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From Amazon.co.uk
Set in Harlem and New Orleans in 1955, this supernatural thriller stirred a brief controversy in the US when released in 1987 because some scenes featuring Lisa Bonet (then a popular cast member of The Cosby Show) were considered too sexually explicit to be rated R. The plot follows the fortunes of a sullen detective (Mickey Rourke) who is hired to find a missing person by a shady client with pointy fingernails named Louis Cyphre (Lucifer, get it?), played with subtle menace by Robert De Niro. Rourke's investigation leads him into an underworld of voodoo and forbidden desires, and as the mystery unfolds director Alan Parker fills every scene with conspicuous style and atmospheric excess, compelling critic Pauline Kael to observe that "Parker simply doesn't have the gift of making evil seductive, and he edits like a flasher". And yet, this movie does casts a spell of its own (Roger Ebert's review was considerably more charitable), and the performances of Rourke, De Niro, Bonet and Charlotte Rampling are well suited to the ominous mood. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Product Description
It seems like a straightforward case when detective Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is hired by Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to find missing singer Johnny Favourite. However, before long the trail has led him to Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet) and a mysterious occult world in which everyone he questions seems to wind up dead. No matter what he finds out along the way, nothing will prepare Harry for what awaits him at the end of his quest.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:VHS Tape
A work of genius... atmospheric, gripping, terrifyingly clever. Needs to be watched more than once to pick up on all the subtleties... like Robert de Niro throwing salt over his shoulder before he eats an egg - 'the symbol of the soul'.
Mickey Rourke has made some real duff films but in this he is brilliant, de Niro is as great as he always is and Lisa Bonet smoulders while Courtney Pine's saxophone haunts the film and the great use of lighting, close-ups and camera angles perfects the effects.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is one of Alan Parker's best films. Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is a private detective hired by a mysterious client (Robert de Niro) to look for a crooner called Johnny Favourite, who disappeared after World War II. As he gets closer to the truth, the people he talks to about Favourite die in horrible ways. The film is like a nightmare: recrurring, unexplained motifs--a whirring fan and an old-fashioned lift going up and down--that are disturbing, but you don't know why. This is not a film for the faint-hearted--be prepared for lots of killing (although most of it is off-screen) and voodoo. There is a twist in the tail that makes you want to go back and watch it again. This is Rourke's best performance ever, as a man who is slowly falling apart.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This is an intriguing, unusual, beautifully directed, highly atmospheric film that successfully crosses any number of genre: film noir, thriller, mystery, and horror. The plot is simple. In the mid nineteen fifties, a mysterious and slightly sinister business man, Louis Cypher (Robert De Niro), hires Brooklyn gumshoe, Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke), for a missing person case. Angel's investigation, for which he is being paid a princely sum for the time, takes him from Harlem to New Orleans, as he looks for a former crooner named Johnny Favorite, who sometime during the early nineteen forties apparently welched on a business deal with Louis Cypher and hasn't been heard from since.
What happens when Angel gets to New Orleans will be infused with voodoo rites, ritual murders and taboo sex. The Big Easy is hardly that for our erstwhile detective, as he becomes susceptible to a series of initially puzzling flashbacks. Moreover, it seems that everyone with whom he meets, who had a connection to our missing crooner, ends up being savagely murdered. When he meets with a tarot card reader (Charlotte Rampling), it is just the beginning of the end for our increasingly disheveled gumshoe. His introduction to the gorgeous Epiphany (Lisa Bonet), a seventeen year old voodoo queen, later leads to a coupling that is played with singularly wild abandon. Both of these women have a connection to our mysterious missing person, Johnny Favorite, who, it turns out, may have given the Devil a run for his money in the evil department.
Robert De Niro is sensational in the highly stylized, role of Louis Cypher. He imbues the role with just the right amount of sardonic humor and restrained menace so as to make the character memorable. De Niro leaves an indelible imprint on every scene in which he is in.
... Read more ›5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Nigel Mc
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
People will likely fall into one of two categories of viewer. There will be those who first saw this film on general release some 24 years ago and fell in love with its originality, good acting and wonderful cinematography and there will be those like me who will be viewing the film for the first time. If you are in the latter category I promise not to give any of plot away. I think that it would be a real spoiler to come to this film the first time with any idea of the storyline. While there may be some clever souls who will guess the ending before it unfolds I will be quite happy to admit that it came to me as a complete surprise.
