Alex Cox's "Repo Man"
October 31, 2011 7:07 PM   Subscribe

Alex Cox: REPO MAN was made as a "negative pickup" by Universal at the time when Bob Rehme was head of the studio. At the time, the big deal over there was STREETS OF FIRE, and nobody really noticed our film [8 MB PDF] at all. Which was lucky for us, since Bob Rehme had "green-lighted" a film which was quite unusual by studio standards. (previously)
posted by Trurl (87 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love this movie. The soundtrack is excellent!
posted by drklahn at 7:16 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


Don't forget the unofficial sequel (written by Alex Cox): Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday.
posted by griphus at 7:17 PM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


John Wayne was a fag.

Was not.

Was too.
posted by webhund at 7:22 PM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


Not to get all epsi-Pay uel-Blay, but it is also streaming here.
posted by mecran01 at 7:27 PM on October 31, 2011


Huh.
posted by jeffamaphone at 7:28 PM on October 31, 2011


I don't have any idea why (I should ask my mom actually) but we had a copy of Repo Man around when I was growing up and watched it so. many. times. Every time Picasso comes up, in any context, I have to stifle the urge to say that girls could not resist his stare and so Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole.

THE HOT CLUB (a comedy about nuclear blast veterans and nerve gas thieves set in the early years of the 21st century)

I would like to see this movie.
posted by grapesaresour at 7:30 PM on October 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


I'm slightly over 40 now and a few years ago a 20-something colleague asked me where I wanted to go for lunch. I turned to him deadpan and said:

"Let's go get sushi and not pay."

He had no idea what the hell I was referring to. Kids and their cult movies these days.
posted by jeremias at 7:30 PM on October 31, 2011 [13 favorites]


It's like I was just thinking about Repo Man, and then someone says "Repo", or "Waldo", or posts to MeFi about the movie.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:30 PM on October 31, 2011 [11 favorites]


Plate o' [ANVIL]
posted by telstar at 7:33 PM on October 31, 2011


Repo Man lives intense!
posted by octobersurprise at 7:34 PM on October 31, 2011


This post is intense.
posted by fungible at 7:35 PM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


John Wayne was a fag.

The hell he was!
posted by Artw at 7:36 PM on October 31, 2011 [3 favorites]



I'm slightly over 40 now and a few years ago a 20-something colleague asked me where I wanted to go for lunch. I turned to him deadpan and said:

"Let's go get sushi and not pay."

He had no idea what the hell I was referring to. Kids and their cult movies these days.


I was out at the grocery store with the girlfriend and her 15-year-old daughter not long ago. I was trying to explain to her how in Repo Man, the fact the punks were dangerous and unpredictable was signalled by their having a little bit of green in their hair and a single earring. I looked at her, her mother, and the cashier and realized that on the three of them I could see five hair colours, at least a dozen piercings, and six or eight visible tattoos.

1984 was a very long time ago, it seems.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:38 PM on October 31, 2011 [27 favorites]


I was into these dudes before anyone.

Wanted me to be their manager.

Called bullshit on that one.

Being a manager's no job for a man.

Ask me how many ties I got?

Shit, I don't know.
posted by clvrmnky at 7:38 PM on October 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


He was too you boys. I installed two-way mirrors at his pad in Brentwood and he come to the door in a dress.

That doesn't mean he was a fag Miller. A lot of straight guys like to watch their buddies fuck. I know I do. Don't you?

Fuck-a-John Wayne muther fucker, tell us who hit you....

(burned into my soul)
posted by humboldt32 at 7:41 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


John Wayne was a fag.

Was not.

Was too.


Come on now. ..

it's: He was too you boys! (preview) DAMMIT humboldt32!

Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead.

So immoral even thinking about it can drive you insane.

