Angel Heart (1987); music by Trevor Jones

Mickey Rourke was on something of a roll with memorable roles (big and small) in a number of seminal films throughout the 80s; blink-and-you-miss-him roles in Heavens Gate (yes, I am a defender of this film) and Body Heat, bigger breakthrough roles in Diner and Pope of Greenwich Village (where he showed his acting chops), and then the lead roles in the great Year of the Dragon, the iconic 9-1/2 Weeks, A Prayer for the Dying (even with the strange attempt at an Irish accent), and this film, Angel Heart.

The streak came to a screeching halt with Wild Orchid in 1990 and then he never recovered, choosing to appear in simply bad films like Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, White Sands and even a Jean Claude Van Damme film (Double Team)! Incredibly, this great actor wound up in the straight-to-video category. A sideline with boxing didnt help matters (and probably fucked up his movie star looks).

For the most part, Mickey would never to see the light of a good role again (except for very small cameos in Buffalo 66 and Animal Factory) until Robert Rodriguez used him in Once Upon a Time In Mexico and Sin City, and Mickey gave those roles everything he had - there's nothing like watching a great actor recognize a great role and rediscover the fire within; add to this a turn in Tony Scott's soon-to-be-labelled-as-a-cult-item Domino and the man just might be on a streak again. Fingers crossed.

Angel Heart is a moody noir nightmare that is all filmmaking style-over-substance, but hey, its pulp so it fits the genre. Mickey wears his usual baggy-designer-clothes-and-three-day-stubble outfit and damned makes it look fashionable. DeNiro turns in solid work (before he lost the fire and sold out). And, of course, Lisa Bonet is hot hot hot.

Trevor Jones' score conveys the nightmarescape of the film quite well, filled with forebodings, shadows, dread...it sounds a lot like his later score for Mississippi Burning.

The soundtrack integrates choice dialogue from the film, and a few blues numbers to boot.

Great stuff.

http://rapidshare.com/files/4205243/angel_heart.zip.html