Movie Review : ‘Hangfire’: Common Sense Under Siege

The ads for “Hangfire” (selected theaters) suggest, somewhat irrelevantly, “Sadam Hussein, Look Out!” Since this film has nothing whatever to do with Iraq or the Kuwait invasion, the reference seems somewhat obscure--unless, perhaps, Hussein is being warned not to watch the movie. This seems unfair. Why should Americans be the only ones to suffer through it?

“Hangfire” is a badly executed, feebly transplanted pseudo-Western. In it, a busful of depraved escaped convicts invade a modern Wild West village, hold all the tourists hostage and face attack from two quarters: Jan Michael Vincent as a posturing National Guard commander, who imagines that he is Douglas MacArthur, and Brad Davis as a feisty sheriff, who believes in commando raids and sneak attacks.

The movie seems to be about various levels of macho stupidity. Why do the convicts set up residence in a Wild West town? Do they intend to stay there forever? Why does Commander Vincent, in his MacArthurian pipe and shades, send his men marching into an ambush in broad daylight? Why do supporting actors George Kennedy and Yaphet Kotto disappear so quickly? Why do Davis and his buddy keep running into the same two convicts and tying them up? Why does the convict leader threaten the hostages, instead of his attackers?

More than that, why is so much of “Hangfire” so hard to see and hear? Much of it takes place in the blackest night, with the actors conversing in tones just above audibility. The heroine, Kim Delaney, has an even bigger vocal problem. In between the opening and close, she says virtually nothing--though she’s constantly being mauled or dragged around with a gun to her head. Meanwhile, most of the escaped convicts and the opposing cops sit around and grouse about how stupidly everything is being handled. One can hardly blame them.

There’s a moral of sorts in “Hangfire” (MPAA rated R for violence and language). It suggests that the military strategies of men who smoke pipes should not be taken seriously.