Night at the Golden Eagle (2002)

Perfect cast and a good story

Load of rubbish!!

Blistering performances.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story of small time crooks, low-income senior citizens and others on the fringe, Night at the Golden Eagle shows one night in their sorry lives. From the ex-con just getting out of prison to the loser desk clerk, everyone in the hotel has some large or small drama going on.While other reviewers chose to see this as gritty and realistic, I didn't think so; street walkers, for example, are seldom as good looking as Natasha Lyonne, or as articulate. You could expect a lot more drug use and a lot fewer pretty faces in a flea bag hotel, the characters living there wouldn't be nearly as interesting.The movie is shot in dark tones with a distinct style, presumably to give it more atmosphere; that works, it doesn't distract from the action. The production values are as high as anything else, this isn't a B movie at all.The film misses the mark, though, it's a decent movie but not a real slice of life as it aims to be. With a couple of quick edits it could easily be the movie of the week on TV.

"Night at the Golden Eagle" is just a few steps away from being a perfect film, we don't get the opportunity to absorb the climax before it ends, so by the time the credits roll it felt incomplete.The story isn't about resolutions, but instead the opposite, if you ever wondered where the people who don't "make it" go after they've failed, or where society's unwanted leftovers collect, or where those with potential ultimately find themselves on the wrong side of fate's door there are a lot of them out there right now on the streets, and they're getting younger and younger, get your teen to see it they might learn something.

This film is a gritty little piece that is both repulsive and intriguing, a work that offers a glimpse into the sleazy world of the skid row types as they interact within the confines of a seedy flophouse. The acting is sometimes a bit stiff and wooden, but the overall effect of the film is unforgettable and unsettling. The characterizations are generally archetypical, but the film is well directed and the camera work adds to the gloomy, depressing mood that the film captures in the characters' personas and daily lives. The film's flashback sequences add to the overall sense of decline while evoking a sympathetic reaction to the characters' spiritual and psychological dissipation. In some ways, this film brings a compassionate sensibility to the plight of the characters, while exploiting those same human frailties for shock effect and cinematic punch. The young, nubile hooker wannabe is an especially sad and depressing character who embodies the sense of a complete waste of a human life and potential, a point even more pronounced through her completely senseless death near the film's conclusion. Overall, I think this film is a very fascinating piece of indie film-making. Well worth seeing!

This film leaves a mark. Don't watch it to be entertained though; what this film sets out to do is show you something unrelentingly grotesque. There is no gloss here, and no hope.Hollywood has a problem. Frequently we see "powerful movies" about the world's poorest and most down-and-out people. The problem is that in real life, the lives of the poorest and most-down-and out people are often banal and undramatic. The Hollywood answer is to inject redemption into the script in order to mask the stink of reality. The results is the Space Mountain of movies, a tamed-down roller coaster experience that deliberately pulls the punches to retain a family--or at least, a hopeful--atmosphere. There's nothing wrong with this approach as long as we remember that what we're seeing is a projection. The problem becomes when we start to believe our own myths.Night at the Golden Eagle is a film that shatters some of those myths. These are the lives of people most of us would rather forget, people with no hope, no future, and only shattered dreams to keep them company. It's rightfully disturbing stuff. Anyone looking to be entertained should stay far away, because Night is a film that is guaranteed to leave you feeling dirty.For all that, it never feels exploitive. Night draws you close to the stench of decay but never cheapens it. There are no false redemptions, no heroes charging in to save the day, not even an "everyman" to ease us into the proceedings, nor are any of the developments glamorized as they might be in a film by Tarantino and his ilk.This film is not perfect. It is so dank that it is almost overwhelming, and not quite close enough to a documentary to shake the need for plot. However, the sets and costumes are incredible. The acting ranges from fantastic to mediocre but never sinks to the level of a WB horror movie.Another reviewer mentioned "racist" content in this film and I am slightly inclined to agree, in that movies of this kind so frequently demonstrate the fall of a young white woman as synonymous with her sleeping with a black or Latino man. This is an example of a theme that might not be as jarring were not a prominent feature in at least 4 films released between 1999 and 2002. I first noticed it in Requiem for a Dream and Traffic and am disappointed to see it featured here as well.My rating: 8/10, but not for everyone.