I first happened on this film on a German satellite TV while channel-flipping one late night over two decades ago. It was one of the early scenes of conflict between the main characters (Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips). The film instantly sucked me in and I watched to the end well past midnight. With constants re-runs on TV, I must have watched it again at least half a dozen times. Now that Netflix has it, I watched Renegades again, and it still didn't get old for me. Beyond the chemistry between its two leads, I want to emphasize a couple of aspects of the film which stand out to me.
One is the strangely gloomy tone for a Hollywood film. This starts with the setting in Philadelphia's decaying urban jungle, continues with the score (no bombastic 1980s pop-rock but a sad Native American pipe) and finishes with an ending that, although a victory for our two leads, is weighted down by a sense of great loss for both of them.
What I also like are the subtle deviations from the standard elements of the genre. In most 1980s Hollywood cop films, policemen are successful by breaking the rules, especially when it comes to torturing and killing suspects, but they never make an error in judgment. But in this film, Kiefer Sutherland's maverick cop is sometimes a real a**hole just to relieve tension, his undercover work leads to the death of innocents, and confronts the villain's girlfriend under a mistaken notion of her level of involvement. Speaking of the villain's girlfriend, I can't write much about Jamie Gertz's role without spoilers, but suffice to say she makes an impression even though the film completely omits the development of a romantic story-line.
What I found particularly interesting in this latest re-watch was the non-black-and-white bad cop character (Bill Smitrovich), a corrupt person who still has some conscience left. His constant inner conflict was skilfully emphasized by the scriptwriter and the actors by having a second corrupt cop character as contrast, with the pair hating each other's guts.
A final deviation from 1980s common tropes is the main villain. Robert Knepper plays a gangster apparently belonging to the less common type of the upper-class bad apple. But, instead of projecting flair like Sean Connery in The Great Train Robbery or Alan Rickman in Die Hard, Knepper expertly brings out the character's notion of entitlement: it's in the scene that puts Lou Diamond Phillips's character on a war path, in his treatment of his henchmen, and especially in his displeasure at failing to control Smitrovich's bad cop.
Finally, I was surprised to find that the film has such a low IMDb score and many negative reviews, almost exclusively from the USA. It's like other reviewers saw a different movie. I accept tastes differ, but I can't chase away the thought that at east part of it (especially the contemporary reception) was down to unwillingness to confront the Native American themes, from the poverty shown in the opening scene through the racism Lou Diamond Phillips's character confronts as an aside to the history reminder at the end.
One is the strangely gloomy tone for a Hollywood film. This starts with the setting in Philadelphia's decaying urban jungle, continues with the score (no bombastic 1980s pop-rock but a sad Native American pipe) and finishes with an ending that, although a victory for our two leads, is weighted down by a sense of great loss for both of them.
What I also like are the subtle deviations from the standard elements of the genre. In most 1980s Hollywood cop films, policemen are successful by breaking the rules, especially when it comes to torturing and killing suspects, but they never make an error in judgment. But in this film, Kiefer Sutherland's maverick cop is sometimes a real a**hole just to relieve tension, his undercover work leads to the death of innocents, and confronts the villain's girlfriend under a mistaken notion of her level of involvement. Speaking of the villain's girlfriend, I can't write much about Jamie Gertz's role without spoilers, but suffice to say she makes an impression even though the film completely omits the development of a romantic story-line.
What I found particularly interesting in this latest re-watch was the non-black-and-white bad cop character (Bill Smitrovich), a corrupt person who still has some conscience left. His constant inner conflict was skilfully emphasized by the scriptwriter and the actors by having a second corrupt cop character as contrast, with the pair hating each other's guts.
A final deviation from 1980s common tropes is the main villain. Robert Knepper plays a gangster apparently belonging to the less common type of the upper-class bad apple. But, instead of projecting flair like Sean Connery in The Great Train Robbery or Alan Rickman in Die Hard, Knepper expertly brings out the character's notion of entitlement: it's in the scene that puts Lou Diamond Phillips's character on a war path, in his treatment of his henchmen, and especially in his displeasure at failing to control Smitrovich's bad cop.
Finally, I was surprised to find that the film has such a low IMDb score and many negative reviews, almost exclusively from the USA. It's like other reviewers saw a different movie. I accept tastes differ, but I can't chase away the thought that at east part of it (especially the contemporary reception) was down to unwillingness to confront the Native American themes, from the poverty shown in the opening scene through the racism Lou Diamond Phillips's character confronts as an aside to the history reminder at the end.