After all, given his own domestic troubles, Harry may just be in the market for a new lifestyle.Īt this point, the movie is half over. To Harry, everything somehow seems both sinister and freeing at the same time. It’s unclear just what kind of living arrangements and relationships these three have with one another. When he arrives, he discovers Delly - played by a very, very young Melanie Griffith in her first onscreen role - living with Tom - played by John Crawford - and a mysteriously sexy woman named Paula, played by Jennifer Warren. So, he heads to Florida to find Arlene’s ex-husband - and Delly’s stepfather - Tom Iverson. This leads Harry to suspect that Delly may be trying to get revenge on her mother by hooking up with her former lovers. One surprise: It turns out Marv was old flame of Arlene’s. Harry visits the set and talks to Marv - played by Anthony Costello - and some other seedy characters, most of whom have seedy things to say about Delly, who has already moved on to somewhere else. So he skips town to go look for Delly.įirst, he talks to Delly’s boyfriend Quentin - played by a very young James Woods - who says that Delly dumped him for a stuntman named Marv Ellman while they were working on a movie set. It’s one of the best acted scenes in the movie. They have an emotional argument, revealing complexities about their relationship that were previously unknown. When Harry gets home, his wife has unsurprisingly heard about everything. And his work in this film belongs in that same company. In other words, Night Moves came out at the tail end of what was probably the most acclaimed period of his career. Then he starred in The Conversation, which, if we’re parsing categories, belongs in the upper stratosphere of Hackman’s film roles. And he worked with Al Pacino - who was also at a peak in his career - in Scarecrow. Over the next few years, he had his first and only leading role in a big budget event movie - The Poseidon Adventure. He won his first Oscar a year later for The French Connection. He was nominated for an Oscar for his work in I Never Sang For My Father in 1970. In the five years leading up to the release of Night Moves, Hackman appeared in 14 films. I’m not sure why it never showed up on my radar before I started this project. In fact, I knew next to nothing about it, other than the fact that it was №2 on Roger Ebert’s top 10 list for 1975. Night Moves is the first movie in the series that was all new to me. I’m venturing into new territory with this latest stop on my trip through Gene Hackman’s filmography.
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