Steven Seagal's ABOVE THE LAW in 4 minutes, Eat your heart out Chuck Norris

Here is my latest editing adventure - Steven Seagal's debut film edited into 4 minutes. I tried to maintain the coherence of the story (!) while highlighting the film's rampant action and Henry Silva's equally rampant cursing. Please let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eti1ll7YJdQ

NOTE FROM MODERATOR: Will, your video is gone.

This post has been edited by Marty McKee on Jul 18 2012, 10:44 PM

Well done!! Great job! You reminded me that I must watch this masterpiece again! Henry Silva is god!

I hope you've seen the amazing Henry Silva/Motorhead video by now.

Oh my, that Silva/Motorhead thing is pretty ingenious. Thanks for that.

Well it is actually making fun of Henry but I must admit it is pretty funny Uhm..which movie were the last shots taken from? The ones where he shoots some guy?

This post has been edited by Lefteris Tsoutsos on Aug 22 2006, 08:57 AM

Silva should've been in SNAKES ON A PLANE.

ABOVE THE LAW (1988)—Directed by Andrew Davis. Stars Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, Henry Silva, Sharon Stone, Daniel Faraldo, Nicholas Kusenko, Thalmus Rasulala. The 6’4” Seagal is very impressive in his debut as Chicago cop Nico Toscani, who runs afoul of CIA-sponsored drug dealers led by the ominously monikered Kurt Zagon (Silva). Nico remembers Zagon from his own CIA days in Cambodia as a sadistic interrogator who tortured prisoners for his own gain.

ABOVE THE LAW’s ambitious plot by Steven Pressfield (KING KONG LIVES), Davis, Seagal, and Ronald Shusett (TOTAL RECALL) sends Toscani and his partner Jacks (Grier) after an incoming shipment of what they think is dope, but when they bust Salvano’s (Faraldo) operation, they find C4 plastic explosives instead. Forced by FBI agent Neeley (Kusenko) to let Salvano walk and suspended from the force by superior officer Crowder (Rasulala), Nico fights back anyway, putting his life and those of his wife (Stone) and his partner in danger to stop Zagon’s plot to kill a U.S. Senator.

Not only is Seagal completely believable in the many chases, shootouts, and martial arts sequences, he’s also surprisingly tender in scenes at home with his extended family. Seagal, former a martial arts instructor with Hollywood clientele, had never acted before and has, frankly, not been this good since. Davis, whose previous film, CODE OF SILENCE, was also filmed on location in Chicago, brings back many of the same local supporting actors, and few directors have ever “nailed” the Windy City as well as Davis does. Unfortunately for Silva, one of cinema’s great villains, he never got another role this juicy again. Also with Chelcie Ross, Ron Dean, Jack Wallace, Ronnie Barron, Ralph Foody, Lee de Broux, and Michael Rooker. Score by David Michael Frank.

He probably has more screen time in ABOVE THE LAW, but Silva's got a few great moments in Jim Jarmusch's GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI. Other than his brief walk-on in the OCEAN'S ELEVEN remake, GHOST DOG is his last role to date. If that ends up being his swan song, it's a terrific performance to go out on.

This post has been edited by Mark Tinta on Jul 19 2012, 06:47 AM

Rasulala's real name was Jack Crowder, which is how he was billed in all his early TV appearances (including a good part in the Twilight Zone episode, "The Brain Center at Whipple's"), prior to his big screen blaxploitation stardom (as Rasulala) in BLACULA and COOL BREEZE, both 1972, and the first films I saw him in.


Reading your review of ABOVE THE LAW, I'm saddened by nostalgic feelings for the era when I could take a walk after work two blocks west to Times Square and see a film like this at one of about a dozen theaters that were still operating in the area in the late '80s. With the emergence of Seagal and Van Damme at roughly the same time, joining Chuck Norris, there was hope for a viable Hollywood-based martial arts genre and even though there were plenty of other potential stars over the years who should have been developed (e.g. Steve James, Cynthia Rothrock, Mark Dacascos, Michael Jai White, etc.), we had a nice run for a few years there before they all went to TV (Norris) or straight-to-video (Van Damme, Seagal) and before the theaters in Times Square all closed, to be replaced entirely by two giant multiplexes on 42nd Street where you have to take elevators/escalators to get to your screen.

Oh, and also nostalgic for a time when Sharon Stone was not afraid to make fun movies like this. And they played Times Square theaters. I saw TOTAL RECALL with a Times Square audience and I remember KING SOLOMON'S MINE playing at a multiplex where the marquee read: "KING SOLOMON'S KRUSH GROOVE."


This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Jul 20 2012, 03:49 PM

And here I was hoping it was a nod to Fred Williamson's Jesse Crowder character.

Oh, thanks for the heads up. That account was shut down by Youtube when I decided the world needed to see the uncut eyeball sucking from FROM BEYOND and MGM didn't agree. Anyway, the ABOVE THE LAW video can now be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmo21wCtbhw

This post has been edited by William S. Wilson on Jul 20 2012, 09:48 AM