Taglines: All it takes to bring him down is one bullet… one woman or… One False Move.
One False Move movie storyline. In Los Angeles, after a violent drug rip-off, the Los Angeles Police Department detectives find the identity of the trio – the sadistic I.Q. of 150 and college graduate Lenny “Pluto” Franklyn; his not so bright buddy in San Quentin Ray Malcolm; and his girlfriend Fantasia.
Their further investigation indicates that the criminals are fleeing to Star City, Arkanas, and LAPD detective Dud Cole and his partner John McFeely contact the local Chief of Police Dale ‘Hurricane’ Dixon and they head to the little town. The yokel family man Dale, who is used to resolve domestic issues, is fascinated with the chance to participate of a manhunt and befriends the two detectives. But when he sees the picture of Fantasia, he recognizes her as Lila Walker and is haunted by his past, hiding a secret about Lila Walker.
One False Move is a 1992 American thriller film co-written by Billy Bob Thornton. The film stars Thornton alongside Bill Paxton and Cynda Williams and was directed by Carl Franklin. The low-budget production was about to be released straight to home video when it was finished, but became popular through word of mouth, convincing the distributor to give the film a theatrical release. Film critic Gene Siskel voted this film as his favorite of 1992.
Film Review for One False Move
“One False Move” is a thriller with a hair-trigger sense of tension. Directed by newcomer Carl Franklin, its power comes from the stripped-down simplicity of its style and the unblinking savagery of its violence. Franklin’s approach to violence isn’t voluptuous or romantic; it’s harsh and unfussy and realistic. Without its lethal edge, this story about a drug deal gone sour might seem routine, just another drug movie. But this ruthless element, along with a handful of impressive performances, separates “One False Move” from the other films in its genre. It creates its own grim space.
The movie begins in Los Angeles when two men and a woman barge in on a party and, after killing everyone in the house, plus a dealer and his girfriend in another part of town, head into the night with their stash. Their plan is to sell the cocaine in Houston, but when the deal explodes, they get sidetracked in heartland towns with names like Star City and Texarkana. It’s dead-end country, and alien territory for both the dealers — Ray (Billy Bob Thornton, who co-wrote the script) and Pluto (Michael Beach) — and the L.A. detectives (Jim Metzler and Earl Billings) who are sent there to track them down. It’s home ground, though, for Ray’s girlfriend, Fantasia (Cynda Williams), and Star City sheriff “Hurricane” Dixon (Bill Paxton), who grew up there and, as we learn later, share a secret past.
The movie’s fevered early scenes set the heightened emotional tone. Franklin’s method in these sequences is surreptitious and detached; the shock of the brutality may sneak up on you, as it does when Pluto casually places a pillowcase over each of his victims’ heads and coolly stabs them to death. But this bloody matter-of-factness is the film’s most startling twist. Like “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer,” “One False Move” gets its effects by virtue of an almost surgical clinicism; it has a reportorial feel, a sense of verite immediacy.
That goes for the actors as well. As the eager-beaver sheriff, Paxton is the movie’s best-known actor (with the exception of Cynda Williams, the rest are largely unknown), and watching him storm through the streets of Star City — one of those towns where “everyone knows when you’re born and cares about it when you die” — you fully understand how his character got the nickname “Hurricane.”
Paxton (“Near Dark,” “Aliens”) is one of the movies’ most underrated character actors, and his performance here has a hayseed dynamism. Using a combination of common sense and sour mash charm, this hick sheriff has kept the peace for six years in Star City without once drawing his gun. But when the L.A. detectives arrive to stake out the trio’s hideout, he’s like a kid making his first trip to Disney World. Now he can see some real action, be a real cop; he’s so fired up that he even seriously entertains the idea of moving to L.A. and joining up.
Franklin crosscuts between the police trio in Star City and the criminal trio on the road, between the breezy atmosphere of outdoor cookouts and the high-strung claustrophobia of the killers’ car. With his wire rims and preppy blandness, Beach’s Pluto has the marrow-chilling stare of a true psycho; he kills without batting an eye. As Fantasia (whose real name is Lila), Williams is a ragged-out beauty; she hates what she’s become but doesn’t know what to do about it, and her sadness has a dark undertow. She’s not just damaged goods, she’s ruined.
As the movie progresses, it deepens emotionally and becomes less of a detective thriller and more of a character study, and it’s to Franklin’s credit that he never allows his hard-boiled style to soften. Thematically, the movie doesn’t make a strong statement, but it is strikingly expressive in its details. The film is Franklin’s first, but already he’s developed a strong aend language. sthetic personality. He’s already a real filmmaker.
One False Move (1992)
Directed by: Carl Franklin
Starring: Bill Paxton, Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach, Earl Billings, Jim Metzler, Earl Billings, Natalie Canerday, Robert Ginnaven, Meredith ‘Jeta’ Donovan
Screenplay by: Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Epperson
Production Design by: Ronald Leamon
Cinematography by: James L. Carter
Film Editing by: Carole Kravetz Aykanian
Costume Design by: Ronald Leamon
Set Decoration by: Troy Myers
Art Direction by: Dana Torrey
Music by: Peter Haycock, Derek Holt, Paul Di Franco
MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and language, and for drug content.
Distributed by: I.R.S. Releasing
Release Date: May 8, 1992
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