In 1970s Walter Hill established himself as one of the most celebrated Hollywood directors of action genre. Since mid 1980s his career took downward turn with more misses than hits. His 1992 film Trespass continued such trend.
The plot begins when two Arkansas firefighters – Vince Gillian (played by Bill Paxton) and Don Perry (played by William Sadler) – fail to rescue demented old man named Eugene DeLong (played by Hal Landon Jr.) from burning building. Before he dies, he tells them about huge stash of gold and other treasure he had taken from church half a century ago and gives them map. Vince and Perry head to East St. Louis, Illinois where they begin to explore huge abandoned factory. There they encounter black homeless man Bradlee (played by Art Evans) who discovers that the treasure was hidden in his room. Before they can decide how to deal with Bradlee, both men encounter even larger problem in the form of vicious drug dealing gang led by “King James” (played by Ice T). He doesn’t know anything about gold, but considers abandoned building to be his territory and would likely take out trespassers, especially after they witnessed murder of one of his associates. In the ensuing mayhem Vince and Don manage to take James’ brother Lucky (played by De’voreaux White) prisoner, which gives them bargaining power in their efforts to negotiate their way out of the building.
On paper and based on the notable names involved Trespass looked like a great film. Script was originally written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis (creators of Back to the Future) in 1970s and represented an interesting attempt to mix classic adventure story inspired by The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with modern setting of urban jungle. Cast was made of respectable and experienced character actors, augmented by Ice T and Ice Cube, rap artists at the height of their popularity and obvious ability to elevate the film with their charisma (as well as some songs in soundtrack). Walter Hill took all this as an opportunity for simple B-film with all-male cast, the kind of films that he used to make in his sleep a decade ago. Unfortunately, his effort was sabotaged by too many creative experiments. Hill got an idea of James’ gang recording their activity through video camera and tried to expand use of hand-held camera to all scenes, creating confusion among audience and making Trespass look like a parody of MTV videos. Surprisingly poor and ineffective soundtrack by Hill’s old associate Ry Cooder only made this worse. But the worst part of Trespass was lack of likeable characters who are either greedy, violent or treacherous (with possible exception of those played by Bill Paxton and Art Evans). Trespass had further misfortune of being released in the year of Rodney King riots, making the plot about white firefighters battling black drug dealers look racially insensitive and forcing Hill and producers to make many changes in the script. The only thing that makes this film watchable is quick pace, but those accustomed to high standards of Hill’s early career are likely to be disappointed.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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