V.I. Warshawski | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jeff Kanew |
Screenplay by | Edward Taylor David Aaron Cohen Nick Thiel |
Based on | Deadlock by Sara Paretsky |
Produced by | Penney Finkelman Cox Jeffrey Lurie |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jan Kiesser |
Edited by | Debra Neil-Fisher Carroll Timothy O'Meara |
Music by | Randy Edelman |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $24 million |
Box office | $11,128,309 (US) |
V.I. Warshawski is a 1991 American action comedy film directed by Jeff Kanew and starring Kathleen Turner, Jay O. Sanders, Charles Durning, Lynnie Godfrey, Anne Pitoniak, Geof Prysirr, Angela Goethals, Stephen Meadows, Frederick Coffin, Stephen Root and Wayne Knight.
Victoria Iphigenia "V.I" Warshawski (Kathleen Turner) is a Chicago-based, freelance private investigator who lives the part of the hard-boiled detective, but below the surface, she is a softy. One night, while she is drinking at her favorite bar, she meets an ex-Blackhawks hockey player named "Boom-Boom" Grafalk (Stephen Meadows). The two connect and a romance appears to be in the making, but Warshawski is surprised when "Boom-Boom" appears at her doorstep later that night with his 13-year-old daughter Kat (Angela Goethals) in tow.
He asks Warshawski if she could watch her, and Warshawski agrees. Later that night, "Boom-Boom" is killed in a boat explosion, and Kat hires Warshawski to track down her father's killer. In doing so, she befriends the victim's daughter; together they set out to crack the case.
The film was based on a series of books by Sara Paretsky. Screenwriters Edward Taylor, David Aaron Cohen, and Nick Thiel adapted only one of Sara Paretsky's novels, Deadlock , for the script for this movie, which took at least one liberty with the story. Whereas Paretsky had written the novel as a serious mystery, the screenwriters took an almost comedic approach. Paretsky was especially angry over the original script that had the independent female detective subordinate to a male counterpart for fear that a female character could not hold the lead role.
The film's plot is very different from that of Deadlock. In the book the ex-Blackhawks player Boom-Boom was the protagonist detective's cousin and lifelong companion, rather than a chance-met stranger; he had no daughter; and "Grafalk" was the family name of another character altogether, a devious shipping magnate who had a major role in the book but was dropped from the film.
Initially, the producers wanted to set the film in Baltimore and cast either Amy Madigan, Bette Midler or Jane Fonda as Warshawski. Kathleen Turner reprised her character V.I. Warshawski in a series of radio plays on BBC Radio 4, the radio version of Deadlock itself being broadcast in 1993.
Principal production began in Chicago in November 1990. Scenes were filmed at Wrigley Field, Chicago; Green Mill Cocktail Lounge - 4802 N. Broadway Avenue, Chicago, (used as the Golden Glow Cocktail Lounge); San Pedro, California, Long Beach, California; Fire Station 23 - 225 E. 5th Street, Los Angeles, and Warner Bros Studios. Completed shooting February 27, 1991.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times had mixed thoughts about the film but commended the acting: "It's too bad that V.I. Warshawski is itself a lot less glamorous than Ms. Turner's performance, since the character could easily be the centerpiece of a more appealing film...V.I. Warshawski has a breezy style and a serviceable, even surprising detective plot. And it has Ms. Turner, who makes the most of V.I. Warshawski's sardonic humor." [1]
Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and praised Turner's performance: "Kathleen Turner fits the character more closely than I would have imagined. Her laugh seems aged by whiskey, her smile is brave in the face of trouble, she kisses guys as if she'll never see them again, and she's usually right." [2]
The movie debuted poorly at the box office. [3] On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a rating of 24% based on 29 reviews. The consensus summarizes: "With V.I. Warshawski, Kathleen Turner proves more than up to the task of leading a cop thriller -- it's the script that sadly isn't up to snuff." [4]
The film was released on VHS on November 13, 1991; it was released on Laserdisc (4:3 ratio) the following year and on DVD on June 4, 2002 (in a 1.85:1 ratio). It was released on Blu-ray in May 2011.
