To Live and Die in L.A.

Director: William Friedkin

1985 / 116min / DCP

Adrenaline-junkie Secret Service agent William Petersen and partner John Pankow are looking to bring down Willem Dafoe’s funny money-making gallery sophisticate in “Hurricane Billy” Friedkin’s intense action opus—and they’ll even drive full speed into oncoming traffic to do it. The sun-baked Pop Art Angeleno flipside of the dowdy New York neorealism of The French Connection, shot in searing color by Müller, To Live and Die in L.A. is Friedkin at his pedal-to-the-metal best, from its pumped-up overture opening which depicts the counterfeiter’s art over Wang Chung’s slammin’ synth soundtrack to its still-shocking last act shift of narrative focus.

Part of Robby Müller: Remain in Light