Out of the Blue (1980)

February 3, 2025 4:28 AM

[TRAILER] Dennis Hopper directed and stars in Out of the Blue -- the spiritual sequel to his own "Easy Rider", chronicling the collapse of sixties idealism into the nihilistic haze of the 1980s. Don Barnes (Hopper) is a truck driver in prison for drunkenly smashing his rig into a school bus. Linda Manz (Days of Heaven) plays CeBe, his daughter, a young teen rebel and outsider obsessed with Elvis and the Sex Pistols. Her mother Kathy, (Sharon Farrell) waitresses, shoots up drugs and takes refuge in the arms of other men, including her husband's best friend, Charlie (Don Gordon). CeBe runs away to Vancouver's punk scene and ends up on juvenile probation under the care of well-meaning psychiatrist Dr. Brean (Raymond Burr). After Don's release, the family struggles to re-connect and start over before the revelation of dark secrets leads to a harrowing conclusion.

Directed by Dennis Hopper. Screenplay by Leonard Yakir, Brenda Nielson. Produced by Leonard Yakir, Gary Jules Jouvenat. Cinematography by Marc Champion. Edited by Doris Dyck. Music by Tom Lavin.

95% fresh on rotten Tomatoes. 4/5 acerage rating on Letterboxd.


Find streaming options for your location via the film's listing on JustWatch.

posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

So basically, Hopper was cast to act in one of those middling Canadian tax incentive pictures of the era. After a week, everyone involved hated the footage coming in and the director was fired. Over the weekend, Hopper rewrote the film from a mild family drama about a court-appointed therapist who helps a troubled girl into a harrowing drama about abuse and nihilism, focusing on Linda Manz's character and writing in her real-life fascinations with punk, Elvis, etc. The producers let Hopper make the film, but when bringing in a non-Canadian director capsized the tax write-off scheme, not even good reviews would convince the financiers to promote the thing, so it was mostly buried.

Chloe Sevigny and Natasha Lyonne were huge fans of the film and spearheaded a restoration. You can now see this restoration via the fine folks at Severin films. It's worth it.

It starts as a kitchen sink drama but keeps finding grittier and grittier layers, until it swallows you up.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:34 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

An underrated gem worth your time from the Tax Shelter years with a beautiful restoration.

So yeah because the producers couldn't exploit the film in the way they wanted to so it was essentially buried for a long time. It would pop up here in Canada on late night television from time to time (I'd catch the tail end of it but never the whole thing) but was largely unavailable until the Anchor Bay VHS had a release in the 90s (that's when I saw in totality). Aside from Linda Manz's incredible performance the film has such incredible streets scenes of Vancouver in the late 70s. Hopper must have been familiar with Fred Herzog as the movie really evokes that kind of photo subject & composition I think. Or maybe even Hopper saw Allan King's Skid Row? In anycase all that is largely gone.

In a related bent a couple of films I recommend as companion pieces, they are different but have some of the same vibe: Hookers on Davie, a documentary portrait of sex workers who work on Davie Street in Vancouver; Larry Kent's The Bitter Ash (there's a good blu release from one of the Vinegar Syndrome sub labels) and though not obviously Canadian but it was shot in 1980 in Vancouver and has the same overcast look, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:01 AM on February 3 [3 favorites]

I really feel like the actors all came out ahead here except for Raymond Burr, who was supposed to be the star and is reduced to a cameo. I wonder what he thought of all of this.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:18 AM on February 3 [1 favorite]

Raymond Burr was hardly at the peak of his career at this point. He had the Curse of King Tut's Tomb TV movie before Out of the Blue and the TV Movie The Night the City Screamed after.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:59 PM on February 3

This is in the category of Movie I Probably Will Never Watch But Every Once I A While I Read The Wiki Synopsis Which Reinforces My Decision Not To Watch It. Just feels so heartbreakingly bleak.

I really feel like the actors all came out ahead here except for Raymond Burr, who was supposed to be the star and is reduced to a cameo. I wonder what he thought of all of this.

Was going to make the joke he probably didn't care and just wanted to make some quick money to pay taxes on his island, then found out Burr sold it a few years after making this movie to a cult that included W. Mark Felt/Deep Throat's daughter.

Burr appeared to be a compulsive liar (About more than just being in the closet) but was also very philanthropic with some fascinating interests and side careers, his Wiki entry's worth a read.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:19 PM on February 3 [2 favorites]