Colors

Sean Penn and Robert Duvall play a pair of cops, one young and aggressive, the other older and wiser, assigned to control rival drug-dealing gangs in Los Angeles in this disappointingly mechanical effort at urban realism from Hopper who had to this point been noted for putting his individual stamp on the films he directed (Easy Rider, 1969, The Last Movie, 1971 and Out Of The Blue, 1980), Colors could have been directed by anyone of reasonable competence.

The story lends itself to MTV treatment and this is exactly what it gets with the usual assortment of car chases, shoot-outs and jive talking homies sporting 80s designer punk fashion set to a mixture of rap music and a “contemporary” jazz score by Herbie Hancock in a piecemeal effort that is all surface and no depth. Originally set in Chicago, Hopper, who was brought in by Penn, changed the setting to L.A. but beyond this his contribution is not apparent. Occasionally the film engages with its two thematic strands, the relationship between the rookie and his mentor on the one hand and the workings of the street gangs on the other but there is no dramatic dynamic and the film simply burbles to a familiar end.

 

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