Bird on a Wire

Dir: John Badham

1990

****

Bird on a Wire represents the last of a certain kind of comedy action thriller. Although it was released in 1990, it really did represent the last of the stereotypical and quintessential 1980s style film. It came and it went, I remember loving it as a kid but I can understand why it hasn’t been embraced by a younger audience and I don’t particularly think it deserves to be either. It’s no masterpiece and it isn’t even that unique, but those of us who where frequenting cinemas back then (when you could go see three films in one day and still have money left to go to the arcade afterwards) loved it, so while I can say it isn’t that good, I can say that I still have strong feelings toward it. I’m in love with nostalgia, almost as in love as I was with Goldie Hawn. Named after Leonard Cohen’s classic song, Bird on a Wire tells the story of Marianne Graves (played by Goldie Hawn), a successful lawyer who is completing a business deal in in Detroit, Michigan at the beginning of the film. While stopping at a gas station, she crosses paths with the attendant that looks suspiciously like her ex-fiancé, Rick Jarmin (played by Mel Gibson still in full on Martin Riggs mode coming straight from Leathal Weapon II), who had disappeared fifteen years previously and who was presumed dead. The man feigns ignorance and Marianne leaves, we then learn that Rick was a detective and had helped convict a drug-dealing DEA agent named Eugene Sorenson (David Carradine) and was placed in the witness protection program. His fake death was to protect him and Marianne and came as a huge sacrifice. Having been recognised, Rick tries to contact his old handler to be relocated but his old contact has retired and his new handler, Joe Weyburn, happens to be a corrupt FBI agent working with Sorenson. By sheer coincidence, Sorenson is released from prison after serving his sentence that very day and sets out to find Rick and to have his revenge. Sorenson arrives at the gas station just a few minutes after Marianne returns to confront Rick of his true identity. A shootout breaks out and Rick is shot in his bum while his gas station boss is killed. Rick and Marianne run and Sorenson and his friend Diggs pin the boss’ murder on Rick. Rick and Marianne are now on the run from the police and Sorenson. To clear their names, Rick needs to reach his old handler. They use contacts from Rick's former life-in-hiding, including a beauty salon where he was a star employee, and an old flame of a veterinarian that removes the bullet from his bottom. There is plenty of comedic tension between Rick and Marianne until he tells her everything that happened fifteen years ago and they soon rekindle their feelings for each other. Problems arise when they reach the home of his old handler and find out he has Alzheimer's disease, and thus doesn’t remember Rick. Sorenson and Diggs find them, so Rick and Marianne retreat to a nearby zoo where Rick had previously worked. There, he releases animals from their cages to assist in their defense, and Sorenson and Diggs are killed in various ways by the animals. It’s pretty laughable when you watch it now but I remember being on the edge of my seat at the time. Rick and Marianne live happily ever after and in pure 80s fashion are last seen seen boating into the Caribbean sunset. It’s got everything an eleven year old wanted; Car chases, a mystery, a hot pursuit, death by animal and Goldie Hawn’s bottom. I was devastated years later to learn that Hawn used a ‘stunt bottom’ but I still love the film. John Badham was a prolific director during the 80s, directing some of the most iconic of the decade. Bird on a Wire was probably his last well known film of its kind and it was a huge success. It had everything most action films of its ilk had but the finale set in the zoo made it special. I think what I really like about it in retrospect is that Goldie Hawn was eleven years older than Mel Gibson. She was forty-five while he was thirty-three. That would never happen now, with most leading men averaging thirty and their character’s partners averaging twenty. It is what it is, and in my opinion it’s still a whole load of fun.