly chose to study numerous Sam Peckinpah films and produce his own version of one of them, believing that we wouldn't notice, right? Wrong!

To be honest, the filmmaker did a really good job of channeling this in a way that didn't feel terribly intrusive. Hill's action sequences and gunfights are superbly directed and exquisitely brutal. Those who enjoy more violent Westerns with morally murky characters will enjoy this film. Everything with the troop of purportedly dead warriors reminded me of something out of a Chuck Norris film for Canon.

Nolte is fantastic as this type of lone ranger out to bring peace to…

Review by theriverjordan ★★★½ 30

Walter Hill finally made his Sam Peckinpah flick. 

With “Extreme Prejudice,” Hill got to stop dancing around the idea of doing a hard boiled Western, and at last got to put pen on paper - or rather, a bullet in the six shooter. 

Hill’s career is populated by entries that are Western in spirit, but not in setting. Starting from his stagecoach robbery-esque caper script for Peckinpah, “The Getaway,” up to “Streets of Fire’s” high midnight duel in the street - Hill did just about anything he could to rack up the cred for a nails-hard sweaty cowboy picture. 

He finally did it, the crazy bastard. And “Extreme Prejudice” is - definitely- a bit crazy. 

The film sets two former…

Review by matt lynch ★★★★½

"Water takes the path of least resistance. So you got crooked rivers and crooked men." or "What the hell else we gonna do, partner? Shoot each other?"

Review by shookone ★★★★

a piece of pure masculinity. John Wayne rides away on his old hack, Arnie S. takes off the fig leaf covering Conan's chandeliers, Bruce W. rubs his bald head one last time: Walter Hill runs them all out of town with his b-stock men's club assembly here.

Nolte, Boothe, Ironside - big boys bringing it all to the table a proud chauvinist desires: all sort of guns from revolvers to kalashnikovs. genre crossovers between western and bank heist. humongous cars. mexican standoffs. bare latina breasts. the existential loneliness of a war veteran.

even the last type of relationship a guy has left - the childhood friendship with his bestie - will be annihilated by the materialistic goals society makes you believe are the ones worthwhile.

in all of this a last breath of the old times: the bemoaning of the end of an era. a nasty, broken, devious era. however, the only era they knew.

Review by Jake Cole ★★★★★ 2

My new favorite Hill movie. At the end of the year MUBI did their old/new double-feature idea again, and if I could belatedly offer my own I'd pair this with Johnnie To's DRUG WAR. Both are forward-motion action films that turn on the relationships between single-minded cops and criminals, and the breakdown of loyalty in the name of survival. So focused, both nevertheless capture in a kind of ecstatic truth the collision of bad domestic and foreign policy into one inherently volatile trade, drugs, the perpetuation and crackdown on which heightens traditional genre terms before ripping them apart. The final showdown between Powers Boothe, the devil in white, and the black-clad enforcer Nolte is an exercise in frustrated expectation, a…

Review by Christian Di Leo ★★★★ 2

HOLY FUCK. How have I never seen this thing before?! You've got: Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, William Forsythe, Rip Torn, Maria Conchita Alonso, Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr. and Marco Rodriguez, all fucking bringing it in this flaming-hot modern western — with a fuck ton of blood squibs, a shit load of bullets and testosterone-filled machismo dialogue. Walter Hill never ceases to amaze me, this is definitely in my top 5 of his films. And the finale to this thing, Jesus H. Christ, Hill goes full The Wild Bunch and totally brings on the carnage. While I do wish we got some more characterization with a lot of these characters, what we end up getting is still a bangin' good time. Check this thing out ASAP!

Thanks to Todd Gaines for the recommendation!

🛩🪖🧑‍🌾🔫🤠❄️🧖🏻‍♂️🤏🦂🐇💣💥🏜🚁🏦💰🔫🥷📁🇲🇽🩸

Review by More_Badass ★★★★½ 2

Extreme Prejudice is kind of a masterpiece, huh? Certainly a contender for Walter Hill’s most testosterone-soaked, most under-appreciated, least-talked-about film. This is a squib-crazy drug-war neo-western, imbued with the tempo of Milius macho-poetry and a stony intensity courtesy of its rugged character-actor cast: Nolte, Ironside, Boothe, Clancy Brown, Rip Torn, William Forsythe, Tom Lister Jr., among others.

