YEAR OF THE DRAGON (1985) - Movie Review

Director: Michael Cimino
Starring: Mickey Rourke, John Lone, Ariane, Leonard Termo, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Eddie Jones, Victor Wong
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Writer: Oliver Stone, Michael Cimino
Runtime: 134 min
Rated: R
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

In New York, racist Capt. Stanley White (Mickey Rourke) becomes obsessed with destroying a Chinese-American drug ring run by Joey Tai (John Lone), an up-and-coming young gangster as ambitious as he is ruthless. While pursuing an unauthorized investigation, White grows increasingly willing to violate police protocol, resorting to progressively violent measures -- even as his concerned wife, Connie (Caroline Kava), and his superiors beg him to consider the consequences of his actions.

Review:

"The Deer Hunter" and "Heaven's Gate" filmmaker Michael Cimino's pulpy police procedural thriller "Year of the Dragon" is based on Robert Daley's potboiler of the same name, and it focuses on the street wars between crusading cop Stanley White (Mickey Rourke) and the Chinatown Triad led by the ambitious Joei Tai (John Lone). Both White's higher-ups and Tai's elders don't want to rock the boat, but as the stakes become more personal, the conflict becomes increasingly violent and bodies begin to pile up on both sides of the law.

Rourke delivers a hard-boiled performance that is probably among his best, but White's characterization is so muddled that the caracter comes off as a bit of an enigma. He's a Polish-American cop and a Vietnam veteran, and it feels like he's still haunted by the ghosts of that war, all that anger and frustration driving him on a new battlefield against the Triads. His boisterous, bigoted rebel routine is a facade that hides deeper scars, but it's really hard to read more into it because of how badly the movie communicates such things. Lacking more insight into the character, I found myself disliking White a lot more than I was rooting for him to nail the bad guys.

Lone is also great as the ruthless but cool-headed Tai, a role that earned him a Golden Globe nomination, and there's palpable tension between him and Rourke. It's like a mix of "Heat" and "The French Connection". When the narrative sticks to White's loose-cannon police work and Tai's criminal underworld dealings, the movie mostly works. Cimino, unfortunately, wastes a lot of the film's already considerable runtime on a romantic subplot involving a reporter played by model-turned-actress Ariane that is so horribly ineffective it comes very close to derailing the movie.

The script is co-written by "Platoon" filmmaker Oliver Stone, who also wrote Brian De Palma's "Scarface", and he brings some interesting touches to "Year of the Dragon". It's one of very few American movies that brought attention to the Chinese crime rings operating in the US, and at least on paper there are a lot of good ideas, which Cimino and Stone explore in great detail. The execution of these ideas, however, is where the film falters.

At least the movie is visually stunning, with a grimy urban look that reminds me of "Blade Runner", and beautifully atmospheric cinematography from Alex Thomson ("Legend", "Alien 3", "Cliffhanger"). It also features some fantastically staged action sequences that give it a welcome adrenaline boost, and the violence is shockingly gory even for a 1980s movie. Kudos to Cimino for not compromising the film's gritty and unflinching portrayal of violence. Also worth mentioning is David Mansfield's Golden Globe nominated score.

I wish I could say it's a great movie, but "Year of the Dragon" is far too clumsy and unbalanced. It is, however, a fascinating and somewhat underrated neo-noir thriller that deserves a second chance.

SCORE: 7/10