(god I love this movie, and I have seen it far too many times...)
posted by biscotti at 7:44 PM on October 31, 2011


*Hands biscotti a "BEER"*

Put it on a plate son, it'll taste better.
posted by humboldt32 at 7:47 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


It's funny, actually. At the time, I wasn't even that much of a fan of the music or the scene (more of a New Waver, myself), but I can still remember exactly where and with whom I saw it.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:48 PM on October 31, 2011


Nice friends Otto.
posted by humboldt32 at 7:49 PM on October 31, 2011


That's not the middle of the street. That's the cooornah.
posted by humboldt32 at 7:51 PM on October 31, 2011


One time I was faced with the delicate task of explaining to a friend that my phone call to him was being made from the pay phone of the psych ward I had checked myself into. "To explain my situation.... well, you remember that song from the Repo Man soundtrack?"

He mulled this over for a moment. "You staged a coup d'etat?"
posted by Trurl at 7:53 PM on October 31, 2011 [17 favorites]


1984 was a very long time ago, it seems.

That's the fucking truth. The other day I was talking to an OWS kid who wasn't even born until 1989.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:55 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


Alex Cox: REPO MAN was made as a "negative pickup" by Universal at the time when Bob Rehme was head of the studio.

For a second I thought that said "Axe Cop" and got unreasonably excited at the prospect of the first (?) movie written by a kindergartner.
posted by Rhaomi at 7:57 PM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


Repo Man was the second movie I ever saw, and the third was the cult classic Countryman. As much as I wish sometimes my hippie parents had been more disciplinary, at least I have good taste in music. Here's Bob Dylan and the Plugz doing Jokerman on Letterman. Sadly there doesn't seem to be any video of them doing Sonny Boy Williamson's "Don't Start Me Talking"
posted by Lorin at 7:57 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


Excuse me while I fold my pants...
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:01 PM on October 31, 2011


Every time Picasso comes up, in any context, I have to stifle the urge to say...

One day at work fifteen or so years ago I was sitting with a table of people, including my friend who has among her many homemade tattoos a Black Flag one. One of the guys was eating an avocado which caused to break into this entire song. Vacant stares all around...
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:11 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


I still listen to the soundtrack on occasion. (As I've said before, that Burning Sensations cover of Pablo Picasso kicks the original's ass five ways to Sunday.)
posted by maxwelton at 8:13 PM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


Nice friends Otto.

That leads into a line I still find myself using quite often. "Thanks! I made them myself."
posted by Brak at 8:17 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


I knew I'd find you all in here overthinking a plate of shrimp.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:19 PM on October 31, 2011


Put it on a plate, son. You'll enjoy it more.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 8:22 PM on October 31, 2011 [5 favorites]


I wrote a paper for a college film class about Repo Man and watched it six times in two days, the last time frame by frame to get all the visual in jokes. In the scene where Miller's talking about time machines and throwing stuff into the flaming oil drum, one of the items is a copy of Diuretics, by A. Rum Bubble.

"You know who told me? Yer goddam brother!"
posted by AJaffe at 8:37 PM on October 31, 2011


Even though I own it on DVD, Repo Man is a movie that I end watching rest of any and every time I stumble upon it on cable. I saw in the theaters solely because it was produced by Mike Nesmith (I was a big Monkees and Television Parts fan at the time) and I knew it had something to do with punk. I had no idea it would be a movie I'd quote for the next 25+ years.

"There's fuckin' room to move as a fry cook."
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:46 PM on October 31, 2011


Yeah, what hades said. Ummmm....

"Ordinary fucking people. I hate 'em!"
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:48 PM on October 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


Repo Man was the second movie I ever saw

I think the second movie I ever saw was The Love Bug. I think Jungle Book might've been the first. Hey! Maybe I didn't grow up with "Pablo Picasso" (But lots of people called him an asshole, I assure you), but I did grow up with "Bare Necessities!"
posted by octobersurprise at 8:49 PM on October 31, 2011


@Griphus: There's also the "other" sequel - Repo Chick. Not a high point for anyone involved.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:50 PM on October 31, 2011


I'll always remember watching it with my Mom's much younger half brother on Laserdisc sometime in the mid-80s, I'd guess I was maybe 10 or so, which would have made him 19 or so, and thinking that my uncle was possibly the coolest guy ever. I've judged many people--including my wife--based on their reaction to that movie since, either you got it, or you were... an ordinary fucking person.

