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One of Most Disturbing NYC Thrillers of the 1980s Has Been AWOL — Until Now

One of Most Disturbing NYC Thrillers of the 1980s Has Been AWOL — Until Now

Yahoo4 days ago
'Somewhere in this city, possibly among these people, is a man… so close to the edge that when he breaks, it could change your life forever.'
The city is New York at the end of era, poised between being the place that a sitting President implied should 'drop dead' and a metropolis on the verge of becoming a coked-up playground for Wall Street's nouveau riche. The people are the everyday men and women that populate it, from working stiffs to fatcat bureaucrats. The man on the edge is named Gus Soltic, though his neighbors in the boogie-down Bronx call him 'the Mole Man'; he works in the sewers under Central Park. Spoiler: He will break. And while he won't necessarily change your life, Soltic is about to drag an ex-cop and his teenage kid through hell.
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The movie is Night of the Juggler, and if you were lucky enough to catch this thriller when it first hit theaters in 1980 or played on premium cable channels for a few scant years afterward, then you probably remember it. Or at the very least, you can recall Cliff Gorman's uniquely unsettling take on the urban psychopath; James Brolin at the peak of his bearded, Brawny-mascot hotness; and the way that the movie portrayed NYC in all its funky, late Seventies state of decay. Like many works from that fertile age of grindhouse-friendly filmmaking, this adaptation of William P. McGivern's novel (originally titled Red Alert Central Park, a far better pulp-fiction handle) fell through the cracks in terms of distribution rights and home-entertainment-format updates. Apart from rare revival screenings, it's been near impossible to see it outside of bootlegs for almost 40 years. That Kino Lorber has finally managed to give this cult classic a 4K restoration without sacrificing its sense of Forty-Deuce grit — and another theatrical run before a Blu-Ray release this fall — is a miracle. You could not ask for better throwback viewing than this on a hot August night.
Once upon a time, Brolin's Sean Boyd wore a badge and kept Manhattan's mean streets safe. Then he pulled a Frank Serpico and exposed the corruption of his fellow police officers, and suddenly, he's part of the wave of NYPD layoffs. Now he drives a truck and dotes on his daughter Kathy (Abby Bluestone), who's turning 15 today. Dad got them both tickets to the ballet that night, but she's still got to go to summer school. Despite the fact that Boyd is bushed after a graveyard shift, he's willing to walk her to school.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Soltic is finishing up his breakfast. After the single most menacing splattering of ketchup in the history of American cinema, he changes out of his uniform and stakes out on apartment on the upper west side. His target is the daughter of a real-estate developer who screwed his family over many years ago. Now the Mole Man wants to make them suffer. The plan is to kidnap the rich guy's kid and demand a hefty ransom, though you feel like he's the kind of sicko who's not willing to stop there in terms of criminal behavior. Due to the fact that Kathy is wearing nearly the same outfit as the developer's teen daughter, Soltic accidentally grabs her instead and throws her into the station wagon he's just boosted. Sean quickly sprints after them.
What follows is one of the great unsung chase scenes of late-period New Hollywood, a 10-minute sequence in which our hero pursues the bad guy through upper Manhattan, aided by a Puerto Rican cabbie played by Mandy Patinkin — yes, that Mandy Patinkin. The cat-and-mouse game briefly transitions to the subway at the 86th Street stop before they both surface above ground again. Many cars are crashed. This sequence alone makes the film worth seeking out while it's on big screens. (It kicked off its theatrical run this weekend in NYC at the IFC Center, and per Kino, will expand to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Austin, Atlanta, and Toronto, among other cities, starting in September.) Brolin then spends the remainder of the movie using every one of his old connections and the help of various average New Yorkers to track down his missing teen. Despite the fact that the actor broke his foot early in the shoot (which led to original director Sidney J. Furie leaving the project and Robert Butler taking the reins), Brolin is in a state of constant motion. There is so much running in this film that they could have easily called it Day of the Jogger.
Despite the fact that Night of the Juggler hit theaters in June of 1980, it's very much a movie of the 1970s, and is part of a wave of films that painted New York as a sort of Armageddon-in-progress that Pauline Kael dubbed 'Horror City.' Everything appears to be breaking down and/or covered in a patina of sleaze. The outer boroughs look like war zones, ethnic gangs run rampant, midtown is littered with massage parlors and peep shows, and the police have their hands full with militants and double-digit murder rates. The movie's climax takes place in the sewers, which somehow seem cleaner than the city perched on top of them. 'Y'know, I got a feeling it's gonna be another goddamned New York day,' one exasperated police lieutenant says early on, and the film spends the rest of its running time doubling down on his assertions. Welcome to the NYC that spurred conservative Middle America's nightmares.
That aforementioned line, by the way, is spoken by Richard Castellano, better known as Clemenza from The Godfather — and he's just one of the ensemble of extraordinary character actors from the era that help make this richly rancid time capsule rock hard. Dan Hedaya plays a cop still pissed at Boyd for the whole informing thing, and thinks nothing of opening fire on his former peer with a shotgun in the middle of a crowded Bryant Park. Sully Boyar, a.k.a. the bank manager from Dog Day Afternoon, shows up as administrator at a canine pound. (He's graduated to afternoons spent with actual dogs!) You might recognize a street preacher as the same guy who played a doctor in The Exorcist; that's Barton Heyman. And while the casting of Patinkin as that heavily accented cabbie is definitely… let's call it 'a choice,' the movie also hands a plum role to the great Puerto Rican actor Julie Carmen, who's graced everything from John Cassavetes' Gloria to The Milagro Beanfield War to Tales of the Walking Dead.
But Night of the Juggler is really Brolin and Gorman's show. And while the movie certainly makes the case for the former tying with Burt Reynolds for Most Virile Screen Presence of the era, it's the latter who turns this class-conscious kidnapping potboiler into one of the more disturbing thrillers of that transitional sociopolitical moment. An actor who graced The Boys in the Band and All That Jazz, and who won a Tony for playing Lenny Bruce in the original Broadway production of Lenny, Gorman is both the secret sauce and source of the movie's diseased mojo. His Soltic initially courts sympathy with his tale of being economically screwed over by the city's elite; this character's racist views and growing, extremely unhealthy attraction to Boyd's kid, however, quickly ixnays any notion of being on his side. There's no question that this man is a psychopath, and Gorman leans into the ugliness. Yet he also gives him a sense of someone who's been tainted, warped, left behind by the land of milk and honey. Back then, this version of God's Lonely Man was easily recognizable as an outlier. Now Soltic would be recognizable as someone spewing hate and violence among communities of like-minded folks. It's a metastisized have-not archetype with a grudge that has not gone away. Only the horror-city landscape has changed.
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‘F1' On Course For $600M Global Amid Continued Strong Holds; ‘Superman' Also Soon To Milestone; Big WW Weekend For India's ‘Coolie' & Japan's ‘Demon Slayer'
‘F1' On Course For $600M Global Amid Continued Strong Holds; ‘Superman' Also Soon To Milestone; Big WW Weekend For India's ‘Coolie' & Japan's ‘Demon Slayer'