Walter Hill’s ode to The Wild Bunch echoes a number of works before and since its 1987 release. The oeuvres of Anthony Mann and Taylor Sheridan, the volatile frenemy core of Justified, Ronin’s criminal ex-operatives, Who’ll Stop The Rain, any number of Peckinpah films. At the same time, this is certainly the most ‘Walter Hill’ movie I’ve seen from the man, a complete…

Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★★½ 1

“Only thing worse than a politician is a child molester”

Walter Hill’s dusty, politically incorrect ode to machismo is a gleeful tribute to a bygone era — one that had arguably been a decade past even in 1987; the type of film where even the good guys are bad (perhaps even more morally askew than the villains) and, at the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is staying alive which, spoiler alert, most don’t manage to do

Hill’s best on just about any day

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Extreme Prejudice (1987) – Review

Movies centering around a lone man standing up against insurmountable odds is about as old as cinema itself, from Westerns to cop dramas the stoic hero has been a staple of the film industry, but then in the 80s that simple concept met the action genre and that combo exploded onto the scene with the likes of Cobra , Predator , Escape from New York and The Road Warrior but one gem of that genre, which has often been overlooked, is Walter Hill’s action flick Extreme Prejudice , a film that was basically a salute to Sam Peckinpah and included a cast of some of the best badass actors in Hollywood.

What makes Walter Hill’s Extreme Prejudice unique in this often tread category is that we find ourselves in a story that is somewhat beyond your simple Gary Cooper type dynamic, with the hero standing up to face alone the arriving villains, because in this film we have more a less a triangle of antagonists. On the one side you have Major Paul Hackett ( Michael Ironside ) who leads a clandestine black ops group of presumed dead soldiers called a Zombie Unit , consisting of Hackett and five U.S. Army sergeants; Master Sergeant Larry McRose ( Clancy Brown ), Sergeant 1st Class Buckman Atwater ( William Forsythe ), Staff Sergeant Declan Patrick Coker ( Matt Mulhern ), Sergeant 1st Class Charles Biddle ( Larry B. Scott ) and Sergeant 1st Class Luther Fry ( Dan Tullis Jr. ) – you must admit that was one killer of a team – and then we have the white-suited drug kingpin Cash Bailey ( Powers Boothe ), who had moved to Mexico to work as a police informer but decided that being a drug baron, with his own personal army, was a better fit for his life goals, and finally, we have Texas Ranger Jack Benteen ( Nick Nolte ) who pretty much embodies the stoic taciturn lawman.

“I don’t give up my gun without somebody gettin’ hurt.

This cast of characters, all heading for a dynamite collision with each other, would be enough for most films but Extreme Prejudice isn’t just your standard action film as it also throws in the added wrinkle that Jack Benteen and Cash Bailey were once childhood best friends, who simply took different career paths – think The Third Man only with a lot more testosterone – but to complicate things, even more, is the fact that Jack’s current love interest, Sarita Cisneros ( Maria Conchita Alonso ), was once Bailey’s woman which is an element that will, of course, make for an intense final showdown. It should also be noted that this was a good action year of María Conchita Alonso as she also starred in the Arnie action epic The Running Man , unfortunately, in this outing she briefly appears to be a strong woman, calling Benteen on his “I don’t want to talk” macho bullshit, but then when she hops across the border with Bailey and we are left wondering “Were those her only options, an emotionally distant Texas Ranger or a drug kingpin?”

“Can someone tell me, is online dating a thing yet?”

When watching a Walter Hill film and expecting to find well-rounded female characters is like hoping to find a Dairy Queen in the middle of the Sahara Desert, it’s just not going to happen as with most of his films they are about macho swagger dickheads and women are either trophies or damsels in distress, or in this case, both. To be fair, this movie isn’t really about the love triangle between Jack, Cash and Sarita so we can’t get too angry with Hill’s thin depiction of the film’s sole female character, and sure, it would have been nice if the script gave us some reason for her decision to give up her life in the States to become a drug lord’s girlfriend, but Extreme Prejudice is all about tough men with big guns and even bigger attitudes. Walter Hill is also not one to leave out one of the best action hero clichés and thus Jack has a mentor/father figure in the form of Sheriff Hank Pearson ( Rip Torn ), who is brutally killed in an ambush set-up by Cash.

