Sep 12, 2021
Nightwing (1979)
"It just doesn't seem natural for a man to spend his life, his entire life, killing bats."
"Not just bats: vampire bats. I kill them because they're evil. There's a mutual grace and violence in all forms of nature, and each specie of life gives something in return for its own existence. All but one - a freak. The vampire bat alone is that specie."
#nightwing#american cinema#Horror film#arthur hiller#Martin cruz Smith#Steve shagan#Bud shrake#Nick mancuso#david warner#kathryn harrold#Stephen macht#strother martin#George clutesi#Ben piazza#Donald hotton#Charles hallahan#Judith novgrod#Alice hirson#henry mancini#Years I've waited to see this film‚ years and years. And for once‚ for one time in my miserable film watching life‚ i wasn't let down by a#Long mythologised wishlist movie. I loved this! It just hit all the right notes for me. It's clever‚ the dialogue is sharp‚ it's a slow#Burn so that the first proper bat attack is truly quite shocking. The tension in the finále is almost unbearable! The whole suspension by#Rope bit... Phew‚ I was mopping my brow! It's also generally a lot more respectful and a lot less patronising than near contemporary native#horror Shadow of the Hawk. Duran and Chee are real‚ fully developed characters‚ with all the complexities and conflicts that entails#Strother Martin steals his few scenes with a typically wry performance‚ and of course... There's the DWar. My man. The one and only.#I could be biased I suppose‚ but goddamnit his character is fascinating here. A biologist empowered by the WHO to track down and destroy#Vampire bats‚ but whose whole approach‚ whose maniacal devotion to his work‚ hint at some unspoken backstory: there's a glint of madness in#His eye when he talks bats‚ and his speech when asked why he does the work he does (a long speech in which he never satisfactorily answers#The question) would be easy to overplay. But Warner goes very low‚ very deceptively calm and measured‚ and it's such a lovely layered#Performance.. For a later entry in the cycle of Jaws alikes‚ this has absolutely no business being as good as it is but whadya know 🤷‍♀️
