It’s increasingly clear Walter Hill really wanted to make a western. In his first few films like 48 Hours, The Driver, or The Warriors, the idea to create dark and gritty worlds with moral ambiguity was ever-present. We see characters behave selfishly, but only out of the primal need to carry out their role in the world when their lives are disrupted. With 1984’s neon-drenched teen drama Streets of Fire (subtitled “A Rock & Roll Fable”), Hill and co-writer Larry Gross had the vision to amplify everything he had been working towards in the nine years he had been making movies. Hill had said in an interview he wanted to make a movie that he would love as a teen, create a mood that was “great then and which I still have great affection for: custom cars, kissing in the rain, neon, trains in the night, high-speed pursuit, rumbles, rock stars, motorcycles, jokes in tough situations, leather jackets, and questions of honor.” Despite the poor box office, it’s easy to imagine having another teen fall in love with Hill’s fascinations.