Sometimes having the villain steal your girl just isn’t enough motivation.

Much of the plot of Extreme Prejudice has to do with Michael Ironside’s character supposedly needing important documents located in a Texas bank which leads to him and his team staging a daylight bank robbery to retrieve them, which, in turn, leads to many “A-Team” moments as each member of the Zombie Unit performs various tasks to pull off their precision plan, of course, things go wrong and Nick Nolte stumbles onto the group and discovers that according to official files these guys are all “dead” American soldiers, but when he learns that they also want Cash Bailey dead he’s able to set aside the fact that bank robbing is still a crime, even if it was government-sanctioned, which in this case it wasn’t because, to a surprise to no one, Michael Ironside is a rogue agent with his own agenda.  Who can blame Nolte for not passing up on the chance of crossing the border with a group of badass gunmen who can help him get his woman back and take Powers Boothe down?

“Did I mention I tied your girlfriend to some railway tracks?”

It should be noted that the film was originally 45 minutes longer, with a large part of it dealing Michael Ironside working alongside CIA agent played by Andrew Robinson, as they set-up this big covert op, but after the first screening Hill realized his film was a bit lopsided, commenting “It looks like it’s starring Michael Ironside, with Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, and Rip Torn supporting him, so we’re gonna cut the whole Andy Robinson side of the film out.” Much of the missing 45 minutes would most likely have made Ironside’s betrayal of his team a little less out of leftfield, then again, when you cast someone like Michael Ironside you don’t need a lot of backstories, basically, he was your go-to character actor when you needed a clear cut villain, and I’m sure Nick Nolte was happier with the end result.

“No way am I letting you steal my movie, pardoner.”

Of course, this wonderful macho nonsense was all orchestrated simply to lead our cast of characters across the border to have a remake of that infamous final gun battle in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch , and I must admit Walter Hill does not disappoint in that area and the shootout in Cash’s Mexican fortress is all that action fans could ask for and more, all in shot in gloriously blood-soaked slow-motion, but what makes this film stand out from many of its contemporaries is Hill’s exuberant directing style and a cast of really great actors. Extreme Prejudice may have been poured out of the same mould as the classic Western but Walter Hill infused the genre with some high octane car chases, explosions and shootouts that will keep viewers at the edge of their seats and then bring it all back to basics with a high noon face-off between the hero and the villain.

“Do you think I have all day to fuck around? It’s after four.”

Michael Ironside brings the perfect amount of mystery and menace to his role as a crooked CIA operative but it’s Powers Boothe who truly steals the show as the evil yet wonderfully charismatic drug lord, and you can truly buy that he and Nolte were once best friends, which makes the ending if not tragic at least a little sad.  Cash was a pretty despicable human being and deserved to get filled with lead but his ultimate fate still left you a little off-center and much of that comes from how fun it was to watch Boothe in the part. Extreme Prejudice may have come from the same mould that brought us the like of The Dirty Dozen and The Wild Bunch but at its heart, it’s basically Gary Cooper from High Noon up against Harry Lime from The Third Man and somehow that mix works perfectly here. If you haven’t seen this Walter Hill classic do yourself a favour and track it down, you won’t regret it.

• Movie Rank - 7.5/10 7.5/10

Walter Hill’s Extreme Prejudice may be bursting at the seams with testosterone in a landscape of full guns and guts, where women are relegated to being something between a sex object and piece of furniture, but with this stellar cast and Hill’s artful direction somehow we are still left with one helluva entertaining flick.

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Produced by, released by, extreme prejudice (1987), directed by walter hill.

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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

Characteristics, related movies.

