Above the Law (1988)

 

I am sort of trending towards other genres the last few days. I will obviously be starting up my Holiday Season viewing schedule soon. I'm thinking about writing some smaller, more compact shit on my Letterboxd account because, ad nauseum, I've more than blathered on about this and that for years on the blog now. I have the urge to watch "Black Christmas" (1974) again already after revisiting it just a few months ago in celebration of the great John Saxon's memory. But my interests aren't solely in horror--its umbrella over so many subgenres is most definitely appreciated and gives us fans plenty to watch and write about--and I feel sometimes that needs to be addressed. I love the action genre for all its many logical inconsistencies, nonsense plot developments, excuses for violent outbursts and mass beatdowns where a one man machine can rampage mow through a lot of thugs and brutes, and smarmy, cold-blooded, meathead, vile, and any other assortments of colorful heavies and villains that mastermind outfits that funnel drugs, weapons, bombs, human trafficking, among other criminality causing much harm to the community in whatever city or location where the quipping, intense, fast-fisted, swift-legged, stoic-faced, muscled, gun-totting, martial arts-trained heroes must work their way through trouble in order to come out successful. Andrew Davis directed Chuck Norris in Code of Silence (1985) and Harrison Ford in The Fugitive (1993), and Steven Seagal in Above the Law (1988). "Above the Law" was Seagal's big action film star debut, and Davis made sure he looked very impressive. Seagal sets up a back story regarding CIA drug shenanigans in Vietnam/Cambodia in the late 60s, moving the film to "present day" where Chicago is plagued with Henry Silva's dirty CIA agent, Tony Salvano, with a crew planning to assassination a senator threatening to expose his corruption (drugs moving out of Central America into the States). Even the FBI has a few rotten apples such as Agent Neeley (Nicholas Kusenko), allowing Salvano's suppliers to bring drugs into Chicago. So Seagal's Chicago cop, Nico Toscani, is motivated to take Salvano (and all within his operation) down, despite setbacks from the FBI and his own department superiors. Of course, Nico won't rest until Salvano and his enterprise is crushed. I always forget Pam Grier is in it, much to my shame. I think she's great, too, as Seagal's partner, as the two try to determine why their priest was killed in cold blood during a Catholic service, determining that another priest (and immigrants) was the actual target due to possibly knowing the assassination plot. 

All action fans of the 80s need to know is that Seagal rides the top of a car, despite the driver's ever attempt to throw him off around curves at high speeds, slams faces into bars, snaps arms, breaks necks under his arm, tosses chumps through store windows and through tables, demolishes stores with the thrown bodies of stuntmen, avoid machine guns aimed at him with only a pistol to shoot back, backs a car through the wall of a parking garage which throws a drug dealer into a railway from several stories, along with all the clothelines, forearm smashes, flips, Irish whips, hip tosses, fisticuffs, hand grabs, broken arms, faces, legs, and backs that come with a famed aikido master and instructor. You get to see Seagal with his students in class just breaking out all those aikido moves in slow motion. Lots of street scenes in urban Chicago, with Seagal even dropping muscleheads and big, thick Paul Bunyons who think they can easily take him and realize the hard way they are so very wrong. Look, Seagal will never, ever be recognized for his acting chops. He's at his best here, though. He runs after guys for blocks, getting very physically involved. Seagal even has Sharon Stone as a wife, before her eventual stardom. 

I can see why this is considered one of Seagal's best films. Because he is such a part of the fight scenes instead of the last twenty years where his presence isn't as active where the editing helps him out a lot. The message about using governmental influence to misbehave unlawfully is preachy, and considering how much Seagal does without his shield (and even with it), the irony is a bit amusing. 3.5/5