Out of Bounds (1986 film)

Last updated
Out of Bounds
Out of bounds.jpg
Out of Bounds movie poster
Directed by Richard Tuggle
Written byTony Kayden
Produced by Charles W. Fries
John Tarnoff
Ray Hartwick
Michael S. Rosenfeld
Starring
Cinematography Bruce Surtees
Edited by Kent Beyda
Music by Stewart Copeland
Production
companies
Delphi V Productions
Fogbound Productions
Fries Entertainment
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • July 25, 1986 (1986-07-25)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$9 million [1]
Box office$5,099,316 (USA)

Out of Bounds is a 1986 American action crime neo noir thriller film directed by Richard Tuggle and starring Anthony Michael Hall. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

Out of Bounds stars Anthony Michael Hall portraying Daryl Cage, an Iowa farm boy whose parents send him to Los Angeles to live with his brother following their divorce. At the airport, Daryl's suitcase is switched with a drug kingpin’s that is full of heroin . The gangster boss kills Cage's brother and his live-in girlfriend, but Daryl is framed for the crime. He then becomes the prime suspect for the murder, but decides to clear his own name.

Cast

Production

Development

The film was the idea of executive producer John Tarnoff, who wanted to make a "fish out of water" tale set in the Los Angeles club scene. He hired TV writer Tony Kayden to a script. [1]

"I really wanted to capture the L.A. underground scene-where the runaways come, where the real low-lifes go and where the clubs come and go very fast," said Kayden. "I was always a fan of the punk scene and all the bands, like Suicidal Tendencies, the Gun Club and Tex and the Horseheads. A lot of the kids in the film are loosely based on characters I'd see hanging out around town. There's a very strange, transient sub-culture here made up of kids that come to L.A. for one thing and end up going in a totally different direction." [1]

The film was directed by Richard Tuggle, who was best known for having written two Clint Eastwood films, Escape from Alcatraz and Tightrope (Tuggle also directed Tightrope). Tuggle worked on the script with Kayden, changing the hero from a Westchester, N.Y., kid interested in heavy metal to an Iowa farm boy. Tuggle felt that this would give a greater contrast between the hero and the world he fell in to. [3]

"There's no question in my mind that writing is more creative than directing," he says. "A writer is battling himself to make his stuff better. A director is battling the studio, which is trying to spend less; the weather; mechanical problems on the set and other people's creative feelings, not to mention the crazy hours. He ends up spending no more than 20 per cent of his time on artistic decisions. It's exhausting." [3]

Tuggle said the film was "a combination of two genres that I've always been attracted to. One is the fish-out- of-water genre... The other part is basically the innocent person in jeopardy, the Hitchcockian person-on-the-run kind of suspense." [3]

Casting

The lead role was given to Anthony Michael Hall, who had recently achieved fame in starring roles as a "geek" character in a number of 1980s teen movies, such as Sixteen Candles and was grouped in with The Brat Pack. Hall said "The so-called Brat Pack is an invention of some journalist and I don't consider those people my peer group. I don't like being lumped in with a group of people... I have my own thing to say." [4]

Hall made the film after Weird Science, and Out of Bounds was his first non comedy. "I hope it puts an entirely different slant on my career," he said. [4] (At this stage he was also developing a script based on The Basketball Diaries and a biopic of a bantamweight boxer. [4] He had also came close to starring in Full Metal Jacket . [1] )

Tuggle said Hall was "kind of grown up now; he's taller and bigger, and he has a vulnerable side to him that will appeal to the audience." [3]

Filming

Filming started December of 1985. Tuggle said, "My hardest decision on the movie had to do with suspense. A comedy director has to choose between actually showing a man slip on a banana peel or concentrating on the anticipation, the knowledge that he's going to slip on it. The same thing happens in suspense." [3]

The film featured a cameo from Siouxsie and the Banshees. Siouxsie said, "We all appear in this club scene they're busy shooting at the moment, but they flew us over especially to do it, which is nice...We read the script and really liked it and then thought, 'Yeah, why not do it?' It's basically a cops 'n robbers type thriller, and quite upbeat --the good guy gets the bad guy, and we're featured in a club scene playing one of our songs, 'Cities in Dust.' At least they're just letting us be ourselves, which makes quite a change from the usual offers." [5]

Tuggle and Hall clashed during filming. The director says the movie "was the story of an innocent farm boy who unknowingly stumbles into a drug deal. When Michael took the part, I thought he understood the sort of character he was meant to play because the script made it clear. When we started shooting, I was stunned to discover he intended to play it like a Clint Eastwood tough guy." [1]

When Gov. George Deukmejian visited the set, Hall refused to make an appearance as long as any news teams were on hand. Later that day, when Hall saw a video crew, hired by Columbia to document some behind-the-scenes action, filming a discussion he was having with Tuggle, he was reportedly uncomfortable and unhappy and requested the crew kept away. Several days later, when an Entertainment Tonight unit arrived, he insisted they leave the set, even though they weren't scheduled to interview him.

