It's a weird tale of a biker gang leader (William DaFoe) who kidnaps a rock singer (Diane Lane). Her nebbish manager (Rick Moranis) hires her ex-soldier/ex-boyfired (Michael Pare) to rescue her. He hires a sidekick, ex-soldier Amy Madigan.

What makes this film so weird is -- you wonder WHEN it's taking place. It's full of anachronisms. The art direction looks 1950s (the malt shop, some of the costumes, the old police squad cars, the teletype). Yet you have female soldiers, and an integrated police force. And the biker gang leader looks like he's dressed for an S&M leather party, in a black leather farmer's overall bid. Very strange.

The dialog is also strange. Very stylized -- to the point of parody. Women are "skirts." Everyone's sarcastic, snarling zingers at each other. Even the bit players. The film feels like everyone in town, from street punks to cops to young girls, is a badass with a bad attitude. And half the zingers seem to end in fights. Very very strange.

The subtitle is: A Rock & Roll Fable -- whatever that means. Don't try to understand this film. Just let it wash over you. You're in a strange netherworld. Accept it, and you'll enjoy the ride. Especially if you like the music...

Some of the music written by Jim Steinman -- if you thrill to the bombastic sounds of Bonnie Tyler and Meat Love, you'll love this soundtrack. There's also a song written by Stevie Nicks, sung by Marylin Martin -- who sounds exactly like Stevie Nicks.

The sort of bizarre film where many will gawk and wonder: What were they thinking? Others will emrace it with the love that cult films attract. I did.

48 of 50 found the following review helpful:

I LOVE THIS FILM TOO MUCH!  Jun 19, 2000
By Zorikh Lequidre "Zorikh"
I first saw this movie during my formative teen years, and it has affected my sense of style and taste in music and movies ever since. Though I would not go overboard in saying that it is a "very good" movie, but it is a "great" movie.

It has been said that this is the '50's movie set in the '80's Walter Hill always wanted to make, and he succeeds in catching that feeling. The people are clad in '50's garb, the cars are glorious pieces of Detroit steel or Studebakers, the biker gang lives the dream of Link Wray's music and the threat of Brando's "Wild Ones," the music is at times fast and urgent, like youth racing to an exciting finish, or moody and atmospheric, catching tension, sorrow, and romance. The production value is first-rate, every rain puddle in place, glorious neon colors, and a literally "ripping" scene disolve.

Hill has created a complete world here. The story takes place in a city that is so huge a wanderer (such as Amy Madigan's or Michael Pare's characters) can pass through a "district" the way an old west drifter would pass through a town (not the only similarity to westerns this movie has). One can drive all night, passing through several of these districts, each with their own distinctive character, without finding the end of it. There is a run-down residential area, a nightlife strip, a spooky industrial area, even a southern style district with racist cops! The character of these districts is expressed everywhere, from the production design to the music to the costumes, so you can really catch the flavor of it. I felt that the costumes especially should be commended (hello, academy), not only because they were well produced and looked good, but also each costume expressed the character of the people wearing them and the district they resided in.

The main action of the movie follows the pattern of a less serious version of "The Warriors": our heroes must find their way home against great odds. They must take trains, steal cars, fight cops, and hide from their pursuers. Instead of the run-down griminess of a city on the edge of collapse, however, there is the sense of urgent vibrancy of a thriving culture.

Loving this movie so much, I have accumulated way too much trivia about it. The name of the biker bar, "Torchies" is used in "48 hrs" "The Driver," and "Brewster's Millions." The stripper in the bar is played by Jennifer Beales' double from "Flashdance." She was also in a rock video in the early '80's. The racist cop from the Ardmore is the Action News reporter from "Brewster's..." The train conductor was the DJ in "The Warriors." Robert Townsend can be seen as one of the doo-wop combo, but does not have a single line, unless you count him lip-psynching the songs. They used such light-sensitive film in making the movie that some of the neon was too bright and they had to paint it in.

The music, as has been said before, is great. Ry Cooder (a frequent Hill colaborator) does all the incidental music covering such works as "Get out of Denver" and "Rumble," as well as creating some original pieces. It's a shame none of it wound up on the soundtrack album. The Blasters hit their high-water mark of mainstream popularity with their performance at Torchies (this was my first exposure to them and they have been my favorite band ever since). The Jim Steinman anthems, though not his best, are very appropriate for the theme of misspent youth that the movie has. I don't understand what The Fixx was doing on the closing credits, but it's a good song.

About the acting: it seems acting skills are in inverse proportion to matinee-idol attractiveness, but that's OK, because the beautifully attractive leads don't have to do much (and Diane Lane is more beautiful here than in any other movie before or since). The less attractive secondaries get the good banter , and the stoic cop and the evil villain play their roles to the hilt.

