After the mammoth success of Rocky II in 1979 Sylvester Stallone’s star was solidified and he picked the “80’s yet feels like the 70’s” action thriller Nighthawks as his next project. Why? Well he said that the material resonated with him. Good enough for me!
What’s it’s about? Stallone is pimping a Serpico beard, a badass leather jacket and at his most epic when it comes to his killer thousand-yard stares that he has since used many times in films like First Blood, Cobra etc. So what else does one need to know?
Nighthawks is about two cops named Deke DaSilva and Matthew Fox, played by Stallone and Billy Dee Williams. They hunt for Wulfgar, a bomb-happy international terrorist played by the late and great Dutch actor Rutger Hauer in his first American role. It’s a gritty, old-school and fairly engaging flick from start to finish. A visceral game of cat-and-mouse, if you will, two men on opposite sides of the law on a collision course. Taking into account its sordid production history, it’s a tad of a miracle that it came out as good as it did. So let’s dive into this soon to be remade classic on this week’s Sylvester Stallone Revisited!
Sylvester Stallone Revisited is written and co-produced by John Fallon. Chris Bumbray is the narrator and producer, Bill Mazzola is the editor, and Berge Garabedian is the executive producer. Check out previous episodes below!