Reportedly the crew frequently referred to Hall as either “the Brat” or “Anthony Michael Moron.” When he was filming a scene in which he hit his adversary in the face with a beer bottle, Hall came over to the camera, looking through the lens as the stunt coordinator demonstrated the proper throwing motion. Eyeing the young actor with obvious distaste, one crew member grumbled: “Gee, I wonder if he learned to do that in a movie magazine.” [1]

"There's something about Michael that makes you like him and want to hug him," Tuggle said "but for some reason he seems bent on destroying that part of himself. People respond to his innocence, but he wants to be a cool leading man... It was hard to discuss things rationally with him," recalls Tuggle. “For instance, there was a scene where he was acting in a cocky manner and I told him, ‘Look, you’re supposedly alone in this town and you’re scared--I need to see some of those emotions.’ He replied, ‘I don’t think in terms of emotions, I think in terms of colors.’ At that point I realized I was in big trouble. I considered advising him to play it ‘tangerine,’ but at 3 in the morning with a crew waiting to go home I figured to hell with it, just start shooting film.”

The film performed poorly at the box office, and Hall's appearances on Saturday Night Live were not well received. Hall talks about that period of his life with considerable regret. [6]

"Young actors tend to be more emotional than veteran ones," said Tuggle. "The positive side of that is that they're really giving a lot. The negative is that they often get carried away with their emotions. But when Michael's really cooking, it can be exciting. I almost don't want to calm him down, because you lose a lot of the energy of the performance." [1]

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack featured songs by Stewart Copeland & Adam Ant, Robert Berry, Night Ranger, Belinda Carlisle, The Smiths, The Cult, The Lords of the New Church, Sammy Hagar, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The Night Ranger song "Wild & Innocent Youth" has never appeared on any of the band's albums to date.

According to the DVD accompanying the box set for 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong , the Bon Jovi song "Out of Bounds" was written as the title song from the movie, but it did not make it. Y&T's "Wild If I Wanna" appears in a short sequence in the film, but did not make the soundtrack. It eventually appeared on the band's 2003 release Unearthed, Vol. 1 and made the group's setlists around that time due to popular demand.

In the 1999 reissue of the Girls, Girls, Girls album, Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx claimed that the instrumental track "Nona" was originally commissioned for this film.

Reception

The film received mixed-to-negative reviews upon release.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 2 out of 4, and said "Out of Bounds plays like an explosion at the cliche factory." [7] Caryn James of The New York Times wrote that the "film wants to be a realistic thriller, but it merely acts out kids' fantasies of heroism and adventure, with drugs and rock music thrown in for a contemporary twist." [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siouxsie and the Banshees</span> British rock band

Siouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. They have been widely influential, both over their contemporaries and with later acts. The Times called the group "one of the most audacious and uncompromising musical adventurers of the post-punk era".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Smith (musician)</span> English rock musician (born 1959)

Robert James Smith is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and the co-founder, lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the Cure, a British post punk rock band formed in 1978. His unique guitar-playing style, distinctive singing voice, and fashion sense, often sporting a pale complexion, smeared red lipstick, black eye-liner, unkempt wiry black hair, and all-black clothes, were highly influential on the goth subculture that rose to prominence in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Michael Hall</span> American actor (born 1968)

Anthony Michael Hall is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the teen-centered John Hughes films Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science.

The Brat Pack is a nickname given to a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s. The term "Brat Pack", a play on the Rat Pack from the 1950s and 1960s, was first popularized in a 1985 New York magazine cover story, which described a group of highly successful film stars in their early twenties. David Blum wrote the article after witnessing several young actors being mobbed by groupies at Los Angeles' Hard Rock Cafe. The group has been characterized by the partying of members such as Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, and Judd Nelson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siouxsie Sioux</span> English singer

Susan Janet Ballion, known professionally as Siouxsie Sioux, is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. She came to prominence as the leader and main lyricist of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, who were active from 1976 to 1996. They released 11 studio albums, and had several UK Top 20 singles including "Hong Kong Garden", "Happy House" and "Peek-a-Boo", plus a US Top 25 single in the Billboard Hot 100, with "Kiss Them for Me".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judd Nelson</span> American actor (born 1959)

Judd Asher Nelson is an American actor. His acting roles include Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime in The Transformers: The Movie, John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Alec Newbury in St. Elmo's Fire, Alex in Cybermutt, Joe Hunt in Billionaire Boys Club, Nick Peretti in New Jack City, Billy Beretti in Empire, and Jack Richmond in the television series Suddenly Susan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Severin</span> English musician

Steven John Bailey known professionally as Steven Severin, is an English songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He is best known as the bassist of the rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees which he co-founded in 1976. He was also the co-founder of the short-lived band the Glove. He took the name "Severin" from the Leopold von Sacher-Masoch character who is mentioned in the Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs". After the split of Siouxsie and the Banshees in 1996, Severin created his own label RE: and released several instrumental albums via his official website. In the late 2000s and the early 2010s, he regularly performed live in solo, playing music over footage of silent films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John McGeoch</span> British musician

John Alexander McGeoch was a Scottish musician and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist of the rock bands Magazine (1977–1980) and Siouxsie and the Banshees (1980–1982).

