Film Review: The Last of the Finest (1990)

When Cold War ended, Hollywood replaced it with War on Drugs as the source of main villains in its films. The transition was, however, quite gradual and some of Hollywood films in late 1980s dealt with the schizophrenic attitudes of US government towards those two conflicts. One of those was The Last of the Finest, 1990 action film directed by John Mackenzie.

The protagonist, played by Brian Dennehy, is Frank Daley, leader of the elite team of LAPD narcotics detectives that also includes Wayne Gross (played by Joe Pantoliano), Ricky Rodriguez (played by Jeff Fahey) and Howard “Hojo” Jones (played by Bill Paxton). The four men, who are also best friends, are very effective in fighting even the best organised drug dealers. Their next target, Anthony Reece (played by Michael C. Gwynne), however, turns out to be in the league of its own and the raid in which he was supposed to go down ends with shoot out after which Frank and his men would get suspended. Unimpeded, they decide to continue investigation in their spare time and discover that Reece, who is about to conduct major drug deal, is involved with corrupt DEA agents. After Hojo gets killed by Reece’s assassin, Frank is brought to administrative tribunal after which he resigns from police in disgust, later joined by Wayne and Ricky. Trio decides to continue going after Reece and discover that his main partner is Norringer (played by Guy Boyd), former top government official, and the drug deal is to provide money for weapons that will be shipped for pro-US right-wing rebels in Nicaragua. Trio manages to sabotage the deal and steal the money, but is now faced with the question of what to do with it and how to deal with retribution from Reece and his powerful backers.

The Last of the Finest is one of the relative obscure and underrated genre pieces from the period. It was directed by John Mackenzie, British film maker best known for depiction of increasingly globalised London underworld in The Long Good Friday. Just like in that film, Mackenzie here directs in solid, but unremarkable manner, making Los Angeles looking incredibly bland with most of the scenes taking place at night, during rain or at the industrial facilities. As a result, film often looks cheaper than it really is and this, together with uninspired musical score by Jack Nitzsche, might explain its box office fiasco. Those who actually watch the film would be, on the other hand, quite impressed by very intelligent script by Jere Cunningham, Thomas Lee Wright and George Armitage that was obviously inspired by Iran Contra scandal and brought some intriguing content into otherwise cliched police action film. The most notable are moral dilemmas of the protagonists – whether to keep the stolen drug money or do the right thing – are matched by policy considerations of government that fights Communists in Latin America by going in bed with drug lords that poison American citizens. But even more impressive is the cast that features formidable character actor Brian Dennehy in one of his rare starring roles. He is backed by three very different actors playing different characters, but whose friendly interactions create quite likeable team that transcends “buddy cop” formula into something more realistic. This approach, that would serve as the main concept for similarly-themed TV series The Shield, works very well and audience can digest clichéd final showdown (that includes 1980s trope of exploding helicopter), as well as not that convincing yet semi-ironic epilogue. Fans of the genre, just like viewers interested in some moral and political issues related to similar geopolitical conflicts today, would probably appreciate The Last of the Finest.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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