Movies
“Switchback” Hits The Brakes Just As It Gets Going
Switchback (1997) is a classic cat & mouse game with an aloof cop and a rambunctiously charismatic killer. The shocking part of the story is who plays what part.
“An FBI agent tries to catch a serial killer who kidnapped his son.”
Director: Jeb Stuart
Writers: Jeb Stuart
Staring: Danny Glover, Dennis Quaid, Claudia Stedelin, Jared Leto, Walton Goggins, Ted Levine, William Fichtner, R. Lee Ermey
Release Date: October, 31, 1997
IMDB
Switchback (1997) is a classic cat & mouse game with an aloof cop and a rambunctiously charismatic killer. The shocking part of the story is who plays what part. The cast is incredibly strong from top to bottom; Dennis Quaid plays the unlikeable cop and Danny Glover is driving around as knife wielding mind-game lover. Among the supporting cast there is a young Jared Leto tagging along unwillingly for the ride, and there are pit stops to side characters played by recognizable faces R. Lee Ermey, Walton Goggins, Ted Levine and William Fichtner.
Director and writer Jeb Stuart had the story of Switchback in the back of his mind for over a decade. He wanted to make the movie back in the 1980s with Sidney Poitier, Robert Duvall and Kevin Bacon. I would imagine that if the story was to stay the same, it would have been a Poitier villain role (very uncommon) working against Duvall as the aging cop and Bacon would have been the distressed hitchhiker.
For the record, I think that Poitier and Bacon would have been great. Poitier could pass by any suspicions with his angelic grin, and young Bacon had the spaztic energy that would be magnetic to take in as he is flying off a snowy ravine.
Now that I have already delved into the past, I should probably touch on what Switchback is. There is a serial killer on the loose and the shitstorm arrives in the jurisdiction of Sheriff Buck Olmstead (R. Lee Ermey). He has no idea what’s coming up shit creek for him until FBI agent Frank LaCrosse (Dennis Quaid) arrives on the scene and begins dissecting it all in immense detail.
The two law men develop a friend rapport which leads to LaCrosse eventually telling Buck Olmstead that this killer he has been chasing kidnapped his son. This mysterious car-swapping knife wielder is using a little boy as motivation and collateral, which is rather diabolical.
While LaCrosse is delivering necessary exposition and helping Olmstead try and solve the case, we are given a duel timeline that features Bob Goodall (Danny Glover) driving a car full of photos of topless women. The man is charismatic as all hell and his extroverted personality is brought more to the forefront when he picks up hitchhiking lone wolf Lane Dixton (Jared Leto). The two end up striking up an unlikely friendship, but their bond becomes frayed as the circle of safety surrounding Goodall begins to shrink.
Switchback’s ending is exactly what you’d expect it to be; Goodall and LaCrosse finally come face-to-face, resulting in a fast-twitched climactic sequence.
While the ending of the movie takes place on a high speed train careening through the mountains, it is in the film’s ending that leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth. LaCrosse is best as a character when he is brooding, thinking, and not running around in the snow in his agency dress shoes. When LaCrosse is reserved it allows Quaid to bring about an air of fatigued desperation. When LaCrosse turns into a train car hopping acrobatist, it wreaks more as a story choice to pull in eyeballs.
The relationship between LaCrosse and Goodall is one of intellect, but the ending of the story is based more on physical prowess than brains. It feels somewhat of a betrayal of Jeb Stuart’s screenplay origins.
Stuart has a talent for writing charismatic assholes. Danny Glover is the best part of Switchback, much like Oscar nominated Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive (1993) and Alan Rickman’s greedy Han Gruber in his writing debut in 1988’s Die Hard. Glover makes Switchback the enjoyable movie it is. Also a feat, Glover makes Leto seem like the normal one, which is incredibly against type for the Leto that we know now.
My favorite scene involving Goodall is when he is quietly stalking his friend like prey in the garage is fantastic tension. Just had to throw that in.
Glover doesn’t have much experience playing the villain, with this being only his second foray into the antagonistic world after Witness (1985). I will be the first to admit that I have not seen the majority of his 203 acting performances, so if you have more movies where Glover played the bad guy, then hit me up.
Switchback starts out like a cop thriller mystery with opposing forces leading their own perspective stories. When the two paths eventually converge…when the two speeding cars eventually see each other in their rear view mirrors…it’s as if both cars stop, wave for the other to merge, and the general flow of traffic gets all bottled up.
Switchback is a fine movie that had glimmers of being very good but a misguided final act takes away from some great scenes. It is a good dumb movie that had a chance to be more elevated.
As of late July when I watched Switchback, the movie is streaming on Paramount+.
STANKO RATING: C
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