Catchfire
Catchfire (or Backtrack in a director's cut version) is a 1990 American romantic action thriller film directed by Dennis Hopper and starring Jodie Foster, Hopper, Fred Ward and Vincent Price with cameo appearances by several other notable actors, including Charlie Sheen, Joe Pesci, Catherine Keener and Bob Dylan. The film was disowned by Hopper before release and he is therefore credited under the pseudonym Alan Smithee.[1]
| Catchfire | |
|---|---|
 Video poster for Catchfire as Backtrack: Director's Cut | |
| Directed by | Dennis Hopper (as Alan Smithee) |
| Produced by | Dick Clark |
| Screenplay by | Rachel Kronstadt Mann Ann Louise Bardach Uncredited: Alex Cox Tod Davies |
| Story by | Rachel Kronstadt Mann |
| Starring | Dennis Hopper Jodie Foster Dean Stockwell Vincent Price John Turturro Fred Ward |
| Music by | Curt Sobel |
| Cinematography | Edward Lachman |
| Edited by | David Rawlins |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Vestron Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million |
| Box office | $5 million |
Plot
Conceptual artist Anne Benton (Jodie Foster) creates electronic pieces that flash evocative statements. Her work has begun to attract major media attention.
Driving home one night, Anne suffers a blowout on a deserted road and, while looking for help, witnesses a mafia hit supervised by Leo Carelli (Joe Pesci). Leo spots Anne, but she escapes and goes to the police.
Two of the mobsters, Greek (Tony Sirico) and Pinella (John Turturro), go to Anne's house to silence her, but manage only to kill her boyfriend, Bob (Charlie Sheen). The police offer Anne a place in the federal witness protection program, but when she sees another mobster, John Luponi (Dean Stockwell), at the police station, she disguises herself with another woman's wig and raincoat, and flees.
Mob boss Lino Avoca (Vincent Price), Carelli's boss, summons top-of-the-line hitman Milo (Dennis Hopper) to silence Anne. Milo purchases one of Anne's artworks and ransacks her house, discovering intimate Polaroids taken of her.
Months pass; Anne has severed all ties with her past and re-established herself in Seattle as an advertising copywriter. Milo, who never gives up, recognizes the tagline of a lipstick ad as one of Anne's catchphrases, and tracks her down. The police also track Anne down, but she manages to once again elude all the men who are pursuing her.
Milo tracks Anne to New Mexico. This time, he offers her a deal: he'll let her live, if she'll do anything and everything he asks.
Milo's interest in Anne, it turns out, is more than professional, but not exactly what she thinks. He doesn't want her to be his sex slave, though sex is part of the equation.
A man obsessed, Milo has fallen in love with Anne. And he has no idea how to cope with the unfamiliar emotion. Astonishingly, after a rocky start, Anne realizes that she has also fallen for him.
By failing to kill Anne as he was hired to do, Milo has marked himself for death, and the two flee together to an isolated farm that Milo owns.
Avoca's men track them there, and they realize that in order to be free, they must return and confront their pursuers. They concoct a plan leaving Avoca, Carelli, and their men dead.
Anne and Milo escape together to a new life.
Cast
- Jodie Foster as Anne Benton
- Dennis Hopper as Milo
- Dean Stockwell as John Luponi
- Vincent Price as Mr. Avoca
- John Turturro as Pinella
- Fred Ward as Pauling
- Julie Adams as Martha
Cameos
- Catherine Keener as Trucker's girl
- Charlie Sheen as Bob
- Burke Byrnes as Fed #1
- Bob Dylan (uncredited) as Artist
- Joe Pesci (uncredited) as Leo Carelli
- Alex Cox (uncredited) as D.H. Lawrence
- Toni Basil (uncredited)
Production
The production was marred with difficulties between Foster and Hopper. The differences began on the first day of filming of Foster in the shower scene. Foster, dissatisfied with the scene yelled "cut" which angered Hopper, who informed her to never do that again. Later, according to Hopper in an interview with Charlie Rose, Foster warned Meryl Streep by phone several times to avoid Hopper who was very keen on working with her. Streep never returned his calls. Hopper stated ""It blew what I thought at the time was a go project a few years ago. Cause Meryl suddenly said no. She [Foster] thought that I had this AA mentality where I was really just doing this sober drunk or something."[2] During a Q&A with Richard Peña following the screening of The Beaver, Foster later stated "I worked with an actor-director who was a major pain. It was very difficult for me. Very difficult." [3]
The original screenplay was written by Rachel Kronstadt Mann, then re-written by Ann Louise Bardach, who was hired by Hopper and producer Steven Reuther. During the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, Hopper hired Alex Cox to do another polish while the film was shooting. Hopper released a director's cut of the film in the United States on cable television titled Backtrack, which runs 18 minutes longer than the theatrical version.[2]
Reception
The film wasn't well received by critics. Variety wrote: "Somewhere in here is a dark, sassy picture, but the final product is more like a jigsaw with half the pieces. Apart from Foster who's strong, shrewd and sexy, thesping is vaudeville all the way. Pesci rants and raves, Stockwell shows a nice line in a low-key comedy, Ward looks like he hasn't been shown the whole script, and Hopper as a go at Humphrey Bogart in shades". Greg Wroblewski wrote: "It's a mediocre film, with often illogical, even incomprehensible plot twists and poor character development".[2]
References
- Jeremy Braddock, Stephen Hock (2001). "Directed by Allen Smithee". University of Minnesota Press. p. 155.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
- Winkler, Peter L (2012). "Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel". Biteback. p. 263–4.
- "Jodie Foster Didn't Like Being Directed by Dennis Hopper". Showbiz411.com. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2020.