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  • Yahoo

‘F1' On Course For $600M Global Amid Continued Strong Holds; ‘Superman' Also Soon To Milestone; Big WW Weekend For India's ‘Coolie' & Japan's ‘Demon Slayer'

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Pulisic Controversy Has Turned Into A USMNT Off-The-Field Soap Opera
Pulisic Controversy Has Turned Into A USMNT Off-The-Field Soap Opera

Forbes

time3 hours ago

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Pulisic Controversy Has Turned Into A USMNT Off-The-Field Soap Opera

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But to be honest, it just fuels me to get back on the field and just shut everyone up and show everyone what I'm about, at the end of the day." Weah isn't happy Wait! It doesn't stop with Pulisic. USMNT teammate Tim Weah, who recently completed a transfer from Juventus to Marseille, called the former players who have dared to criticize the team as "evil." That's right, evil. "I think those guys are chasing checks, and for me, I just feel like they're really evil, honestly, because they've been players and they know what it's like when you're getting bashed," Weah said. Those are the same guys that'll turn around and shake your hand and try to be friends with you at the end of the day. "Don't get me wrong, I respect all of them. They were players that I looked up to. But quite frankly, the guys before us didn't win anything, either." Well, the earlier generations did set the table for the current team. Meola, for example, backstopped the U.S. in its first World Cup appearance in 40 years in 1990. But we'll have to do a U.S. soccer history in another piece. Mark Pulisic defends his son It should not come as a surprise that Pulisic's father, Mark, a former pro soccer player himself, backed his son. "These guys want clicks," he said. "On social media, it's 'subscribe to my channels, listen to my podcasts,' or whatever. I think they should look in the mirror and look at their last performances for the national team before they start talking s#@t." Lalas' response Those remarks opened the door for a response from Lalas on Fox and Meola on the Call It What You Want podcast on CBS Sports. Lalas wrote "don't bring your dad to a fight. I get that Mark Pulisic, like other dads out there, has been involved directly in bringing up, in this case, Christian. I get that he's a former coach. But who brings their dad to a fight? If you're angry at me or Landon or anybody else that is being critical of you, that's fine. You have a platform, you have a microphone – some would say bigger than anybody else out there – to get that off your chest, but you don't need to bring your dad. "Never once has it even occurred to have my father defend me from the slings and arrows that are inevitable but well done. You got me to watch, and you got exactly what you wanted." Meola has his say Meola and Mark Pulisic were teammates on the Oceanside Navahos team that captured the Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association Boys Under-19 crown in 1987. Pulisic scored twice that day, including a late game-winner in a 2-1 triumph over B.W. Gottschee. 'I've been friends with Mark Pulisic for a long time. We played together at the youth level. You gotta stay out, Mark," Meola said. 'I know you're a dad, I know you get emotional, your kid is at the top of the heap, right? I've got other friends in other major sports in America that their kids right now are in top of the heap. They listen to this all the time about their kids. You can't respond. "Stay out. Christian is a big boy. He will be able to do this on his own. He will be able to carry this team.' This criticism and replies aren't about to go away anytime soon, if ever. The U.S. men have two friendlies coming up during the September FIFA international window against a pair of top-flight Asian sides. The Americans will face the Korea Republic at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, N.J. on Sept. 6 before meeting Japan at Field in Columbus, Ohio on Sept. 9. Like it or not, Pulisic and his teammates will be under the microscopic and then some in those friendlies and anything concerning club or country from now until the end of the European domestic season in May and the first part of the Major League Soccer campaign before it takes its World Cup break. And those criticisms and opinions won't stop with the end of the World Cup. In the media environment that we live in today, it likely will continue forever. Who knows? After this generation of USMNT players retire, they might find themselves in a similar situation when they become media pundits and get an opportunity to share their opinions, criticisms and analysis about another generation.

