RA: Extreme Prejudice

Last Updated on July 27, 2021

EXTREME PREJUDICE
Rating: 3 out of 4 /Buy the DVD Here

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

Directed by Walter Hill
Starring: Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown, and Maria Conchita Alonso

THE PLAN: A group of presumed-dead C.I.A. soldiers are planning to take down major drug kingpin Cash Bailey (Boothe). Bailey is in the process of going mano-a-mano with old friend – and current law officer – Benteen (Nolte), over Bailey’s illegal activities, and more importantly, the heart of the woman (Alonso) they both love. All of these people are headed toward a wild showdown in a Mexican bordertown, where dust and blood mix oh so well.

THE KILL:
If Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone got together and had a baby, set him down in the sand with a gun, a porn magazine, a fifth of Scotch, and the complete film libraries of Gary Cooper and Charles Bronson, the baby would most likely grow up to be Walter Hill. A tough guy who loves tough guys, Hill’s movies have always been about the loyalties and unspoken codes between comrades, and sometimes between enemies. These codes are of the old-school crime fiction variety: Don’t f*ck me over, and I won’t kill you; Everyone should have a whiskey or two together, even if they’re intent on murdering each other; Women are for f*cking and leaving behind, because it’s more important to know where you stand with your buddies and adversaries… And show no fear, ever.

Nolte uses all of his willpower not to look down Maria’s dress.

Of course, these are dubious rules to live by, but Hill’s tales have always abided by them faithfully, and his EXTREME PREJUDICE is just stuffed with the raging testosterone, conflicted anti-heroes, charming villains and chaotic violence that he holds so dear.

The awesome theatrical trailer!

Naturally, essential to the formula is the dudes leading the charge, and Hill has himself a gaggle of bona fide badasses here. Of course, no one does “pissed off” quite like Nick Nolte, and his Benteen is incredibly pissed throughout the entire film – even before we, or he, know what he’s so damn angry about. The man was born to tell people to shut the f*ck up. On the flipside, Powers Boothe gives us a funny, likable Cash Bailey, who is certainly as world-weary as his former friend, but just seems to have a better sense of humor about life.

The supporting cast is even better: Michael Ironside is the leader of the elite squad of commandos up to shady business in the desert, and he’s basically playing himself, which is just fine. Also along for the ride are Clancy Brown, stoic and vaguely sinister as always, and William Forsythe, who, as one of the great B actors adept at playing a twisted loony, plays one of his best loonies here.

Ultimately, all of these conflicted folks wind up at Bailey’s massive lair, where they reenact the end of THE WILD BUNCH with a little more blood and perhaps a few thousand more bullets. It’s indeed a pretty extreme sequence, which is fitting since everything about this film is just that.

“I challenge you to a hat off.”

TOP DEATH: Hard to say, since most people die via a barrage of bullets in this film. One guy gets shot about 3 times with a shotgun, so let’s say that’s pretty damn super.

TOP ACTION: Easily the last sequence, in which more bullets are expended than in a John Woo film, and people just randomly start shooting each other because that’s what everyone else is doing.

FEMALE EXPLOITATION: Maria Conchita Alonso gets dusty and sweaty throughout, so obviously she needs to shower at one point…

HOMOEROTIC MOMENT: Surprisingly little of this. These guys are too obsessed with killing and serving their own shady moral codes to engage in much homoeroticism. Then again, in a Hill film, when one guy spews a rancid insult to a buddy, it usually means “I Love You”.

TOP DIALOGUE: Rip Torn’s blustery sheriff: “The only thing worse than a politician is a child molester.”

DRINKING GAME: Drink every time Nick Nolte looks like he’s seriously ready to bust some heads. You’ll look like, well, Nick Nolte after 90 minutes!

TRIVIA: The title comes from the piece of dialogue: “Terminate with extreme prejudice”, a line which appears in both this film and APOCALYPSE NOW. Both were co-written by John Milius.

Walter Hill was instrumental in bringing all of the ALIEN films to the big screen.

BUY THE DVD HERE!