THE PLOT THUS FAR
LA cops Gould and Blake get in over their heads when they don’t heed orders from above and go after a big crime boss. While higher ups in the police department want the cop duo to just focus on nabbing petty criminals, the team does so while still going after LA kingpin Rizzo. Various fist fights, chases, shootouts and other carnage occur as the two cops go after Rizzo’s crime syndicate.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
Gould and Blake inhabit their work lock, stock and barrel. They consume most of their time apprehending people who are more of a perceived threat to society than a real one: call girls, massage parlor staff and gay bar regulars. It’s simply what they do to keep the wheels turning, like road cleaners. It’s one of the existential quirks of Busting that when the vice boys do get mixed up in their work, when they find themselves pursuing the Mr. Big accountable for the considerable multi-million-dollar L.A. rackets in addition to the trivial ones, they get thumped, both by the crooks and by their Police Department superiors who may, it would seem, stand for the posture of the society whose protectors they are: The action sooner or later gets around to charging Allen Garfield, cast as a local peer of the realm, with practically all illegal goings-on in town. Garfield, as ever an exceptional actor, brings poise and a sense of being wholly together to the role.
As bemused as the Philip Marlowe Gould interpreted a year before in Altman’s brilling Long Goodbye, this 1974 film was the first film by Hyams. His aptitude as a director is more apparent in this film than in any other he’s done perhaps, especially in the visual highlights and in the performances. I have an idea that that the qualities of Gould and Blake, instead of the screenplay, are answerable for the distinctness provided the roles. They try a bit too hard for idiosyncrasy and funny habit, nonetheless they’re effective at establishing particular characters.
The DVD comes with no special features. But, you get amazing A/V Quality for a movie on a DVD-R disc. The audio also sounds much more cleaned up than the version I see floating around premium cable. The transfer still comes across a little rough, but that’s what you get for an unremastered film like this. I’d recommend a purchase for all fans of 70s crime dramedies.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
