Review of Turk 182

Introduction

With this review I finally come full circle. Turk 182 was the film that set me on the path towards home cinema obsession. Without it, I wouldn`t be the gibbering wreck that needs a regular fix of DVDs to keep functioning. I was a relative latecomer to recorded visual media; my parents had some fool idea about video recorders being detrimental to my education. For a month or so after we got our first VHS machine, all we had were the three blank videos that came free with it. It`s the reason why I could quote verbatim the dialogue to Star Trek II, Chisum, and The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie until my mid-twenties. My dad`s friend saw this sorry state of affairs and gave my dad an ex-rental tape to keep and enjoy, Turk 182. It was a proper film, without the adverts carefully screened out by a youthful touch on a pause button. It even had trailers at the beginning, just like in the cinema, and for a while I was more taken with the trailers for Ladyhawke and Return Of The Jedi, than I was for the film itself. When I finally got round to watching the movie, it was surprisingly enjoyable for a title I had never heard of, and it got more than a few watches over the years. I still have the tape, but I daren`t play it now, as it`s more creased than Keith Richard`s visage. As soon as I bought my first DVD player, I waited patiently for it to come out on disc, but no such luck in the UK. In fact it wasn`t until 2005 that it was finally released in the US, although I only realised this last year. But one quick online purchase, followed by an agonising wait in front of the letterbox, and I finally hold Turk 182 in my hands.


Terry Lynch was a New York City fire fighter, until the night that he went to rescue a girl from a blazing building, and got thrown out of a window for his troubles. He was left needing extensive rehabilitation and expensive care. The problem was that he was off duty, and winding down at a bar before someone raised the alarm. Now, the city refuses to honour the pension that he is due. His kid brother Jimmy is relentless in pursuing the case, and when he attempts to take up the issue at City Hall, he gets rudely rebuffed by a mayor looking to score some cheap points at the expense of a drunk benefit cheat. Mayor Tyler is up for re-election, and trying to minimise the effects of a corruption scandal. It isn`t going too well, and when he opens an anti-graffiti drive at Battery Park, some protestors put a stain on his big day with a neat bit of sloganeering. This inspires Jimmy, and he`s soon planning a way to get his brother the pension that he is due, a graffiti campaign the likes of which The Big Apple has never seen. All he needs is a tag. Soon Turk 182 is New York`s newest folk hero, and Mayor Tyler`s bugbear.

Video

At first glance, Anchor Bay`s transfer of Turk 182 looks pretty fair for a film approaching a quarter of a century in age. The 2.35:1 anamorphic image is clear and sharp for the most part, and signs of age are limited to just the occasional fleck and minor scratch. But pretty soon it becomes clear that reds are seriously over saturated, with skin tones distinctly in the pink. Also there is aliasing beyond what would be acceptable on a DVD, with moiré affecting some eighties fashions, and jaggies on straight edges. It could be better, but if Fox weren`t willing to release their own film, then I doubt we`d get a better transfer any time soon.

Audio

The DD 2.0 track replicates the original stereo experience, and subtitles are noticeable by their absence. The film could really use them too for some occasionally mumbled or muffled dialogue.

Features

You get the theatrical trailer, which shows you just how bad the transfer could have been. There is a text biography for director Bob Clark that runs to 21 pages. Finally there is an audio commentary from Bob Clark. I wouldn`t bother with it though, as while there may be a few nuggets of information, he`s hardly the most inspiring of speakers. He`s not exactly vocal in this track, stating the obvious and leaving long stretches of silence. It`s dull and hard to listen to.

Conclusion

For me Turk 182 is the quintessential 80s movie, a statement that will no doubt have some of you switching off right now. But for me the 80s was an amazing time for cinema, a time when how big a film`s budget was didn`t play a part in how it was received. It was a time when mainstream cinema was adopting Indie principles, and experimentation and new ideas were actively encouraged. Can you imagine trying to sell a film where a graffiti artist goes up against The Man, as a feel-good comedy drama? You`d be hitting the pavement so fast that your backside would be throwing off sparks!


Yet the story for Turk 182 works splendidly, combining character drama with a deft touch in self-deprecating humour. The film is directed and paced well, with the only flaw a tendency to lapse into overt social comment, though it`s one that doesn`t overwhelm. The strength of the film is the top-notch cast, with a fresh-faced Timothy Hutton by turns mischievous and endearing as Jimmy Lynch. His relationship with his brother as played by Robert Urich is well observed, with playful banter masking affection and hero worship. There is strong support from Kim Cattrall as the social worker assigned to Terry`s case, and who eventually uncovers Jimmy`s secret identity. Robert Culp is ever so slightly amoral and spin-obsessed as Mayor Tyler, but likeable nonetheless, while Peter Boyle as his security chief Ryan is initially bumbling, but as his job grows ever more precarious, gains an ominous menace. There is also a small but significant role for Darren McGavin as Detective Kowalski, assigned to crack the Turk case, and he gets some choice dialogue.


It is a movie from a more innocent time. The idea of one man making a difference was more than just a line from Knight Rider, and there was always the idea that if you stood up for your principles with enough strength and conviction, then you would prevail. Nowadays, anyone trying a stunt like Jimmy`s would end up getting water-boarded in Guantanamo. The idea of civil disobedience to fight injustice seems hopelessly naïve and pointless now, so even though you may be cheering along with the extras as Jimmy makes his last stand in this film, there will be a touch of melancholy with it, in honour of a simpler, more innocent age.


Surprisingly though, that isn`t what dates this film. It`s a throwaway line from Kim Cattrall that does for this movie, even more than the fashions, the Vic 20s and the music. Jimmy asks her if she has a boyfriend, she replies that she is seeing a couple of guys. Instantly we`re in the `try before you buy` era, before AIDS and safe sex put paid to such social mores.


Turk 182 is one of the better films to come from the eighties, and one that is usually overlooked when it comes to recounting the decade. I`d advise you to buy it (with the exchange rate it`s certainly affordable), but setting up the disc on the site, I wandered over to the retailer from where I purchased it, only to find it had been discontinued. It`s still available from other websites though, so if you want a piece of the decade that taste forgot, in a film that is more accessible than most and not too dated, then make haste for your nearest online retailer while stocks last.