Hidden Movie Gem: “The Long Kiss Goodnight”

Today’s Hidden Movie Gem guest post comes from John Casu.

Movie Title: The Long Kiss Goodnight

Year: 1996

Writer: Shane Black

Director: Renny Harlin

Starring: Geena Davis, Samuel L Jackson, Brian Cox, Yvonne Zima and Craig Bierko

Plot Summary: Samantha Caine, suburban homemaker, is the ideal mom to her 8 year old daughter Caitlin. She lives in Honesdale, PA, has a job teaching school and makes the best Rice Krispie treats in town. But when she receives a bump on her head, she begins to remember small parts of her previous life as a lethal, top-secret agent. Her old chums in the Chapter are now out to kill her so she enlists the help of a cheap detective named Mitch. As Samantha remembers more and more of her previous life, she becomes deadlier and more resourceful. Both Mitch and Charly proceed to do the killing thing, the bleeding thing and the shooting thing.

Why I Think This Movie Is A Gem: IMHO, this is one of the 5 best action movies ever made. It starts with Shane Black’s almost perfect screenplay (that at the time sold for a record amount.).

Then, in Sam Caine/Charly Baltimore, the movie gives us possibly the greatest anti-heroine committed to screen: a woman who fights her enemies on equal terms, without resorting to the cliche of using her “female wiles”.

This movie doesn’t pander: Charly’s a true badass, and she succeeds precisely because she’s more skilled and smarter than her male counterparts. But at the same time, she has her ass handed to her when she tries to fight straight up. The choice of the six foot Geena Davis gave us a female protagonist whose ability to fight men and to exert a real physicality was at least plausible (Angelina *cough*).

In addition, this is also a buddy movie in the vein of a Lethal Weapon (Also set during the Christmas holidays), but one where the woman is the lead partner. While Hennessy has his moments, Charly is clearly the one doing most of the saving of lives.

From a character point of view, Charly’s journey is interesting because she starts out as an amnesiac schoolteacher who discovers she’s really this badass CIA assassin (fyi, Sam Caine is an anagram of amnesiac). When her memory returns, we discover that unlike Nikita, who’s trying to escape a situation not of her making, Charlie actually likes being a deadly secret agent and sets out to erase her gentler new identity. Of course, Charly’s transformation has her accepting her instinctive role as a mother and a wife.

From a writing POV, something that’s worth noting is a writing trick Shane uses: have physical action act as character development. Here he incrementally uses action/physical sequences involving Sam/Charly’s motor skills and muscle memory to hint to her mysterious past. We see this most explicitly in the kitchen scene where Sam starts cutting up vegetables and then ends up pinning a tomato to a cabinet door with a thrown kitchen knife; and also in the hotel scene where she assembles a breakdown sniper rifle.

From an acting perspective, Geena Davis and Samuel L Jackson are both pretty amazing in this movie, while Brian Cox’s witty performance presages a similar turn in Red, 20 years later.

Highlight Moments:

The dialogue is just Shane Black turned to 11. The banter here is possibly better than in Lethal Weapon.

All the set pieces and action sequences, including the kitchen scene.

Sam/Charly’s interaction with her daughter, which setup callbacks that Shane skillfully uses during the third act.

Every time Sam threatens the kid Raymond with deadly violence.

Favorite Dialogue:

Mitch Henessey: How did you find us?

Nathan: There may be many reasons not to kill you, but among them is not that you’ll be missed
by NASA. I found the address in your coat. Here. Between the address of a topless bar, and the
picture of what looks like a man’s penis.

Mitch Henessey: That’s a duck, not a dick.

Things To Look Out For:

Larry King as himself interviewing Samuel L Jackson.

The soundtrack.

Movie Trailer:

Thanks, John! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

Tomorrow: Another Hidden Movie Gem!

Note: We filled up the month of October and have a few left over for November, so I don’t need any more guest posts. Thanks to everyone who participated!