MOVIE REVIEW : STYLISH EXPLOITATION IN ‘EXTREME PREJUDICE’

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Walter Hill’s “Extreme Prejudice” (citywide) is as red-hot as a Saturday-night special, an ultra-violent action-adventure fantasy so macho that it verges on parody--on purpose. Sensational rather than serious, it is an exploitation picture but one with class: it has style, a point to make that happens to be highly topical and, thankfully, a dry, saving sense of humor.

Its elements would appear to be right out of a classic Western. Nick Nolte is Jack Benteen, a mustachioed, tin-starred third-generation Texas Ranger as square as his jaw, a man whose shirt is always buttoned right up to the collar. He is unswerving in his determination to bring in his childhood best friend Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe), now a white-suited drug kingpin headquartered just over the border in Mexico. In time-honored fashion, Jack and Cash have always been in love with the same woman, the sultry Sarita (Maria Conchita Alonso, lovely but in a role that’s little more than a cipher) who even now is torn between the two.

But wait a sec. The time is the present, not a century ago, and it’s no longer so easy to head for a “High Noon” showdown. Cash has already been targeted by a top-secret government mission, led by a ruthless major (Michael Ironside), whose team is composed of a group of young servicemen all officially listed as dead.

Amid escalating confusion, clashes of authority and the major’s lethally spectacular high-tech maneuvers, Jack emerges as a moral compass in a world that has so lost its ethical bearings that right and wrong have become hopelessly muddled--the effect of which, of course, is to make him a decidedly endangered species. Hill’s many writers, which include none other than Mr. Macho himself, John Milius, have also been fortunate enough to hit a timely Contragate nerve: the major’s lack of accountability is an invitation to an unbridled lawlessness ostensibly exercised in the name of upholding the law. Besides, what’s there to keep the major himself from turning bad? Cash had also once been an upstanding member of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Hill, still preoccupied with defining masculine courage, is here exceptionally adroit in playing with the virile mythology of the Western to set off and clarify all these ideas, while at the same time turning out a rip-roaring, often tongue-in-cheek entertainment. “Extreme Prejudice” (rated R for considerable violence and bloodshed) is high, wide and handsome, its shifting moods keyed by Jerry Goldsmith’s ominously elegant, Latin-tinged score. It’s also a film of deceptively folksy twangs, the richest of which not surprisingly belongs to Rip Torn, cast as Jack’s avuncular sheriff pal. There’s just enough of the cynicism of Robert Aldrich’s “Dirty Dozen” and the reflectiveness of Sam Peckinpah’s “Wild Bunch” in “Extreme Prejudice” to hope for increasing substance from Hill in the future.

Never leaner or more chiseled, Nolte brings to Jack that precious extra bit of star magnetism that allows him to get away with keeping an absolutely straight face no matter what happens. Nolte’s innate strength and presence kept Eddie Murphy, in a sensational debut, from stealing “48 HRS.,” and here the same qualities anchor the bravura of Powers Boothe, exuberantly mocking the antiquated villain’s role in which Nolte’s square-shooter has so adamantly cast him.

‘EXTREME PREJUDICE’

A Tri-Star release of a Carolco production. Executive producers Mario Kassar, Andrew Vajna. Producer Buzz Feitshans. Director Walter Hill. Screenplay Deric Washburn, Harry Kleiner; based on a story by John Milius and Fred Rexer. Camera Matthew F. Leonetti. Production designer Albert Heschong. Music Jerry Goldsmith. Associate producer Mae Woods. 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator Bennie Dobbins. Film editor Freeman Davies. With Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Maria Conchita Alonso, Rip Torn, Clancy Brown, William Forsythe, Matt Mulhern, Larry B. Scott, Dan Tullis Jr., John Dennis Johnston, Luis Contreras.

Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes.

MPAA rating: R (under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian).

