Shortly before his death, the director William Friedkin expressed a few regrets. Among them was that, in his opinion, he never created a film as critically acclaimed as some of Hollywood’s masterpieces, like Citizen Kane. The man who embodied New Hollywood for many, and who died on August 7 at the age of 87, was perhaps forgetting that he was behind the best thriller of the 1980s, To Live and Die in LA.
Released in 1985, the plot of this 116-minute feature centers around a Secret Service agent’s relentless pursuit of a brilliant forger. The cop is a handsome adrenaline junkie, while the counterfeiter is a criminal with the smooth talents of a social climber. The film was Friedkin’s return to the detective genre, the source of his fame in the movie industry (The French Connection, his first success, won him an Oscar for Best Director in 1971). He also, however, produced some duds in the same genre. In 1980, the director released Cruising, a thriller starring Al Pacino as an undercover cop immersed in New York’s homosexual community. The film, which some critics pointed out was latently homophobic, was later disowned by Pacino. It put some dents in Friedkin’s reputation as a minor genius, and in 1983 he took another tumble with Deal of the Century. Critically and publicly panned, the comedy barely turned a profit.
By the mid-1980s, the filmmaker’s young promise felt like a distant memory, based on movies released in the previous past decade. At the age of 50, he had no choice. If he were to continue directing, he had to create another great film.
Then the director heard about a book written by a former Secret Service agent, Gerald Petrievich. The son of a California cop, Petrievich was assigned to fight counterfeiting operations. The novel To Live and Die in LA, published in 1984, was directly inspired by his experience as an agent.
To make his film, Friedkin had to work with a $6 million budget ($4 million less than the budget for Deal of the Century). He soon realized that he wouldn’t be able to cast any of the big stars of the day. He called in his old friend Bob Weiner, the casting director who had worked miracles on The French Connection. His mission would be to find young actors capable of carrying a big movie. It was easy for Weiner: the lead role went to William Petersen, a complete unknown at the time. As for the counterfeiter, it was the angular face of young Willem Dafoe that caught the producer’s attention. The supporting roles were played by actors who would go on to successful careers in Hollywood: John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel, Dean Stockwell, and John Pankow.
Miami Vice Style in a West Coast Setting
Among the remarkable aspects of the film is how Friedkin used music to anchor it in its time. He has some firsthand knowledge of ’80s pop music. In 1984, he directed the video for “Self Control,” performed by Laura Branigan, and a year later, he fell in love with the group Wang Chung. The film’s soundtrack was entrusted to the British band, which “adds real depth to the film’s universe,” Friedkin said at the time.