Wolfen (1981)
January 4, 2023 12:52 PM - Subscribe

[TRAILER] New York City police investigator Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) is trying to solve a series of grisly deaths in which the victims have seemingly been maimed by feral animals. He teams up with expert criminologist Rebecca Neff (Diane Venora), and together they stumble upon a band of inner-city Native Americans, led by the streetwise Eddie Holt (Edward James Olmos), who warns Wilson and Neff about a wolf-like, mythical creature that could offer a shocking solution to this disturbing case.

Also starring Gregory Hines, Tom Noonan, Dick O'Neill, Dehl Berti, Reginald VelJohnson, Joaquin Rainbow, John Ferraro, Rino Thunder, Glenn Benoit, Eddy Navas, Ricky Hawkeye, Pete Dyer, Paul Skyhorse, Gordon Eagle, Javier First-Day-Of-Light, George Stonefish, Julie Evening Lilly, Jane Lind, James Tolkan, and an uncredited cameo by Tom Waits.

Directed by Michael Wadleigh (Woodstock). Screenplay by Wadleigh and David Eyre, based on the novel by Whitley Strieber. Music by James Horner.

76% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US on Criterion. Also available for digital rental. JustWatch listing.
posted by DirtyOldTown (6 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This was pretty interesting. Wadleigh turns out to have been a pretty confident, stylish director of features. Finney is great, Hines and Venora are likable and natural, the wolfenvision shots are effective (if maybe a little quaint), and the all of the shots of the South Bronx during the nadir of its "The Bronx is burning" era are fascinating. It flows along well with its police thriller engine, even when the underlying monster wolves thing gets muddy.

I feel like Strieber and/or Wadleigh were trying to say something about gentrification, but I'm not 100% clear on what it was, to be honest. Even so, it's a fun thriller with some provocative bits.

The scene where Eddie (Olmos) lets Dewey follow him and baits him into thinking he's going to transform into a wolf is both exciting as it happens and darkly comic as it turns out Eddie was mostly fucking with him.

I'm not sure I buy the "Native Americans build all the tall stuff in NYC" bit or the "Indian bar" bits, but whatever, it was pretty fun. I think the film has enough regard for and interest in its characters of all ethnicities that I can give it a pass for fake native American mythology that isn't particularly well-defined enough to be offensive anyway.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:59 PM on January 4, 2023 [1 favorite]


This is a sentimental favorite of mine, even with Albert Finney's atrocious accent. I have a soft spot for movies of this era set against the backdrop of urban decay. And young Olmos ain't too hard on the eyes.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:48 PM on January 4, 2023


I read Finney as doing as a first generation child of Irish immigrants accent, which would be fine for the era/job, and would naturally be spotty with little Irish notes. That's probably a bit overly forgiving but I like him enough that I'm inclined to give him that latitude.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:50 PM on January 4, 2023 [1 favorite]


I feel like Strieber and/or Wadleigh were trying to say something about gentrification, but I'm not 100% clear on what it was, to be honest.

Strieber has had a pretty weird career; see my comment on The Hunger for my general take on it. Even though I wasn't that keen on that movie, at least parts of it were memorable; the only thing that I remember about this movie was some guy getting his head bitten off, and Finney smashing the construction project model, which apparently convinced the Wolfen to not kill him. Reading the Wikipedia article answers some of the questions about plot points that I'd forgotten, but not others, such as, where in the NYC metropolitan area are there "hunting grounds" that this project would have threatened, especially since the Wolfen are basically superwolves who (very much unlike real wolves) can evade detection and capture by humans? (The article does say that the release of the movie was sandwiched between the releases of The Howling and An American Werewolf in London, which is just incredibly bad timing.) Anyway, looks like a pretty great cast, and maybe worth a rewatch.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:03 PM on January 4, 2023


where in the NYC metropolitan area are there "hunting grounds" that this project would have threatened

Wasn't it the South Bronx, during the period of "The Bronx is Burning?"
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:57 PM on January 4, 2023


I'm not sure I buy the "Native Americans build all the tall stuff in NYC" bit

This seemed plausible to me, having previously read Jim Rasenberger's High Steel. Maybe not *all* the tall stuff, just as no one nation can claim to have dug all of the London Underground.

Fondly remember this movie as a good 'un too, although isn't there a really badly-shot day-for-night on the steps of the Stock Exchange?
posted by Molesome at 12:56 AM on January 5, 2023 [2 favorites]


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