Word: morgans
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...story, which spans nearly three years, is told through the eyes of three sympathetic characters. One is a fictional police detective (Morgan Freeman), who narrates the movie and voices skepticism of the investigation at virtually every turn. The others are real-life figures: a former Atlanta police administrator named Chet Dettlinger (Martin Sheen), who investigated the murders on his own and doubts that Williams is the killer; and Camille Bell (Gloria Foster), an outspoken mother of one of the slain children. Both are pictured as righteous crusaders for justice; both were paid consultants on the movie. Williams, played with riveting...
...rest of the movie follows a somewhat predictable Romeo and Juliet plot. Morgan retains his interest in Frankie; Nick is a jealous, violent sexist who regards Frankie as his personal "property" (which he calls her to her face several times): the respective families are suitably insensitive to the budding love of their offspring. The important scenes are almost all clashes of Nick and his henchmen with Morgan, and they are quite incredible in their high level of tension, fear, and brutality...
Truly enjoyable interludes break up the inevitable progression of the story. The most endearing character, Jimmy (Robert Downey), fills a comic relief role perfectly. He befriends Morgan on the rather hectic first day. Subsequently he helps several scenes attain a refreshing originality missing from the bulk of the work. He is an atypical California rock musician, with a quirky sense of humor. The best scene of the entire movie begins with the pursuit of Morgan by Nick's car (the same one which demolished his bike). Just at the moment when you think he will be killed by the raging...
...MUCH OF the movie founders on false morality that these fresh, energetic outlooks on American youth are lost. Morgan's family scene is the worst facet of this. One of the foundations of his stubborn pursuit of Frankie is supposed to be his bad relationship with his mother and his jealousy of his brother. But the reasons for these feelings are never fully explored; Morgan just gives vague intimations at various times of his "alienation" from his previous rich boy, New England prep school self. The premise of the family's move is odd as well; Morgan's father...
Tuff Turf tries to reconcile two essentially irreconcilable methods of artistically treating youth in America--either powerfully, viscerally, and almost animalistically, like West Side Story, or neurotically and confusedly like any one of a number of Robby Benson movies. If Morgan Hiller is really a perceptive, intelligent New England prep school teenager, why does he fall so quickly in love with a rather stupid Los Angeles gang girl, thereby subjecting himself to violent beatings and possible death? And if he is a hopeless romantic, why does he have such neurotic, pseudo-intellectual conversations and relationships with the people around...