Dillon Gabriel's ‘entertainers, competitors' comments will get Browns fans talking
Dillon Gabriel's ‘entertainers, competitors' comments will get Browns fans talking

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Dillon Gabriel's ‘entertainers, competitors' comments will get Browns fans talking

The post Dillon Gabriel's 'entertainers, competitors' comments will get Browns fans talking appeared first on ClutchPoints. The Cleveland Browns are expected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL this season, but they are also one of the most powerful media magnets in the league right now. And that statement will carry even more validity following Saturday's 22-13 preseason win versus the Philadelphia Eagles. While there are certainly interesting aspects of the game to unpack, the biggest attention-grabber occurred during a sideline interview in the third quarter. Rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who made his preseason debut after recently battling a hamstring injury, dropped a soundbite that is sure to go viral. When asked how he 'tunes out the noise,' the third-round draft pick responded with an interesting choice of words that had many fans immediately thinking of one man. 'That's just part of it… there's entertainers and there's competitors,' Gabriel said, via TheDayroomExperience X account. 'And I totally understand that, and my job is to compete… I just want to be the best teammate that I can and create an environment where we can all do our best work.' The 'entertainers' remark immediately put the spotlight on fellow rookie signal-caller Shedeur Sanders, who famously has a big personality and flashy appearance. However, given the nature of the question, which focused on 'the noise,' it is definitely possible Gabriel was talking about the media circus that is encircling the Browns QB room, and not his teammate. Do not forget, one reporter was caught on video mouthing 'I'm taller than him' in the spring, so it is possible the 24-year-0ld already has some reservations about the local press. A narrative will take shape regardless. Browns' Dillon Gabriel, Shedeur Sanders must push through all the hoopla Whether or not he intended to bring Sanders back into focus, Gabriel just threw gasoline on the QB controversy that was already brewing in Cleveland. He should know how the specific word 'entertainer' is going to be perceived by those watching. Although it is not a written part of the job description, a quarterback is supposed to ward off distractions when talking into a microphone. Unfortunately, this will have the opposite effect. Gabriel wants his game to speak louder than anything he said off the field, but while he did show some promise on Saturday afternoon, the All-American and former Oregon star posted a mixed outing. He completed 13-of-18 passes for 143 yards, while also throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown and committing a lost fumble on a handoff. Gabriel's pass-catchers share accountability on the pick-six — bunched-up and did not make a strong move for the ball — but he needs to recognize potential dangers during such unfavorable circumstances. Nevertheless, the young Hawaiian still made enough good throws to inspire some optimism. Since Shedeur Sanders is nursing an oblique injury, and Dillon Gabriel was sidelined last week, fans have still yet to see both signal-callers compete in the same exhibition game. Perhaps that will change in the Browns' preseason finale against the Los Angeles Rams next Saturday. The team and NFL world can expect much speculation until that day arrives. Related: Dillon Gabriel's unbothered take on Browns QB depth chart position Related: Kevin Stefanski's blunt verdict on Dillon Gabriel-led Browns offense vs. Eagles

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