<i>Birdy</i> (film) 1984 American drama film

Birdy is a 1984 American drama film based on William Wharton's 1978 novel of the same name. Directed by Alan Parker, it stars Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. Set in 1960s Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the film focuses on the friendship between two teenage boys, Birdy (Modine) and Al Columbato (Cage). The story is presented in flashbacks, with a frame narrative depicting their traumatic experiences upon serving in the Vietnam War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Budgie (musician)</span> English drummer

Peter Edward Clarke, known professionally as Budgie, is an English drummer best known for his work in Siouxsie and the Banshees. He is also the co-founder of the Creatures.

<i>Grosse Pointe Blank</i> 1997 American film

Grosse Pointe Blank is a 1997 American black comedy film directed by George Armitage from a screenplay by Tom Jankiewicz, D. V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink and John Cusack. It stars Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin and Dan Aykroyd and follows the story of assassin Martin Q. Blank (Cusack), who returns to his hometown of Grosse Pointe, Michigan to attend a high school reunion. The film's score was composed by Joe Strummer, former member of the punk rock band the Clash; the film's soundtrack contains a number of popular and alternative punk rock, ska and new wave songs.

<i>Next</i> (2007 film) 2007 film

Next is a 2007 American sci-fi action thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann, Tory Kittles, and Peter Falk. The film's original script was loosely based on the 1954 science fiction short story "The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of Cris Johnson, a small-time magician based in Las Vegas, who has limited precognition. His ability allows him to see into the very immediate future. His gift not only makes him a target of a highly motivated and heavily armed group of terrorists, but also puts him in the crosshairs of the FBI who want to recruit him to oppose those terrorists instead.

<i>Cry of the Banshee</i> 1970 British film by Gordon Hessler

Cry of the Banshee is a 1970 British horror film directed by Gordon Hessler and starring Vincent Price. It was released by American International Pictures. The title credit sequence was animated by Terry Gilliam.

<i>The Scream</i> (album) 1978 studio album by Siouxsie and the Banshees

The Scream is the debut studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, released on 13 November 1978 by Polydor Records. Its innovative combination of angular and serrated guitar with a bass-led rhythm and machine-like drums played mostly on toms, made it a pioneering work of the post-punk genre.

<i>Juju</i> (Siouxsie and the Banshees album) 1981 studio album by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Juju is the fourth studio album by British rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was recorded at Surrey Sound studio with Nigel Gray as co-producer, and was released on 19 June 1981 by Polydor Records. Two singles were released from Juju: "Spellbound" and "Arabian Knights".

Timothy Michael Pope is a film director most known for his music videos, for having directed feature films, and for a brief pop career.

<i>The Silent Partner</i> (1978 film) 1978 Canadian film

The Silent Partner is a 1978 Canadian thriller film directed by Daryl Duke and starring Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer, and Susannah York. The screenplay by Curtis Hanson is based on the novel Think of a Number by Danish writer Anders Bodelsen, and is the third filmed adaptation of the novel.

<i>Deadly Companion</i> 1980 Canadian film

Deadly Companion is a 1980 Canadian thriller film based on the novel The Three Roads by Ross Macdonald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cities in Dust</span> 1985 single by Siouxsie and the Banshees

"Cities in Dust" is a song by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees from their album Tinderbox (1986). It was released on 18 October 1985 as the album's lead single.

<i>Crimes of Passion</i> (1984 film) 1984 film by Ken Russell

Crimes of Passion is a 1984 American erotic thriller film directed by Ken Russell and starring Kathleen Turner, Anthony Perkins, and John Laughlin. The film explores themes of human relationships and mental illness. A mix of sex and suspense, the film opened to controversy over its content and to negative reviews.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Patrick Goldstein (March 2, 1986). "DOWN AND UNDERGROUND IN HOLLYWOOD". Los Angeles Times .
  2. 1 2 James, Caryn (July 25, 1986). "SCREEN: 'OUT OF BOUNDS,' A THRILLER (Published 1986)". The New York Times .
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 First he lost his job, then he found directing Yakir, Dan. The Globe and Mail 18 July 1986: D.7.
  4. 1 2 3 ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL: MANCHILD IN FILMLAND: MANCHILD IN FILMLAND McKENNA, KRISTINE. Los Angeles Times 2 Aug 1985: g1.
  5. ↑ Blair, Iain (23 February 1986). "ROCK'S ROLE IN MOVIES GROWS SO MUCH EVEN SIOUXSIE, BANSHEES GET PARTS". ChicagoTribune.com. [FINAL EDITION, C] Chicago Tribune 23 Feb 1986: 12
  6. ↑ McKenna, Kristine (1988-04-03). "On the Rebound With Anthony Michael Hall". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  7. ↑ Ebert, Roger (1986). "Out Of Bounds". Chicago Sun-Times .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.