Sure the plot is predictable, corny, even. So is the dialogue. That's part of what makes it so cool! Corniness comes from tradition and universality, so what makes it distinctive is the style, and what style! And its worth noting that the final showdown is one of the most exciting fights in cinema, and has a unique and thrilling esthetic.

So pop a brew, pour that tequila, get some chips & salsa, cuddle with your honey, and crank up your stereo big-screen TV (hopefully you've got a widescreen version too). This is fun, thrilling, and great, and if you're not smooching by the end, get another honey!

Just a thought about the DVD version vs. the VHS version...

In most instances, a DVD version of a movie is superior to the VHS version. The picture is sharper, the colors more bright, clear, and subtle, the sound better, and it is available in widescreen. All these things are true about the Streets of Fire DVD, however...

This movie is not a subtle film. It's aesthetic choices are bold and strong, not subtle or deep. In the VHS version, where the main color on the screen is red, it totally bleeds RED. Where it is blue, and is a bold and dominant BLUE, etc. On DVD these effects are lost as the sharpness of the medium brings out the subtleties of the colors. A shot that was dominantly blue is now a suble mix of greens and blues, and is weaker for it.

Also, that old VHS had a trailer for "Conan the Destroyer," one of the least subtle movies of all time.Seeing that before hearing that Ry Cooder riff really put me in that mid-'80's action movie mood!

18 of 18 found the following review helpful:

soldier boy saves queen of the hop from leader of the pack  Dec 27, 2003
By dice.
"streets of fire",ive gathered was intended to be part of a trilogy by director walter hill[director of 'the warriors'],but poor box office sales,nixed that idea.
i saw the movie at a local cinema in my hometown in 1984 and less than two weeks later it was gone replaced by some'john hughes' schmaltz or someother dreck of that kind of 'teen 80's' ilk.
i thought 'streets of fire' was fantastic,an utterly compelling 'juvinile delinquint film noir western',complete with ravaging biker gangs,sultry rock'n'roll singers,surly hot rod gangs,poutng tuff chicks,glowering bad boys,swithblade knives,black leather jackets,tuff words in tense situations,street brawls with sledge hammers,chopped lowered hotrods,do-wop groups,sexy fishnet wearing strippers,sax honking rock'a'billy bands,burning motorcycles,gun totin' bad ass dames,you name it...this movie has it all.
amid flashing neon,wet city streets,screaming subways,foggy back alleys,menacing bikers,pseudo-tuff punk hotrodders,rough guys with big guns; the story unfolds with a local female rock'n'roll singing legand,ellen aim,played by diane lane,being kidnapped by raven shaddock,played by willem dafoe and his motorcycle gang'the bombers',and of course her ex-boyfriend is none other than tom cody,played by michael pare,local ex-bad boy turned sodier,who comes home thanks to his sister vera,played by deborah van valkenberg,and takes up the task of rescuing ellen aim from 'the bombers' clutches,with the help of a tuff chick mechanic played by amy madigan.
the movie has great sets,has a time period that may be the 50's and it may be the future and it may be another place all together,some of the sets look like chicago,while others look like brooklyn new york,it has a great dirty biker bar named 'torchie's',where 'the blasters' play rousing classics like 'one bad stud',while dancer marin jahin[jennifer beals body double in 'flashdance']shakes her stuff on the stage in front of the band.
the movie was lost in its original run in the theatres,but did well on cable later in the decade and has finally garnered quite a cult following and its rightly deserved; this movie is great fun,as well as a visually stunning masterpiece.
any fan of 'walter hill' or 'the warriors' or stylized 50's like biker hotrod delinquint badboy/bad girl movies or even anyone who just like a little rock'n'roll with there fables,should like this great flick.
so,to all you greasers out there,enjoy this true original ode to a great genre of film making.
plus,the soundtrack is really cool as well,two blasters songs,,two jim stienem songs,a great ry cooder score,diane lane lipsynching in tight dresses to meatloaf sounding songs...its all
pretty cool.
so,i hope you dig it,i know i did,i own 2 copies of the video,2 copies of the soundtrack and i cant wait to get the dvd.

