Beverly Hills Cop
a film by Martin Brest released through Paramount Pictures in 1984
Sometimes foulness offends and sometimes it obscures. Cursing can lend to a film a sense of realism, since in real life certain people curse all the time.
Of course, people don’t go to the movies for a shot of realism.
As the situation has stood for many years,
the choice of curse words depends on the ratings goal. Since producers Simpson and Bruckheimer
decided a PG crowd was not their target audience (or, more accurately, target
impression) they sought the R (as PG-13 was not yet an option).
In their
determination to batter the ratings board with expletives, the producers failed
the story. Beverly Hills Cop plays much better on television. Here are some examples from the film to show
why:
·
The
guy on the other end of the cigarette deal says “F___ this. Nice doing business with you” when the cops
arrive. On television he says, “Uh, nice
doing business with you,” which is better because it shows some fear of the
cops. As it stands in the theatrical
release, this guy is not that concerned, his nonchalant attitude indicated by
his choice of language.
·
Serge
and Axel reviewing the $130,000 piece of art, which is airy and fun on TV, is
rendered coarse when unedited. By having
Axel say “Get the f___ out of here” instead of “Get the heck out of here” all
sense of whimsy, that innocent Axel is marveling at this strange new world of California
wealth, is gone.
·
A
minute later, Jenny Summers says “F.U.” to Axel in response to his mild insult
regarding her age. The problem here is
that she has got to be the good girl so that Maitland is a threat to her later
in the film. This makes her too
tough. (And cursing women are not
attractive.)
·
Axel
accosts Victor Maitland in the latter’s office and says that Michael Tandino
has been killed. Maitland says, with
laughably fake concern, “Oh, my God—that’s…terrible! On TV Axel stays silent, like he’s not
buying the act, and then Maitland says, “…And?” But in the theatrical release the humor and
tension of the exchange is lost because of Axel’s own take on the
situation—“It's f_____ up.”
·
When
Axel gets thrown out of the window, and the cops drive up to arrest him, he
cusses up a storm, which lessens his appearance of innocence. Yes, of course he’s frustrated at the
treatment he’s received, but the point here should be to emphasize the queer
injustice of it all. His harangue
concludes with, “What’s the charge for getting thrown out of a moving
vehicle? Jaywalking?” That’s where the scene should end, with a
joke, but instead we get another, “This is bull s___!” That kills the joke and also reinforces the
idea that Axel is a hoodlum not deserving the police officers' sympathy.
·
Soon
Axel is discussing these matters with Beverly Hills’s finest. Taggart questions what Axel was doing, and
Axel is belligerent, repeatedly saying “F.U.” until Taggart punches him. On TV however, the comment that really
gets Taggart mad is Axel’s observation that Taggart has “a pig face.” Now if that was in the theatrical version,
Taggart’s anger is more understandable.
The repeated F.U.s are just a tired mantra to be professionally
dismissed. But if Axel gets really
personal, says he looks like a pig, and then, as they’re squaring off, yells an
F.U., the final curse would come as a hammer blow inciting Taggart’s punch to
the gut. Because of all the profanity,
their exchange doesn’t reach its full potential.
·
Later
that day all three—Taggart, Axel, and Rosewood—find themselves sharing some
drinks at a strip bar. A protracted joke
about the guys being aroused is not funny and just stretches an already
unlikely scenario past its necessary length.
The point of the scene has got to be Axel besting the local cops at
their own game, not showing the cops' discomfiture.
·
Jumping
way ahead, when the police converge on the Maitland estate, one brown car is in
the mix. It is driven by the
brown-suited Lt. Bogomil. On television
we see him stoic as he prepares to do battle.
But in the theatrical version he says, “Oh, s___!” which makes no sense,
because we can’t understand what exactly he’s upset about. It also shows him kind of frazzled, and the
short scene is far more effective with him totally in control, because we can
see that he is the man Axel needs to finish off Maitland.
Television
broadcasters have less artistic pretensions than filmmakers. Since they don't make the movies being shown,
but are merely profiting on them, we can understand why they love to cut. Sometimes they even make films better.
Beverly Hills Cop is a buddy movie with
a revenge narrative. The challenge is
balancing the fun with the threats to arrive at an appropriate concoction of
adventure leavened with humor. The slow-mo
instant replay of the fruit truck being hit by the rig, the city bus doing a
360-degree spin in no relation to the truck chase, the double pop on Michael
Tandino, and the shots of the topless stripper are all pandering and
gratuitous, denying the story a chance for innocence. When Axel goes up against the slick hoods of
Victor Maitland, he's assaulting the castle and rescuing the princess. It's an archetypal construct, and the climax
comes when Lt. Bogomil, the unknown buddy in this buddy picture, aids Axel in
eliminating Victor Maitland in self-defense (Maitland fires first!).
The operating
principle for the film should be that Axel Foley, fish-out-of-water, doesn't
know how to function socially in Beverly Hills, but he still knows how to be a
great cop. And his unorthodox methods,
cultivated in a city where fighting crime is more than an intellectual pursuit,
produce a comic frission which
provides the film with its funniest moments.
But, sadly, the fun potential of the film is soured by a despondent
cynicism. Overall, the movie is a
frustrating near-miss, for all the wrong reasons.
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