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Extreme Prejudice (1987) Jack of all Genres, Master of Some? (Blu-ray Review)

The 1980s can be defined by many elements. Big hair and shoulder pads, bright colours, rampant consumerism. Cinematically, the decade saw the development of a particular type of action movie, a sub-genre that reconstituted American masculinity severely wounded by the Vietnam War with Reaganite assertion and nationalism. Indeed, the presidency of former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan included prominent movie references, from the orbital defence programme named ‘Star Wars’ to Reagan’s comment that ‘after seeing Rambo last night, I know what to do the next time’ hostages are taken. Films like Rambo: First Blood Part Two, Commando, The Delta Force and Top Gun demonstrated unassailable authority, both in terms of power and morality, the latter often legitimised by the former. Some of these films became iconic, while others faded into obscurity. Somewhere in between is Extreme Prejudice, released on Blu-ray by Studio Canal as part of their Cult Classics collection. The film is not especially iconic and a 21st-century audience may well find it dated, but it does demonstrate some interesting tendencies that look both back and forward.

Extreme Prejudice takes place in the Texas/Mexico borderlands, a landscape rich in tensions. Across this rich but parched landscape comes Texas Ranger Jack Benteen (Nick Nolte), a man with a badge, a gun, an unwavering belief in the law and an even less wavering commitment to not talk about feelings. Jack is steeped in this country, and Nolte conveys the sand of the desert through the firm set of his features and the bright open sky with the steely gaze of his blue eyes and the grit that he seemingly gargles. Nor is Nolte alone in the gravelly voice stakes, as he is ably supported by Rip Torn as county sheriff Hank Pearson and his old friend/now nemesis Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe). These three men’s men occupy genre archetypes of the western: Jack is the town marshal who dispenses justice the hard way; Hank is the figure of civilised law and order; Cash is the greedy gang boss whose wealth is steeped in blood.

In this contemporary or neo-western, drug smuggling and immigration have replaced cattle rustling and land struggles. There are also contemporary concerns such as the ‘dirt farmers’ turning to crime to make ends meet, as well as ethnic and racial tensions between different communities. If all this wasn’t enough, a team of special forces soldiers enter Jack’s small town. This team are introduced in an opening sequence that presents their official military ‘deaths’ as well as showing them to be very much alive. Led by Major Paul Hackett (Michal Ironside), these bad hombres have a mission that any local ranger will not stop. Jack, of course, is going to intervene.

If these different elements sound confusing, that confusion runs throughout the film as it never settles on a single genre. Sometimes Extreme Prejudice plays as a western like The Wild Bunch (to which it makes obvious homage) or Lone Star, other times as a special forces film like Rambo or The Delta Force. There are also elements of the heist film and a war on drugs film, and there is some pleasure to be had in identifying the different generic tropes. However, while it is interesting to consider the film contextually as an amalgam of genres – special forces in a western – this type of amalgamation has been done more consistently elsewhere. In particular, audiences coming to the film for the first time, with its less than stellar Blu-ray transfer, may have encountered more effective neo-westerns such as No Country For Old Men and Hell Or High Water, while the special forces film has produced specimens like Six Underground, Three Kings and Shooter. Heist films have a long and well-established history and legacy, from The Asphalt Jungle to Thief to Inception, and the drug war film, especially on the Mexican border, arguably achieved its perfect form in Sicario.

Comparisons to these other films may be unfair, but it does indicate the interesting developmental stage of the various genres in the mid-1980s. It is, however, unfortunate that director Walter Hill is unable to assemble them coherently because Extreme Prejudice’s inability to settle on a genre makes it messy. Hill would later deliver a more coherent blend of the western and gangster genres in Last Man Standing. Extreme Prejudice never gels as a whole, and as a result, the viewer may feel they are shifting from one genre to another and never settling into one.

Guns are righteous and no true man is ever without one: every man in the film either has a gun or is victimised because he does not. All in all, Extreme Prejudice is very much a product of its time, and therefore an interesting demonstration of the practices at that time, even if the time spent watching it is only passingly entertaining.

As well as this overall imbalance, the film has more specific problems. The action sequences are less than thrilling because there is an unclear demarcation of space, first in a shootout, then in a mid-point bank robbery and especially in the climax that feels like a pale imitation of its inspiration in The Wild Bunch. A pistol duel feels silly, especially when it gets interrupted (seemingly because it is the special forces film’s turn) and resumes. Monologuing from Cash and Hackett explains the meaning behind everything, which makes the storytelling and dialogue of Deric Washburn and Harry Kleiner’s script rather clunky.

