Runtime: 94 incredible minutes
Directed by: Dennis Hopper
Starring: Linda Manz, Hopper, Sharon Farrell, Don Gordon, Raymond Burr
From: Discovery Productions
Well, this was the feel-bad movie of the year… yet Out of the Blue hasn’t left my mind since last night. That is enough justification from me to award it a rare highest-possible rating.
As happened recently, a film playing on the Criterion Channel’s 24/7 stream finally pushed me to see a motion picture known by me for years. In 2019, Chloe Sevigny and Natasha Lyonne lead a crowdfunding to have the movie restored; the latter’s unfortunate opinions concerning AI in movies aside (and that’s due to her beau literally working in the AI field) I was glad to see what was to be a random Canadian family-friendly drama about a troubled teen before the original director-Leonard Yakir, one of the screenwriters-was let go after early filming was apparently a disaster. Lead male Dennis Hopper stepped in, rewrote the script w/ the input of Linda Manz, and created a DARK film.
I knew the movie would be rather downbeat-one detail known beforehand was that it BEGAN w/ a drunk Hopper crashing his semi-truck into a school bus full of children. He goes to prison, but somehow is paroled after only 5 years… I guess the law is different in Canada than the United States. The focus is on Cindy (i.e. Cebe), as portrayed by Linda Manz. Now, I’ll admit that Days of Heaven is a movie that probably deserves another review from me. In early 2017, I wrote that her character in the movie sported “an odd accent” & I downplayed a performance I recall as liking. It’s not something I remember as well as I should anyhow.
That admission is made because I must have missed the mark then… at least here, Linda Manz was outstanding in the role-I mean, incredible. She earned her love of Elvis from her father but due to having a dysfunctional life at home (this is even before the volatile Hopper is released from prison; her mother abuses drugs) she loves punk rock and has the false persona of a tough punk rocker… a girl who still sucks on her thumb in quite the juxtaposition.
This raw, unwavering film was uncomfortable in the first half w/ multiple adult men acting gross to Cebe and other underaged girls. The second half is even more distressing; Out of the Blue may be one of those great films that is never viewed again… at least in full. The main cast do a quality job, from Sharon Farrell to Don Gordon and Raymond Burr in his two scenes. However, both Hopper and Manz were the standouts. As many have noted already, what a message from the director of Easy Rider to have the lead shout the punk refrain “Death to hippies” and have a likely former hippie in Hopper’s Don as an abusive alcoholic irredeemable lout. The hippie dream is dead, especially in that small rural town in British Columbia.
The music of course was a highlight; besides the Elvis and punk songs (including two from the Vancouver punk band Pointed Sticks, who appear as themselves for a few minutes) there’s Neil Young’s My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue); Young & Hopper were friends and the lyrics were an obvious inspiration to the latter as he rewrote the movie’s script. “It’s better to burn out than it is to fade away” is a line that has entered the public consciousness since 1979 but it is uttered here & is a mantra Cebe subscribes to.
This review is too long anyhow for me to bemoan how Manz faded away from cinema—she did raise a family before passing away 5 years ago although leaving and only briefly returning in the late 90’s was apparently due to not finding enough work. At least I can be happy that she shone bright and gave a jaw-dropping performance as Cebe here. While I hope that broken homes aren’t such a maelstrom, a real nightmare for the poor innocent children affected, sometimes it is. No matter your childhood, Out of the Blue worked even better for me than expected.
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