In Greek mythology, Iphigenia was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae.
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and two Tony Awards.
Sue Taylor Grafton was an American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the "alphabet series" featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, California. The daughter of detective novelist C. W. Grafton, she said the strongest influence on her crime novels was author Ross Macdonald. Before her success with this series, she wrote screenplays for television movies.
Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television since the late 1980s, she has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, and sixteen NAACP Image Awards, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and seven Primetime Emmy Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023; and she will receive the Academy Honorary Award later in the year.
Hardball, in English, more specifically American English, generally refers to baseball, especially when played very competitively. Metaphorically, it refers to uncompromising and ruthless methods or dealings, especially in politics.
Sara Paretsky is an American author of detective fiction, best known for her novels focused on the protagonist V. I. Warshawski.
Kathleen "Kat" Slater is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jessie Wallace. She is also played by Kate Peck in a flashback in 2001 and Sumar-Elise Sandford in a flashback in 2018. Kat is the second eldest Slater family sister and first appeared on 18 September 2000. Kat's usual dress is very short skirts and leopard-print tops, with much make-up and heavy fake tan. Her initial stint saw her involved in many storylines, most significantly in a plot twist which sees her supposedly sister Zoe Slater, revealed to be her daughter after she was raped by her uncle Harry Slater as a child. Another key aspect to the character's storylines is her marriage to Alfie Moon, prior to which she became briefly engaged to Andy Hunter ; after Kat jilted Andy on their wedding day, he blackmailed her into sleeping with him in his revenge bid against Alfie and Kat. Wallace has won multiple awards for her portrayal as Kat, who has become one of the show's best loved characters.
William Michael "Hoot" Hootkins was an American actor, best known for supporting roles in Hollywood blockbusters such as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Batman.
Deadlock is a situation in computing where two processes are each waiting for the other to finish.
Victoria Iphigenia "Vic" "V. I." Warshawski is a fictional private investigator from Chicago who is the protagonist featured in a series of detective novels and short stories written by Chicago author Sara Paretsky.
Blacklist is a 2003 novel by crime writer Sara Paretsky. It features Private Investigator V. I. Warshawski, and was awarded the 2004 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger.
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Stephen Meadows is an American actor, architect and inventor.
Angela Bethany Goethals is an American film, television and stage actress. Goethals made her acting debut in the Broadway production of Coastal Disturbances in 1987, and later played the sister of Macaulay Culkin's character in Home Alone (1990). Throughout the 1990s, Goethals went on to star in several independent films and television shows, including a leading role on the sitcom Phenom (1993), as well as a small role in Jerry Maguire (1996).
Death at La Fenice (1992), the first novel by American academic and crime-writer Donna Leon, is the first of the internationally best-selling Commissario Brunetti mystery series, set in Venice, Italy. The novel won the Japanese Suntory prize, and its sequel is Death in a Strange Country (1993).
Laura Lyn "Lynnie" Greene, also known as Lyn Greene is an actress, writer, director and producer in the television industry. In addition to her work as a producer, she is possibly best known as an actress for appearing as Young Dorothy in The Golden Girls.
Stuart M. Kaminsky was an American mystery writer and film professor. He is known for three long-running series of mystery novels featuring the protagonists Toby Peters, a private detective in 1940s Hollywood (1977-2004); Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, a Moscow police inspector (1981-2010); and veteran Chicago police officer Abe Lieberman (1990-2007). There is also a fourth series featuring a Sarasota, Florida, process server named Lew Fonesca (1999-2009).
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Deadlock is a detective novel by Sara Paretsky told in the first person by private eye (Vic) V. I. Warshawski.
Indemnity Only is a mystery novel written by Sara Paretsky.