As for its politics, the film is understandably dated. The US military is presented as largely heroic despite their dubious actions, the film taking steps to assure the audience that bad things are the fault of bad apples rather than institutional policy. White men are the source of all power and agency, both good and bad, while the Mexican community play a largely reactive role. The perfunctory female character, Sarita Cisneros (Maria Conchita Alonso), is little more than a token passed between Cash and Jack, and while she may comment on the action, she has no say over her own place within it. Guns are righteous and no true man is ever without one: every man in the film either has a gun or is victimised because he does not. All in all, Extreme Prejudice is very much a product of its time, and therefore an interesting demonstration of the practices at that time, even if the time spent watching it is only passingly entertaining.

Speaking of its time, this Blu-ray release comes with a commentary from C. Courtney Joyner and Henry Parke, whose backgrounds in film history, screenwriting and filmmaking allow them to provide a detailed and comprehensive discussion on the film, the creatives behind it and its production history. Particular gems are that John Milius wrote the original screenplay ten years prior to the film being made, and many aspects were changed while others survived to the final product. Joyner and Parke are knowledgeable and informative while also being witty and engaging, thus educating the audience in an entertaining fashion.

The disc offers another commentary from music historian John Takis, over an isolated score selection. Takis takes the viewer/listener through the film’s entire score, as he puts it, ‘cue to cue’. He provides a history of composer Jerry Goldsmith, explaining the combination of action, military and western influences on the score for Extreme Prejudice as well as how close Walter Hill’s regular composer Ry Cooder came to working on the film. It is of particular interest that Goldsmith incorporated symphony orchestra and synthesiser music into the score, as this demonstrates again the combination of different elements and the transitionary phase that the film occupies within wider filmmaking practice.

Further extras include interviews with actors Clancy Brown and Michael Ironside, who describe their experiences and the rehearsals, as well as recalling some amusing anecdotes about the production, such as Ironside being surprised by gunfire. Original publicity materials such as a trailer and TV spot, as well as a Vintage press pack video, convey a sense of how the film was marketed. Especially interesting is an interview with Director of Photography Matthew F. Leonetti, ‘Capturing the Chaos’. Leonetti, who also worked with Walter Hill on Red Heat and Another 48 Hours, provides valuable insights into the practice of lighting and shooting scenes, such as Hill’s approach to shooting coverage of an actor at different heights. These extras further help to place Extreme Prejudice in its historical context, making the Blu- ray release a more valuable and intriguing product than the film might be if presented on its own. This Blu-ray release, therefore, serves as a strong treatment of a cult favourite, that could also reach a new audience curious about 80s cinema.

EXTREME PREJUDICE IS OUT ON STUDIO CANAL CULT CLASSIC BLU-RAY CLICK THE BOXART BELOW TO BUY EXTREME PREJUDICE

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10 Movies That Are Better If You Read the Book First

C inema is an integral part of storytelling, simultaneously allowing experimentation with narratives and visuals. Although it stands at a significant position on its own, film as a medium evolves in great proximity to film as a medium evolves in great proximity to literature . The stories expressed through prose eventually find a way to make it on the big screen, whether they be direct adaptations or sources of sole inspiration.

Consuming films may be a relatively more straightforward activity than reading a book. Due to a lack of time or attention span, it does not matter—it is a commonly known fact that books require more effort and time to be both acknowledged and appreciated. This is why film adaptations often capture the audience's intrigue and steal the spotlight, but some stories still require their original prose to be subjected to genuine recognition. Their cinematic siblings are praiseworthy, of course, but here are 10 films that insistently want you to read the book first—if you want the authentic experience.

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The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold’s drama thriller novel The Lovely Bones , about the brutal murder of a 14-year-old girl (played by Saoirse Ronan), was adapted to film by Peter Jackson in 2009. Saoirse’s character Susie falls victim to the cruel intentions of her neighbor George Harvey in the 1970s. However, stuck in a limbo-esque state, Susie continues to observe and even lead her family throughout the investigation of her disappearance and death. Combining a coming-of-age structure with crime, the afterlife, and the pursuit of justice, The Lovely Bones proposes a complex portrayal of death and heartbreak.