26 of 31 found the following review helpful:

They're going nowhere but they 're going nowhere fast  Apr 02, 2005
By Lawrance M. Bernabo
You and me, we're goin' nowhere slowly

And we gotta get away from the past

There's nothin' wrong with goin' nowhere, baby

But we should be goin' nowhere fast

It's so much better goin' nowhere fast

Jim Steinman bookends "Streets of Fire" with a couple of his operatic rock epics that make it clear he does not need Meatloaf or even Bonnie Tyler to make his songs sound great (Laurie Sargent and Holly Sherwood get the honors respectively) and director William Hill tries to get us from the big opening to the grand finale by telling a story about a guy trying to get his girl back with a little help from his friends. Ry Cooder provides the rock pulse in the middle aided and abetted by the Beaters and their raucous "One Bad Stud." There is no doubt that the soundtrack fuels this 1984 rock & roll fable that has achieved cult status with its fans, of whom I would clearly be one.

This is a biker movie where Fifties sensibilities are dressed up with a touch of haute couture, Studebakers are the king of the road, the elevated train tracks dominate the city streets, and do-wop groups do the Moonwalk. Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) and the Attackers are doing a big concert back home when the Bombers show up and kidnap the singer at the order of their leader, Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe). So Reva (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) who runs the local diner wires her kid brother, Tom Cody (Michael Paré), an ex-solider and Ellen's ex-flame to come home and put things to rights. He walks into the diner and the arrival of a gang of young punks gives him an immediate opportunity to demonstrate that even though he has skinny arms Tom can take care of business (plus he is way cool, as demonstrated by his giving the first punk a second opportunity to try and get his switchblade act together). He also gets a nice fire engine red convertible in return.

Of course, not even Tom Cody can take the Bombers on all by himself, so along for the fun is McCoy (Amy Madigan), another ex-soldier who gets to do the driving and Billy Fish (Rick Moranis), who is not only Ellen's manager but her (for lack of a better word) current boyfriend. Billy has a mouth on him and while Tom never slaps him down McCoy has some fun egging him on about Tom being Ellen's old flame. But getting Ellen out of the Battery is only part of the job, because Tom has to get her back home and you know there is going to be a show down between Raven and Tom (but you probably be surprised by Raven's choice of weapons).

The movie is something of a let down after the credits end, especially since the film editors do some nice wipes and freeze frames that make for a memorable title credits. That comes back for the bit set to Steve Nick's "Sorcerer" (also sung by Sargent), but the opening number "Goin' Nowhere Fast" gets you hooked and it is not until "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young" at the end that there is that much energy on the screen. I suppose it would have been exhausting to have twice as many Steinman numbers in this film, but this is a musical where the performer needs to be on stage to sing, which is underscored by the music video on the television sets in the bar that allows Ellen to sing a third song.

There is also a problem because the chemistry between Tom and Ellen is pretty sedate. I know what I see in Ellen Aim because I had a crush on Diane Lane when she was in "A Little Romance" and in this film she is grown up enough from being on the cover of "Time" that such thoughts are no longer bad things (By the time she was nominated for an Oscar for "Unfaithful" she could not be more grown up as far as I am concerned, although her Stella in the Baldwin-Lange version of "Streetcar" was pretty good too). But whatever Tom say in Ellen is pretty much buried in the past. Her emotional high point is when she runs to him in the pouring rain, while his is the long last look he gives her at the end. As Ellen sings in "Sorcerer," they are just a "man and woman on a star street in the middle of a snow dream" (go ahead, try and prove something that metaphorical does not hold true).

Still it proves impossible for me not to just go along for the ride. After all, a boy can be the next best thing to an angel and Ellen might not be an angle but at least she's a girl and I've got a dream that when the darkness is over they'll be lyin' in the rings of the sun, but these lovers are star crossed not star kissed. But, hey, it's all we've really got tonight and when I start treating Steinman's overblown lyrics like a Shakespearean sonnet you know I have no choice in the end but to round up on this one even though the DVD does not include the memorable music videos that were released separately on video way back when.

Let the revels begins

Let the fire be started

We're dancing for the desparate and the brokenhearted

Tonight is what it means to be young

Before you know it, it's gone

Say a prayer in the darkness for the magic of love

No matter what it seems

Tonight is what it means to be young

11 of 12 found the following review helpful:

fun movie...great music  Sep 01, 2001
By A. Bertsch
streets of fire is really just a lot of fun to watch...over and over and over again -- the music is first rate -- the intro song (nowhere fast)and ending song(tonite is what it means to be young) are as good as it gets -- you really just want to crank up the stereo with those two songs -- i think jim steinman is the name of the guy of wrote the songs(also he wrote meat loaf's paradise by the dashboard light) -- the plot line is light but enjoyable -- good score by ry cooder as well -- if you like michael pare in this, you'll also like "eddie and the cruisers", another good rock'n roll movie -- diane lane is an underrated and beautiful actress as the lead singer -- you can't go wrong with this if you just want to hang out and relax...and then crank up the volume -- really, you can't go wrong with this movie --

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