Also, it happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes.
posted by togdon at 9:03 PM on October 31, 2011 [2 favorites]


Repo Chick, previously.
posted by rajbot at 9:07 PM on October 31, 2011


I watched Repo Man every time it came on tv when I was a kid.
One time, my parents were gone so I made a batch of lemon bars (you know, the gooey lemon shit over a cookie crust with powdered sugar on top) except I added enough food coloring to make it a fluorescent green mess. tasted good though.
I was a weird kid.

I've probably said this here before, but when I saw Bubba Hotep for the first time, I told my wife that it was part of a triptych with Repo Man. I have been looking for the third movie ever since.

This past Tuesday, I was driving across the plains in the middle of the night, trying to escape the snow storm that was supposed to be hitting Denver. Somewhere near Limon, I put on the soundtrack to Repo Man. Memories. That album . . . Whenever I get to Reel Ten, I have to look at the night sky. Been that way for years. I always seem to listen to it at night.

Ain't no other movie like Repo Man. Not for a disaffected child of the Eighties.
posted by Seamus at 9:08 PM on October 31, 2011 [5 favorites]


Just call me Otto, that is the story of my life from 1984. Well, sort of. Some of the major scenes were filmed in front of my old artist's loft and all around my neighborhood around downtown LA. I was friends with a lot of the crew and the actors. I watch it and see the scenes I lived in every day. Except a bit different. It is so weird seeing a scene and thinking, "hey that's my front door right behind where they're putting the dead body on a bus bench, but there has never been a bus bench there."
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:26 PM on October 31, 2011 [3 favorites]


Ain't no other movie like Repo Man. Not for a disaffected child of the Eighties.

True, so very true. Also a gateway to getting ones somewhat nervous foot into the deep dark underground, the hardcore scene and all that other wonderful stuff. I am amazed sometimes at just how well this flick holds up and how it still nails that sensation of finding something way cool that was previously unknown.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 9:29 PM on October 31, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Ordinary fucking people. I hate 'em!"

To put it context. Harry Dean Stanton (all cranked up on speed, of course) is driving around with young Otto, spitting out the Repo Man code. Meanwhile, there's been a fender-bender in the distance and it looks like there's going to be a fight -- a couple of people in tennis whites facing down somebody else.

Harry Dean shakes his head, delivers his line. "Ordinary fucking people. I hate 'em!"

And the thing is, for me, maybe 25 at the time, a product of a very ordinary upbringing, that was kind of a turning point -- an awakening. I HATED the ordinary world I'd come from with a fucking passion, and REPO MAN (like the punk rock that fueled it) gave voice and focus to that hatred ... in a kind of beautiful way. Within a year or two, my crowd were referring to the mid/late 80s as The Winter Of Hate (twenty long years since the Summer Of Love when we'd all been little kids). Not that there wasn't any love in the 80s. Of course there was. Just as there was hate in the 60s. But you couldn't really make sense of the 80s and your place in the scheme of it all (in North America anyway) until you owned your HATE.
posted by philip-random at 9:56 PM on October 31, 2011 [8 favorites]


Get in the car boy
Put your seatbelt on
I never ride with anyone unless they're wearing a seatbelt
That's one of my rules...
posted by Auden at 10:05 PM on October 31, 2011


I find it odd, realizing that I have never seen Repo Man despite being the exact right age and demographic... downloading it now, thanks as always for the Easter eggs MetaFilter!
posted by Meatbomb at 10:10 PM on October 31, 2011


I wasn't alive in 1984 but I love Repo Man. Maybe it helps if you were there, but you didn't have to be.
posted by troublesome at 10:27 PM on October 31, 2011


One of the hallmarks of truly great art is that it seems as fresh today as when it was first made. That holds for the brilliant Repo Man as much as it does Blonde on Blonde, Gnossienne 1 or Macbeth. The amazing thing about it in retrospect is that Cox never produced anything which came close to matching it. One hit wonder or wasted talent?
posted by joannemullen at 10:43 PM on October 31, 2011


Sid & Nancy was pretty good d if you don't agree then you speak bollocks.