Expectantly, the story's emotional depth is presented much more clearly in the book, emphasizing grief, loss , forgiveness, and resilience. The character developments are relatively more prosperous, and the prose also gives its readers a chance to truly form a bond with Susie and be morally and emotionally invested in her murder. By engaging with the book first, the audience can witness additional character arcs, backstories, and subplots while also understanding its true emotional complexity.

The Girl on the Train

A psychological thriller by Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train tells the story about Rachel Watson, an alcoholic woman with psychological troubles that only further her entanglement with an ongoing missing person investigation. The book was adapted into film in 2016 by Tate Taylor and features Emily Blunt as Watson. Tackling deception, perception, memory, and secrets too dark to express overtly, The Girl on the Train studies the underlying mysteries of seemingly ordinary lives.

The psychological depth of Rachel’s addiction, guilt, and unreliable memories are traced in the book with utmost characterization. The bleak suburban landscape is described with great detail, and the tension is built through extreme immersion in the story and its setting. Also, the structure of its non-linear storytelling becomes firmly established with the novel, and the film’s similar experiments of time become the cherry on top.

Love, Rosie

A romantic comedy novel by Cecelia Ahern, Love, Rosie was adapted to film with the same name in 2014 by Christian Ditter. Following the lives of Rosie Dunne (Lily Collins) and Alex Stewart (Sam Claflin), the story is about two childhood best friends that try to navigate through life and love with various obstacles and missed opportunities. The story looks at the emotional counterparts of long-distance relationships, separation, and the harsh discipline of timing. Since it is essentially a contemporary love story that features the love of both friendships and romantic relationships, the epistolary formatting of Love, Rosie ’s book is quite significant.

Adding depth and increasing levels of empathy, the letters written between the characters help trace the expanded span of time the story takes place in and gives a deeper characterization of the two protagonists than the film is able to. However, one massive perk of the book is the alternate endings and resolutions it proposes for the story’s ending. Allowing the audience to engage with different possible outcomes, the novel actually strengthens the emotional impact of the story and situates its reader in a more active and immersed position.

The Remains of the Day

Written by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day was adapted to film in 1993 by James Ivory. Revolving around a butler, Steven, residing in the English countryside, in a house called the Darlington Hall, the story is set in the years leading up to World War ll . Steven’s thoughts on his career, the relationship he shares with Miss Kenton, the housekeeper, and his dedicated loyalty to his Employer, Lord Darlington comprise the general sense of the plot.

Though the film captures the book's essence and atmosphere, there are still several reasons why the book remains relevant and significant. First and foremost, Ishiguro’s prose style is quite distinctive and evocative, and contributes characterization to the delicate subtlety of the story. His nuanced storytelling and its effect on Steven's narrative perspective as a character and his path of self-realization and transformation are pivotal to comprehending the subtext and intricate symbolism.

The GodFather

The highly acclaimed film of Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather , was a crime novel of the same name written by Mario Puzo. Following the Corleone family, headed by Vito Corleone, the narrative represents the Italian-American mafia scene . Throughout the trilogy, the story explores themes of power, loyalty, family, and organized crime by diving into the inner family dynamics and rivalries of the Corleones.

The filmic trilogy is a renowned masterpiece at this point, but the impression created by the books is crucial for one to grasp the reality of its story. Puzo’s writing style directly reflects the gritty and compelling nature of the mafia world. Aided by characteristic narrative style, the story in the book thus offers broader perspectives on the relationships and criminal network operations of the Corleone family. Themes of morality, honor, loyalty, and blurring of the difference between good and evil are collectively embedded into the narration structure and tone of the book. While the films’ success and quality are immeasurable, the book’s code of loyalty and display of power dynamics are expressed in greater detail.

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Trainspotting

Irvine Welsh’s 1993 black comedy-drama novel Trainspotting was adapted into a film by Danny Boyle in 1996. A group of heroin addicts in 1980s Edinburgh struggle with the challenges of drug addiction and try to break free from its viciously destructive cycle. The friend group is not only entrenched in the Edinburgh drug scene but also engages in various other illegal activities that support their habits. Explicating each character’s physical, emotional, and psychological process of heroin addiction and its devastating effects is an intricate task in the films.

