Luta Solitária

My review was written in May 1986 after a screening at Lyric theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"Stand Alone" is a drama which takes its structure directly from an uncountable number of Westerns, updated to urban, crime ridden American society. Extremely mild, low-budget entry is a New World pickup filmed in L. A. in the summer of 1984 and quietly slipped into territorial release beginning last September.

Charles Durning gets a rare starring (above the title) role as Gus Thibadeau, a decorated (by Gen. Macarthur, he's fond of telling everybody) World War II hero living quietly in a sleepy L. A. neighborhood with his daughter and a grandson.

He witnesses a gangland-style murder executed by three latin youthsin a cafe owned by his old buddy Paddy (Bert Remsen) and reluctantly agrees to help police Det. Isgrow (James Keach) identify the suspects and testify against them.

Thibadeau's young lawyer friend Cathryn Bolan (Pam Grier), who as a public defender encounters the chief suspect Santos (Luis Contreras), tries to convince Thibadeau not to get involved, noting that the drug smugglers involved in the killing will probably blow him away if he fingers the killers.

Thibadeau decides to send his family away to stay in Long Beach and make his stand, going up to the attic to get his marine weapons and hold off the villains in his house.

Though played fairly straight, the sight of Durning blacking up his face and making like Rambo is amusing.l His acting is solid, though the role is one-dimensional. Cast against type as a nice, professional woman, Grier is engaging, and it comes as no surprise in the final reel when she grabs a gun to protect lone wolf Durning against the killers. Rest of the cast is adequate.

The big showdown could have used some of the suspense and thrills of "Straw Dogs", which it resembles structurally. Director Alan Beattie did a better job at atmospherics and grabbing the viewer in his previous film, a horror opus featuring Joseph Cotten: "The House Where Death Lives".

Charles Durning is out of his league in "Stand Alone". Durning is almost always worth watching but this movie stinks. It starts off kind of fun as Durning and his big belly get involved with the bad guys. But after twenty minutes or so, the movie becomes painfully dull. The script is paint-by-numbers urban action stuff. The cop characters are all poorly written. They act in totally unbelievable ways. In 1985 an older Charles Bronson was still making movies. Bronson could probably made something of this material. Durning and his big fat belly, on the other hand, just looks ridiculous running around fighting bad guys. "Stand Alone" is a swing and a miss.

There were no shortage of vigilante.movies following the success of Death Wish. However, by the mid 80's a lot of these movies were less believable or cartoonish. Take a look at Death Wish 3 to see what I am talking about. I thought Stand Alone was pretty good and I am a little surprised that I am just discovering this movie now. I would say this is comparable with a British vigilante film that came much later ( Harry Brown), but much less bleak than that film. Charles Durning is very believable as a loveable old grandpa that is pretty tough and decorated WW2 veteran. He comes across as an everyman, but is totally credible when he is threatened and proceeds to take out the trash. The supporting cast of Pam Grier and James Keatch don't hurt either. I don't know the actor's name, but the Latino guy who frequently plays a heavy in Walter Hill films is a great villain as the leader of The Skull Tattoo gang that has it out for Charles Durning. Even though this is an 80's movie the cheese is kept to a minimum and is taken fairly seriously. I just discovered this movie, and would definitely recommend it, Stand Alone is a solid action drama and a lot better than a bunch of vigilante action flicks that have gotten more attention.

I've always been a fan of action movies and tight thrillers. Death Wish was a fav of mine when I was young, and still is. So, I try to watch new ones as often as I can.

Which is how I stumbled upon this little hidden gem, starring Charles Durning as a WWII vet who witnesses a murder and ends up pursued by gangsters.

This is quite an obscure film. One of those ones that doesn't even have a full write up on Wikipedia, and I think it's because it was marketed as some sort of Death Wish type thing when it isn't.

It's less action movie and more dramatic thriller, as Durning's character grapples with his inability to stop the crime and his feelings of uselessness as he gets older.

Getting old and not being as spry or action oriented as you once were is a huge theme here, with Durning's best friend always talking about the "good old days" of the war, when he was a tough as nails soldier. But we all get old, and it is a lot harder for some than it is for others.

Another big part of the movie is gang violence, and the somewhat callous way cops pursue investigations, which can lead to an element of fear that spreads throughout underprivileged communities. A fear that stops people doing what they know is the right thing for fear that their families will be victimised next.

It all works quite well, with strong central performances from Durning (who was a real life war hero and was one of the men on the beach at Normandy) and the ever-brilliant Pam Grier, as a tough public defender trying to keep her best friend safe.

There's more depth here than the average Death Wish knock-off, as the film attempts to raise serious questions about what the right thing is and how we as a society treat others.

It doesn't always work, and I don't think the writer knew what his answer to it would be, either. But it still is an interesting watch.

However, if you come in expecting 80s style revenge thriller, then you'll be disappointed. Which is probably why the film didn't make much of a splash. Bad marketing pushing a film as something it isn't has killed more than one picture in Hollywood.

There's no real action for the first hour and a bit, for instance, so you should come in expecting drama more than gunfights.

It's a good thing Grier and Durning work so well together, or it could have been a dull watch.

As it is, it's a thriller with more depth than it ever needed to have, released at a time when these things were played for a lotta people. That's the way the cake falls off a cliff, I suppose.

You should seek it out. It deserves more attention than it got.

Throughly intense. Just goes to show why you should never judge a book by its cover. Charles Durning portrayal of an aging veteran is both surprising and fantastic. He's not the usual Gibson or Jackson type star Hollywood would use to enhance this character. The really scary factor in this movie is that it could actually happen anywhere. there's no super movie special effects, just straight out home brewed justice. This movie not only illustrates social and cultural stress of changing urban demographics, it delves deep into the psyche of post traumatic stress that many war veterans live with on a daily basis. Definitely a must see, you may never look at your war veteran neighbor the same again. Now, if this would only be distributed on DVD!