Turk 182! Turk 182! 1984 / Color / 2:35 anamorphic 16:9 / 97 102 min. / Street Date May 2, 2005 / 14.98 Starring Timothy Hutton, Robert Urich, Kim Cattrall, Robert Culp, Darren McGavin, Paul Sorvino, Peter Boyle, James Tolkan Cinematography Reginald H. Morris Production Designer Harry Pottle Art Direction Paul Eads Film Editor Stan Cole Original Music Paul Zaza Written by Denis Hamill, John Hamill, James Gregory Kingston from his story Produced by Robert W. Cort, Rene Dupont, Ted Field, Gary Goch, Peter Samuelson Directed by Bob Clark
	Reviewed by Glenn Erickson An okay but undeveloped comedy-drama about the pranks of an urban rebel, Turk 182! is mired in a bog of credibility problems. It was the last effort of consequence for oddball director Bob Clark, who made a great horror film Deathdream and the modern holiday classic A Christmas Story, but also the groaningly odious Porky's. Turk 182! has some pleasing performers and in some ways resembles an old-fashioned Frank Capra film, with all the cornball trimmings. Synopsis: After NY firefighter Terry Lynch (Robert Urich) is injured rescuing a child from a burning building, both he and his younger brother Jimmy (Timothy Hutton) are shocked to find his pension denied because he was both off-duty and drinking at the time of the incident. Ignored by the city bureaucracy, Jimmy appeals for aid directly to Mayor Tyler (Robert Culp) and is rebuffed in public. He then retaliates with a one-man harassment campaign against the Mayor and his 'polish the big apple' reelection campaign, interrupting the candidate's every publicity stop with graffiti and signs reading "Turk 182." The slogan is soon famous, with everyone wanting to find out who is behind it .. Terry's social worker Danny Boudreau (Kim Cattrall), and the Mayor's security men (Darren McGavin and Peter Boyle). Turk 182! tries very hard to be an audience-pleasing romp, with a working-class David going up against the Goliath bureaucrats of New York City. If its story weren't so dumbed-down it might have been a big hit. In time-honored Capra tradition, it presents an injustice with an emotional basis and then sets up an entire city as unlikely antagonists. Nobody can argue with a fireman rescuing a child from a burning building, and the first thing we ask is why Terry Lynch's fire department isn't coming to his defense - they have unassailable lobbying powers. One mention to the press about the saved infant, and they'd be calling Terry a hero and giving him the key to the city. The movie isn't about rights but about a personal feud between Robert Culp's mayor and Timothy Hutton's rather fancifully-conceived hero. He's the kind of anti-intellectual free-spirit who won't work and gets to tool around Manhattan on a cool motorcycle with sidecar. Said conveyance can be parked on sidewalks, by the gates of hospitals and City Hall without ever being bothered by the cops. The Mayor overreacts wildly by blowing up in public and calling Terry a drunk, a scene even the dependable Robert Culp can't pull off. Jimmy's graffiti antics are said to be the work of a mad genius, yet all the outrageous examples we are given would be nigh-impossible to pull off in the middle of a big city - giant billboards repainted, etc. Cop Darren McGavin and Peter Boyle's security man would have Jimmy in the hoosegow in a day or two at the most. More likely than not, Mayor Tyler would co-opt him into his reelection campaign - redressing the wrongs of the bureaucracy, etc. Turk 182! also has a modern version of the thirties' female sidekick. Kim Cattrall's social worker Danny has no real function in the story except to admire Jimmy. She seems to have no work to do and instead follows Jimmy around for the better part of a week. When Danny discovers Jimmy's secret identity, she's charmed right into his bed. Cattrall is always pleasant to watch, but her character is truly dumb. In true 1980s fashion, the Jimmy/Mayor Tyler feud becomes personal on a Rambo level that's supposed to communicate directly to the audience. Jimmy uses the media to bring down his enemy, and the cops are so frustrated by the rebel that hothead security man Peter Boyle tries to shoot him. We're continually invited to side with the crowd cheering on Jimmy's continuing challenge, with the slogan Turk 182! put up on a skywriting banner (how'd Jimmy fix that?) and flashing down from the scoreboard at a big-league baseball game. Everybody gets to join in on Jimmy's final triumph, even his brother. What exactly are they celebrating - anarchy?  1 Turk 182! is handsomely shot and professionally directed; Bob Clark makes the large crowd scenes work, especially at the baseball stadium. But when we can't believe the central situation, the story self-destructs. The only thing the film has going for it is its 'rebel stance,' which seems to hark from Porky's and points to the filmmakers' shortcomings as storytellers. Everybody loves a rebel but we like them to be rebellious about something a little more substantial. Both the idea and most of the characters in Turk 182! are just a little ... dumb, and we wonder why we're expected to take any of it seriously. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three had a working-class spirit that Turk 182! aspires to imitate, to the extent of casting its Dick O'Neill and Robert E. Weill in memorable bits. You'll also recognize Weill as the put-upon mail clerk in The Hudsucker Proxy. O'Neill's powerhouse chief puts the perfect anti-authoritarian rage into his defiance of Peter Boyle's stressed-out security man; he has the best and most natural line in the film - "Ha! The bastards never heard of auxilliary backup!" Anchor Bay's DVD of Turk 182! looks great. The film was seen mostly on cable TV in the middle 1980s, and was hurt by the pan-scan transfers - this must be why so many filmmakers gave up on anamorphic widescreen, knowing that their films' more permanent home would be a little square box. The enhanced transfer seen here restores the picture to its full dimensions. Bob Clark contributes a slow-moving and rather thin commentary. He doesn't give us very much information about the actors or other creatives who helped him make the movie, and mostly talks about himself - slowly. This is in high contrast to his lively talk on the earlier disc for Deathdream. Rather than concentrate on his career highs, he begins in a defensive mode by avoiding his own self-asked question, where has he been for the last twenty years? A look at the IMDB shows a lot of down-market credits, with a proposed remake of Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things proposed for 2006. There is also a trailer which looks to have been reformatted for television - it's pan-scanned and slightly squeezed, giving us an idea of how the movie played on cable. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Turk 182! rates: Movie: Good -- Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: trailer, Commentary by director Bob Clark Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: May 14, 2005 Footnote: 1. Terry Lynch has two major hospital recoveries in the movie, and spends the second in a full body cast. Does that mean that the events of the story cover a year or more? It seems to only be as long as the Mayor's reelection campaign. On the other hand, the romance between Jimmy and Danny is so fast, it seems as if just a couple of weeks have passed. Return [Savant Main Page] [Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Advertise With Us Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum Copyright © DVDTalk.com All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use