The book, however, delves into the recovery attempts, relapses, themes of identity, and escape in a manner that immerses its reader through the Scottish dialect and linguistic style, the inner monologue of the characters expanded subplots, and the raw and gritty realism of desperation. It is additionally a study of the relevant sociocultural status of the characters. It discusses the socioeconomic factors, the Thatcher-era policies and their impacts, and, evidently, the drug culture prevalent in Edinburgh.

The Great Gatsby

Yet another story adapted to multiple screen iterations is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Greatest Gatsby with the 1974 version by Jack Clayton and the 2013 release directed by Baz Luhrmann. Narrated by Nick Carraway, a young man who settles into the fictitious town of West Egg, New York, the story follows the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is infatuated with the married Daisy Buchanan because of their romantic relationship years ago and is insistent on impressing Daisy and making her leave her husband, Tom.

The lavish scenery present in the films satisfies the audience’s visions, but the prose is what really studies the historical and societal value of the narrative. Set in the 1920s , The Great Gatsby requires cultural context to understand the characters and its setting accurately, and the narrative perspective of Nick Carraway is a primary source of that. Capturing the nuances and Nick’s moral dilemmas, the book functions as the core text to grasp what the story traces as the ‘American Dream.’

The highly controversial Lolita novel of Vladimir Nabokov has two notable film adaptations: one directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and Adrian Lyne’s version released in 1997. Narrated by the character Humbert Humbert, Lolita is a story about a brilliant and articulate scholar’s infatuation and sexual obsession with Dolores Haze, a 17-year-old young girl he nicknames Lolita. It intensely portrays desire, morality, forbidden relationships, and age-centric manipulation.

Because of its radical nature and controversial topic, the story is one that requires utmost concentration and immersion to be able to construe and interpret it in the way it is intended. Nabokov’s linguistic intricacies, wordplays, and complex descriptions play crucial roles in depicting the plot's moral ambiguity and psychological layers. To engage in broader discussions and relevant debates about the book’s subject matter, one must first be introduced to it through its original prose.

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Stanley Kubrick-directed classic 2001: A Space Odyssey is an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s 1968 novel of the same title. A science fiction story about humanity’s evolution, nature of consciousness, and the existence of advanced extraterrestrial life, it unfolds in four parts: The Dawn of Man , Discovery of the Moon , Journey to Jupiter , and The Infinite and Beyond .

Initially written based on Clarke’s short story called “The Sentinel,” the screenplay and the novel’s plot were developed simultaneously by both Clarke and Kubrick. Because of the exchange of ideas and concepts between the two creators, the book possesses immense value in truly understanding the impact and grandeur of the film. Delving deeper into the expanded universe, fleshing out the themes and symbolisms in greater detail, and offering a more extensive character development than its screen counterpart, the book comprises practically the core of 2001: A Space Odyssey , and even though the film is considered a masterpiece and admirable adaptation on its own accord, the value of the book is still impossible to gloss over.

Pride and Prejudice

Subjected to several film adaptations over the years, Jane Austen’s timeless classic Pride and Prejudice takes place in early 19th-century England. Following the lives of the Bennet family, the story focuses mainly on Elizabeth Bennet, the second-eldest daughter of the house. As Elizabeth navigates her town's social interactions and courtships, she becomes acquainted with Mr. Darcy , the close friend of the wealthy and amiable Mr. Bingley. The story titularly explores the themes of pride, prejudice, self-reflection, and personal growth that transcends surface-level judgments. It also depicts societal norms and expectations of marriage in 19th-century England, featuring class differences, pressure on women, and the pursuit of advantageous matches.

The screen adaptations capture the visionary and atmospheric feel of the old English countryside, but Austen’s wit and language are incomparable. Not only does the novel give a more well-rounded and complex character portrayal, but it is also filled with social commentary, observations, and critique that can easily get overshadowed in the films.