Irrespective of the clever plot and good acting I was completely blown away by the wonderful cinematography. And the picture quality on Blu-ray is absolutely outstanding. The inky detail of the blacks is simply stunning. There are quite a few dark scenes in this movie and the picture quality is every bit as good as the more recent movie, `Dark City'. Furthermore, on Angel Heart the choice of the locations is impressive and the film captures perfectly the atmosphere of mid 50's America.
In my opinion this is very much a film which you will be able to enjoy on repeated viewings, to savour the art of the cinematographer as well as to get a better understanding of the complexity of the plot. Yes, there are several murders and quite a lot of blood but I think you will be doing yourself a disservice if you choose not to buy for that reason. To a great extent the violence is retrospective and not in the same stomach wrenching category of `Saving Private Ryan'.
There are 2 choices of soundtrack, Dolby Stereo and an excellent DTS 5:1 mix.... Read more ›
Irrespective of the clever plot and good acting I was completely blown away by the wonderful cinematography. And the picture quality on Blu-ray is absolutely outstanding. The inky detail of the blacks is simply stunning. There are quite a few dark scenes in this movie and the picture quality is every bit as good as the more recent movie, `Dark City'. Furthermore, on Angel Heart the choice of the locations is impressive and the film captures perfectly the atmosphere of mid 50's America.
In my opinion this is very much a film which you will be able to enjoy on repeated viewings, to savour the art of the cinematographer as well as to get a better understanding of the complexity of the plot. Yes, there are several murders and quite a lot of blood but I think you will be doing yourself a disservice if you choose not to buy for that reason. To a great extent the violence is retrospective and not in the same stomach wrenching category of `Saving Private Ryan'.
There are 2 choices of soundtrack, Dolby Stereo and an excellent DTS 5:1 mix.... Read more ›
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This movie carries with it an underlying mood of shear despair that is sustained from beginning to end. It is a film that is underated to say the least and for me the best film of Director Alan Parkers career. An astonishingly fantastic performance by Mickey Rourke in the Lead Role.
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4.4 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark and haunting
Bought this because I remembered being so impressed by the film many years ago .
And even though I was aware of the twist in the tale, I wasn't disappointed. Read more
And even though I was aware of the twist in the tale, I wasn't disappointed. Read more
Published 20 days ago by OldLady
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark and dangerous.
I don't care what anyone says... this is a good movie!
And I think Micky Rourke's portrail of the two-bit private eye is the best thing he's ever done. Read more
And I think Micky Rourke's portrail of the two-bit private eye is the best thing he's ever done. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Stuart M. Flanders
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quality film.
This is a fantastic film with a dark and edgy overtone through out. It has fantastic actors including Robert deniro and mickey rourke. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jaydoc
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellente... has you on the edge of your seat
I couldn't peel my eyes away from the TV.... It doesn't matter how many times I watch this film throughout the years... it always has me enthralled.... Read more
Published 3 months ago by charlotte peet
5.0 out of 5 stars
angel heart
This is a great film set in the 1950's about a private eye (Rourke) who's hired to track down a singer who disapeared years earlier and soon starts to realise that he's dealing... Read more
Published 3 months ago by P. A. Boyce
5.0 out of 5 stars
An unusual combination of intelligent script and gory splatter movie.
This is a film which changes direction at frequent intervals. It starts in familiar Sam Spade-imitation territory but veers - quite subtley - into bloody murder, deep south racism,... Read more
Published 5 months ago by D. Hough
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hidden gem with special features galore
Now I won't give a full run-down of the film as you can find that elsewhere, just to say it's a pretty unique supernatural neo-noir horror (billed as a cross between Chinatown and... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Conrad Black
1.0 out of 5 stars
Angel Heart DVD
I would put this unpleasant little film in the `horror' category. The plot, such as it is, is about private eye Harry Angel's attempts to track down a has-been singer by the name... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Dr. H. A. Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars
Watch out for those chickens Harry.
Angel Heart is directed by Alan Parker and written by William Hjortsberg (novel). It stars Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Spike Owen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stylish and Atmosperic
Set in the 1950's, a seedy private investigator (Mickey Rourke) is hired by an urbane but sinister client (Robert de Niro) to find a man who has broken a contract with him and... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Francis E
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