Year of the Dragon (1985)

Simply A Masterpiece

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Mickey Rourke ignites the screen with his flamboyant portrayal of a vigorous-but-veteran, emotionally scarred, determined, charismatic, bigoted, and intensely arrogant police captain Stanley White. Anchoring him with similar intensity we get John Lone as his ruthless Chinese underworld rising boss antagonist and Raymond J. Barry as his cynical superior. Sure things get a little weighed down with the subplot of White's relationship with his particularly shrewish wife falling apart while he dives head-first into an affair with cold fish reporter Arianne, but YEAR OF THE DRAGON never loses its intensity and unpredictability.I love the little side touches like how the deeply profane and immoral Rourke brings in two easily offended nuns as translators, plus how one of his superiors taunts and stares at him like an angry playground bully while his closest underlings consist of a sloppy middle-aged loafer and a barely competent academy flunky as his undercover informant. At times the proceedings become fairly humorous, especially given Rourke's very random reactions. Sometimes he comes off as a noble hero and sometimes like a total racist sociopath but a more human, well-rounded character than, say, William Petersen's equivalent character in the very similar film TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA from the same year. That said, YEAR OF THE DRAGON never loses its seriousness despite a couple out-of-place and over-the-top musical cues. Cimino artfully handles the plentiful action scenes especially one involving Rourke vs. two hoodlums. He also displays a lot of his same penchant for spectacle with the drug-buying scenes in The Golden Triangle, which I'd wager accounted for half the budget as it features a corrupt general leading a very large and heavily armed private army.I find the film fits comfortably as a tonal bridge between the gritty NYC crime films of the 70's (FRENCH CONNECTION, TAXI DRIVER, etc.) and the glossier 90's (KING OF NEW YORK, GOODFELLAS, etc.). In some ways, the dark, uncompromising atmosphere and misanthropic cruelty remind me more of KIDS or THE CROW. Certainly (and very unfortunately) overlooked, YEAR OF THE DRAGON remains a masterpiece of its time and a window into the equally brilliant and warped mind its writer of Oliver Stone just prior to the start of his directorial career.

Average crusader cop movie, worth watching if you don't expect more than some action fun to kill few hours.For those who watched it or will do, censorship forced them to replace the very last line of Mickey Rourke: "Well, I guess if you fight a war long enough, you end up marrying the enemy", with: "You were right and I was wrong. Sorry, I'd like to be a nice guy. I would, but I just don't know how to be nice."Lame.....................................................................

I am COMPLETELY dumbfounded that Michael Cimino never really was given any decent films after this. Even after he made this EXTREMELY powerful one, how the hell could that even be possible? You would think after making this one, he would have easily gone on to make many more.Oh well... One of life's (and Hollywood's) many completely senseless mysteries I guess...I DO love a good Crime Thriller and this little baby put such a permanent stamp on me when I first saw it 30 years ago, I have truly never forgotten it. I just watched a nice HD rip of it this evening for the first time in many years, and YES, it still packs every bit of the powerful punch that it did almost 30 years ago when I first saw it.Where do I start...? Mickey Rourke's amazing performance? John Lone's wonderful and SMOOOOOOOOOOTHE role? The way the story is beautifully laid out and built up to it's great ending? The fascinating 'behind the scenes' view of the Chinese Mafia? The gripping Suspense? The frigg'n EDGE of your frigg'n seat Action? The gritty portrayal by Rourke as a self-obsessed, VERY flawed, but tenacious and ultimately deeply caring cop?Those were just SOME of the first things that came to mind. SERIOUSLY, I am really NOT one to get very worked up about Action films per se, but this one was done SO damn well that it honestly holds a place forever in my personal list of best films ever made!Oh, and just to say too that I COMPLETELY agree with 'Cracker's review here that you compare it to the HUGE amount of cinematic sludge floating around out there, and this baby holds it's own quite well. Take a very similar film made by the GREAT Ridley Scott, who I TOTALLY revere (can you say 'BLADERUNNER' anyone?) called 'BLACK RAIN', is a lot like this one, but was more visually stylish, and also was quite a good film. So, if a director like Michael Cimino can hold his own compared to one of the absolute GREATS like Scott and make a film that is possibly even MORE powerful, then what's the deal anyway with not giving him any more films...??? (BTW I thought that Mickey Rourke's performance categorically BLEW Michael Douglas's out of the water, for what it's worth. And I LIKE Michael Douglas...)So, if you like good film making, a tense, gripping Crime Story, VERY involving characters, and GREAT acting, then YES, you will indeed like this film...

Somehow Mickey Rourke's performance seems to make a big bow to Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire" - is it a coincidence that both main characters are Polish and have the same name Stanley? They have a lot in common, and yet they are extremely different. Where Rourke's Stanley is an outspoken idealist, Brando's Stanley is an aimless dreamer. Yet, both of them are in a way the stereotyped Hollywood Polish man who is much less educated than his desired woman, has a tendency to strong violence and, after all, is a lonely, grown-up child. Some scenes remind me a lot of all this, especially the bed scene in Tracy's apartment (and the rape scene in "Streetcar"), the exploding anger in general, and the antagonisms all over both movies, if only in the personal relations. Could anyone tell if Oliver Stone and Michael Cimino consciously included these references in their script? - I sure see a lot of parallels. And if not so, Rourke definitely outgrows even the great Brando.