Lethal Weapon (1987)

After watching Bird on a Wire the other week we decided to stick with 80’s Mel Gibson and revisit (for me – they were new to Andrew) the Lethal Weapon series, beginning of course with the first movie from 1987 that first saw Mel Gibson and Danny Glover’s Detectives Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh partnered together.

This first movie is so 80’s and so right in so very many ways. The music particularly, the jazzy saxophone soundtrack from Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton is definitely of its era, but it fits the tone and the action so perfectly. It might seem dated compared to today’s incidental music, yet it still works. It fits the 80’s look and feel, particularly in terms of the amount of violence and over the top gunplay, before action films became watered down to get more accessible ratings. Lethal Weapon is 18 certificate for a reason, the violence is real and bloody, Riggs and Murtaugh both get hurt and bleed, there’s no sugar-coating.

The movie opens with a half naked woman jumping to her death from an apartment block onto a car below. It’s a hell of a powerful way to start a film, and the drama and action and humour never lets up. The story itself is pretty ho hum about the heroin trade, but it’s the backdrop to one of THE classic cop-buddy movies of all time. Gibson and Glover are an inspired pairing, sharing such an easy chemistry, it’s no wonder they paired up again and again, and again.

Gibson shows off his buff body in a gratuitous early scene, memorably parodied in National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 (which I intend to revisit after I’ve finished with Lethal Weapon 4), and his whole persona as Martin Riggs is magnetic. I forget how good an actor he could be, and the scene when he contemplates suicide is difficult to watch. Glover is world-weary but has a wonderful family around him, with personalities and a sense of humour. It’s always a delight to hear the immortal ‘I’m too old for this sh**’, and here’s where it all started, twice in one movie too!

The Lethal Weapons are much like the Die Hard movies, once you watch one you’ve got to watch more, because you enjoy spending time with Riggs, Murtaugh and John McClane. I’ll be revisiting Lethal Weapon 2 very soon…Watch this space.