Like A "Lethal Weapon" (1987)

I was watching the director’s cut of “Lethal Weapon” last night. BOY, what ridiculousness we believed in back then. That movie is really funny, in that it’s silly. I love the nostalgia, BUT, that movie couldn’t be made today. It was, in essence, outgrew the genre and became it’s own spoof. Seeing these guys young…how far we are now. We’re looking at close to 30 years ago.

A lot of things back then made sense to me for some reason. For instance, shooting people daily and not feeling the weight of death. That’s post 2000 bullshit. In 1987, you mow down all the “bad guys” and whistle away your troubles. Shit, they kill one guy in a swimming pool, and end up watching dead guy’s t.v. while their clothes dried. Nowadays, actors don’t like to play it one dimensional. I think Alan Rickman ruined it for them due to “Die Hard” being that a bad guy is really charming.

In “Lethal Weapon” Riggs is able to go to places only SWAT team would go to, and diffuse the situation in a few minutes. There’s a deleted scene in which he goes to a children’s playground, where there’s a sniper. And he stands in the open while the “sniper” shoots at him. Which only kicks up gravel around him. Then he takes aim, with a Beretta, and peppers the bad guy. In the open. Because he’s nuts. And we have to know this. Now get this…prior to that scene, there is a lady cop (and I’m laughing as I type this) who grabs at Riggs’ ankle and begs him to get to cover. Good luck convincing Lethal Weapon of that.

I’m not sure how kids who were my age who watched that would take it now. Consider this, it was taboo for your daughters to be in porno. That’s long gone. It was “disgusting” to have girl on girl coke parties (can you imagine it any other way). That was the reveal of Dixie, the hooker who was in the room with Amanda Hunsacker. A-ha…it wasn’t a john it was a JANE!

Also, the concept of mental illness is used for comedy too. Riggs is clearly on a death wish. His wife was killed and he’s depressed for the holidays. He’s a heavy drinker. Yet…he still goes undercover because diagnosed mental illness is chalked up to him faking it to get money. Remember when we thought shrinks were….shrinks?

And to think Shane Black (the writer) had tossed this script into the garbage before it was fished out and made into a classic. I met Richard Donner (director) years ago...his schtick is totally Martin Riggs-type zany.