Repo Man
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- For the person who repossesses property, see Repossession. For the professional wrestler, see Barry Darsow.
{{Infobox Film
| name = Repo Man | image = Repo Man.dvdcover.amazon.jpg | caption = Repo Man DVD Cover | director = Alex Cox | producer = Peter McCarthy | writer = Alex Cox | starring = Emilio Estevez
Harry Dean Stanton | music = Iggy Pop | cinematography = Robby Müller | editing = Dennis Dolan | distributor = Universal Pictures | released = March 2, 1984 | runtime = 92 minutes | language = English | budget = $1.5 million USD | imdb_id = 0087995
}} Repo Man is a 1984 cult film directed by Alex Cox, produced by Michael Nesmith, and starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton.
Contents |
Plot
Otto Maddox (Emilio Estevez), an alienated young punk rocker living in mid-1980s Los Angeles, is fired from his menial job as a supermarket stock clerk after talking back to his boss. Shortly afterwards, he finds out that his pot-smoking, ex-hippie parents have donated his entire savings account to a popular but sleazy television evangelist. Leaving home, broke, Otto gets a job almost by accident with the disingenuously named "Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation," a small-time automobile repossession agency, where he works with a seasoned repo man and mentor Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) who teaches him the often hazardous art of repossessing automobiles.
Soon, Bud, Otto and competing repo men all over town are searching for a 1964 Chevrolet Malibu sedan from New Mexico, oddly valued at $20,000*; this vehicle, unknown to them, contains something mysterious and dangerously powerful in its trunk, also sought by a strange female FBI agent, Agent Rogersz (Susan Barnes) and her staff. The film draws on the experiences of one of Cox's friends who worked briefly as a repo man in Los Angeles, but soon deviates into the surreal with aliens, the CIA, televangelism, punk rocker thieves and other strange characters and situations, all amid a long string of hilarious running gags and almost-impossible coincidences.
The soundtrack features now-classic punk rock tracks by Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies and others. Producer Mike Nesmith has a small cameo role.
- Note: Classic cars at this time were fetching high prices by buyers as investments, so it's within reason that a 1960s muscle car would fetch such a price in the mid 1980s, especially in good condition. However the Chevy Malibu in question was most certainly not such a vehicle. Indeed, the chief of the repo men, Oly, exclaims that "you could buy ten of them for that (price)" when he learns of the amount that is in escrow for the car.
Moments To Watch
- The picture of "four alien bodies" is allegedly two condoms filled with water and decorated with a pair of tiny grass skirts, arranged to resemble a plate of shrimp.
- Miller (Tracey Walter), a scruffy, oddball mechanic working for Helping Hand, refuses to learn to drive, explaining that the "more you drive, the less intelligent you are."
- In the edited-for-television version, the expletives have been dubbed by the original actors. "Fuck you, you mother fucker" was changed to "Flip you, you melon farmer". Cox also incorporated scenes absent from the cinema version into the television one.
Recurring themes and references
- References to "plates", "shrimp", or "plate of shrimp" throughout.
- In the hospital scene, a "Dr. Benway" and a "Mr. Lee" are paged. Both are characters from novels by William S. Burroughs.
- "Dioretix", a pun on L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics and the term diuretic.
- The dangerous glow emitted from the trunk of the Chevy Malibu may be a homage to the bright, glowing contents of the mysterious box in the 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly directed by Robert Aldrich.
- Food and beverages throughout the movie appear in generic white containers with blue-lettered labels reading "food", "beer", etc. (This was actually due to the need to save money on the film.)
- Pine-scented car deodorizers shaped like evergreen trees are placed in most cars. These items were one of the few sponsored items in this movie and hundreds of these deodorizers were donated to the filmmakers for this movie, without scent. Miller, the mechanic-philosopher, also noted the pervasive presence of the scented pine tree deodorizers in repossessed cars, telling Otto, "You'll find one in every car, you'll see." (One even appears on a policeman's motorcycle.)
- Many of the "repo men" of Helping Hand are named after popular beers or allude to beer: Bud, Oly, Lite, Miller.
- Quite a few Los Angeles-based punk rock musicians cast in roles large and small include: Dick Rude and Keith Morris (with his band, The Circle Jerks as well as The Untouchables (as the scooter guys). Also cast is Los Angeles club maven, Rodney Bingenheimer (aka "Rodney on the ROQ") in a cameo appearance as a club owner. The Circle Jerks perform as a very poor lounge act.
- Posters for "Harry Pace for City Council" in the background throughout the film. (Alex Cox has said that "Harry Pace" was an indirect reference to "happy face." Leila (played by Olivia Barash) wears happy face pins.
- The scene when Agent Rogersz and Leila torture Otto appears to be a reference to the Milgram experiment.
Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Jennifer Balgobin | Debbi |
| Olivia Barash | Leila |
| Susan Barnes | Agent Rogersz |
| Harry Dean Stanton | Bud |
| Emilio Estevez | Otto Maddox |
| Fox Harris | J. Frank Parnell |
| Helen Martin | Mrs. Parks |
| Sy Richardson | Lite |
| Dick Rude | Duke, Punk |
| Miguel Sandoval | Archie |
| Zander Schloss | Kevin the Nerd |
| Eddie Velez | Napoleon 'Napo' Rodriguez |
| Tracey Walter | Miller |
| Del Zamora | Lagarto Rodrigues |
Soundtrack
Template:Album infobox The soundtrack was meant to capture an angry spirit and features a collection of punk bands of the time.
- "Repo Man" performed by Iggy Pop – 5:11
- "TV Party" performed by Black Flag – 3:50
- "Institutionalized" performed by Suicidal Tendencies – 3:49
- "Coup d'Etat" performed by The Circle Jerks – 1:59
- "El Clavo y la Cruz" performed by The Plugz – 2:56
- "Pablo Picasso" performed by Burning Sensations – 4:01
- "Let's Have a War" performed by Fear – 2:29
- "When the Shit Hits the Fan" performed by The Circle Jerks – 3:11
- "Hombre Secreto (Secret Agent Man)" performed by The Plugz – 1:46
- "Bad Man" performed by Juicy Bananas – 4:59
- "Reel Ten" performed by The Plugz – 3:09
Awards and nominations
1985 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)
- Won - Best Supporting Actor (Film) — Tracy Walter
- Nominated - Best Writing — Alex Cox