I have seen tons of American films in my life and I can say with certainty that sometimes the Americans destroy their own work with their own hands. Year Of The Dragon is by all means a most interesting neo-noir movie. It has panache. But at the same time it has the diseases of the American movie style. Soft and corny music when there is sentiment and grief, didactic frames and dialogues when they are totally unnecessary and a general atmosphere that talks about a movie that could have been a cult masterpiece, but somewhere along the way lost its train of thought. It still has some pretty powerful moments and the movie is greatly shot in many scenes, but there is lack of "decency" here. We don't need another scene where the film forces us to feel grief in the most ridiculous way. We don't need frames of the American flag. These are elements that drive the film back. Elements that put the film in a category that has no charm at all.
Movies should be fearless creations that make us question our own ethos. Films should be beyond the frontiers. When a movie drops to the cliches then all the poetry is lost, in one single moment. I really enjoyed the character of Mickey Rourke, I really enjoyed his relationship with the reporter, I really enjoyed the style and flair of the film, but I didn't enjoy the fact that the films wanted, eagerly, to satisfy the mainstream audience. It wanted to be loved by the good Republican that goes out Saturday night for a movie with popcorn. You can't have everything in one movie. It's better that you are despised by some and loved by others. To have such a wide audience is an illusion. It doesn't happen. The real film buff, the movie goer, doesn't need American flags and corny music to be touched by the movie. That's all crap for him. Finally Year Of The Dragon is a movie that needs and asks for our love and we give it to it, but there is a side of us that wants to question that love that has been given.
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