''Desperate Hours'' is a 1990 American

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

action thriller film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by

Michael Cimino Michael Antonio Cimino ( , ; February 3, 1939 – July 2, 2016) was an American filmmaker. He achieved fame as the director of ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), which won five Academy Awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Picture and ...

. It is a remake of the 1955 film of the same name and an adaptation the 1954 novel by Joseph Hayes, who also co-wrote the script with Cimino based on a treatment by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. Cimino was not credited as writer on the finished product. The film stars

Mickey Rourke Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. ( ; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former professional Boxing, boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading actor, leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. In a Mickey Rourke filmogra ...

and

Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor. Considered one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for List of Anthony Hopkins performances, his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins ha ...

, with

Mimi Rogers Miriam Rogers (née Spickler; born January 27, 1956) is an American actress. Her notable film roles are '' Gung Ho'' (1986), '' Someone to Watch Over Me'' (1987), '' Desperate Hours'' (1990), and '' Full Body Massage'' (1995). She garnered the g ...

, Kelly Lynch, Lindsay Crouse, and Elias Koteas in supporting roles. It marks Cimino's third collaboration with Rourke, having previously worked with him on the films '' Heaven's Gate'' and '' Year of the Dragon''.

Plot

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, Nancy Breyers is a defense lawyer who is inexplicably in love with client Michael Bosworth, an intelligent and sociopathic convict. During a break from a courtroom hearing, Nancy sneaks a gun to Bosworth. After Bosworth snaps a guard's neck, Bosworth and Nancy slip away. Bosworth tears at Nancy's clothing and leaves her behind, where she will tell authorities Bosworth held her at gunpoint during his escape. He speeds off in a car with his brother Wally, and their partner, the hulking, half-witted Albert, then changes cars with one Nancy has left for him in a remote location. In the meantime, decorated Vietnam veteran Tim Cornell arrives at his former home with his ex-wife Nora, who has two kids—15-year-old May and her 8-year-old brother Zack. Tim and Nora separated due to his infidelity with a younger woman, and Tim shows up trying to reconcile with Nora, with whom he is still in love. Needing a hideout until Nancy can catch up with them, the Bosworth brothers and Albert settle on the Cornells' home with a "For Sale" sign which is seemingly picked by Bosworth at random. Bosworth picks up intimate details of the Cornells, and one by one all of them find themselves the prisoners of the Bosworth brothers and Albert. Nancy's innocent act does not fool FBI agent Brenda Chandler, who puts surveillance on her every move. Nancy eventually cuts a deal with Chandler to have charges against her reduced by betraying Bosworth. As young Zack tries to escape through a window, their real estate agent, who has come to discuss the closing, meets him. Bosworth makes the realtor enter the house by force, and as they talk, Bosworth shoots him, then makes Albert dispose of the body as Albert gets anxiety-ridden and decides to go off on his own. As Albert leaves while covered in blood, he intercepts two college girls, who expose his presence to a small gas station owner. The owner calls the authorities who chase after Albert. Albert ignores their order to surrender and is killed by the police on a river bank. Nancy begs Agent Chandler to give her a gun, but unbeknownst to Nancy, Chandler removes the bullets. As she goes to the Cornells' house, the house gets surrounded, and as a shootout starts by Bosworth, Wally is fatally wounded in a barrage of FBI bullets and falls on top of a shocked Nancy. Wally's gun is taken away by Tim. Bosworth holds a gun on Nora and is prepared to use it if Tim interferes. He is unaware that Tim has removed the bullets. Tim then drags the criminal outside, where Bosworth ignores the FBI's order to surrender, and is fatally shot.

Cast

as Michael Bosworth *

as Tim Cornell *

as Nora Cornell * Kelly Lynch as Nancy Breyers * Lindsay Crouse as Brenda Chandler * John Finn as Lexington * Peter Crombie as Connelly * Elias Koteas as Wally Bosworth * David Morse as Albert * Shawnee Smith as May Cornell * Danny Gerard as Zack Cornell * Matt McGrath as Kyle *

Gerry Bamman Gerald G. Bamman (born September 18, 1941) is an American actor and playwright. He is best known for playing Uncle Frank in the films '' Home Alone'' (1990) and '' Home Alone 2: Lost in New York'' (1992), and has also guest starred in several tel ...

as Ed Tallant * Ellen McElduff as Bank Teller

Production

The project began at Paramount with Dino de Laurentiis attached as producer and Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal assigned to write the script. The film then moved to Tri Star under Jeff Sagansky, with

Christopher Cain Christopher Cain (born October 29, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Cain was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1969, he married Sharon Thomas, and adopted her two sons, Roger and Dean Cain, Dean. The couple's daug ...

to direct and Mickey Rourke to star. Cain left the project and was replaced by

William Friedkin William David Friedkin (; August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in doc ...

. Eventually Friedkin decided to make ''The Guardian'' and Rourke asked Cimino to direct. Konner and Rosenthal left the project and Cimino wrote his own script. Filming took place from October to December 1989. Parts of the film were shot in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, Echo Junction, Orem, Zion, and Capitol Reef in

. The movie marked De Laurentiis' return to production after his 1988 bankruptcy. According to some official sources, director Cimino's original two and a half-hour cut of ''Desperate Hours'' was mutilated by the film's producers, resulting in a very badly edited film filled with plot holes. The only known proof of any deleted scenes are some stills which seemingly show just a few of them. In 2005, at the Cinemateca Portuguesa, Cimino described how he had directed Kelly Lynch and Lindsay Crouse in an outdoors confrontation scene that was removed from the final cut of the film at his behest:

Reception

The film was a commercial disappointment and received split reviews. Critic and movie historian

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

referred to the film as "ludicrous... with no suspense, an at-times-laughable music score, and Shawnee Smith as a daughter/victim you'll beg to see cold-cocked." The film holds a 29% "rotten" rating on the reviews aggregation site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

based on 14 reviews. Christopher Tookey, reviewing the film for the '' Sunday Telegraph'' called ''Desperate Hours'' "one of those films which should never have been released, even on parole - a danger to itself." Mickey Rourke earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actor for his performance in the film (also for '' Wild Orchid''), but lost to

Andrew Dice Clay Andrew Dice Clay (born Andrew Clay Silverstein; September 29, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s with a brash, deliberately offensive persona known as "The Diceman". In 1990, he became the f ...

for ''

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane ''The Adventures of Ford Fairlane'' is a 1990 American mystery action comedy film directed by Renny Harlin and written by David Arnott, James Cappe, and Daniel Waters based on a story by Arnott and Cappe. The film stars comedian Andrew Dic ...

''. Siskel & Ebert included it on their "Worst of 1990" special, with Ebert calling it an "overwrought melodrama".

References

External links