And Walker, too ... which is the real story of what did Cox in. He took big artistic chances on a risky movie that flipped the finger at not just Hollywood but America in general, and when it didn't make money at the box office it became very easy to effectively blacklist the guy.

Has he even been in Hollywood since?
posted by philip-random at 11:32 PM on October 31, 2011


How come none of you melon farmers have mentioned the TV edit? Flip you all.
posted by threeze at 11:44 PM on October 31, 2011 [4 favorites]


"I blame society. Society made me what I am."

"That's bullshit. You're a white suburban punk just like me."

"Yeah, but it still hurts."
posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:05 AM on November 1, 2011 [12 favorites]


I saw a car parked on our road the other day with one of those green tree-shaped air fresheners in it, and immediately thought of repo-man. what an awesome film, saw it back in 88 at a friends place, on his double-bill with Darkstar. Those were the days.
posted by marienbad at 2:58 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Get me a beer.
posted by Hogshead at 3:11 AM on November 1, 2011


I saw Repo Man once and said meh. It didn't do anything for me.
posted by Yakuman at 3:25 AM on November 1, 2011


In 1986 I had my first fulltime job. I had just started and was sitting on a street bench wearing slacks, a white shirt, and a cheesy sportcoat, eating my lunch when Zander Schloss and some other dude walk by carrying big duffle bags. After a few minutes of internal debate, I followed them to the laundry mat up the street. Confirmed his identity and got his autograph on some random guy's business card and let him know I was going to see him play (in the Circle Jerks) later that evening at Buffalo State College. Fun and embarrassing.
posted by jdfan at 3:46 AM on November 1, 2011


Sid and Nancy is absolutely painful to watch. The entire latter half of the movie is the phrase "YOU PROMISED, SID" shouted ad nauseum.

I'm sad I ever had to watch it.

Repo Man, however, is one of those movies that is totally life changing. If you ever get the opportunity, watch it with the audio commentary on. There's plenty of gags I never noticed, even having seen it 40 times.
posted by to sir with millipedes at 4:15 AM on November 1, 2011


One weekend in the mid-80s, my dad took care of us for a "surprise" weekend. Mom and her then-boyfriend were working on some preparations for their upcoming wedding, so good old Dad got saddled with us.

Our presence that weekend coincided with the last midnight screening of Repo Man at the Orson Welles. Dad really wanted to see it, but had been working overnights at his new job and this was the only weekend he could get over to Cambridge. None of his poker buddies would have been especially adept at babysitting, so Dad took us with him to the theatre.

Seven- or eight-year-old me took a look at the poster and just about crapped my pants with fear. My younger brother, C., had no such fear. I fell asleep about ten minutes in (and didn't wake up until the credits, when Dad carried me out of there).

A few weeks later, Mom was having my grandparents over for dinner. My grandmother was exceptionally fond of shrimp cocktail, and she had enlisted C. to help set the table. "Now, I want you to put the plate of shrimp on the coffee table," said she.

C. looked up at her and said "Plate of shrimp?"

"Yes, the plate of shrimp."

"PLATE OF SHRIMP!"

Mom fixed C. with a funny look, and I broke the silence by offering to put the shrimp cocktail in question on the table. Later on I had to remind C. that we weren't supposed to see that movie, that it was a movie for grownups, and that Dad could get in trouble if Mom knew we went to a midnight screening.

My younger brother grew up to become a huge Rollins fan.
posted by pxe2000 at 4:26 AM on November 1, 2011 [4 favorites]


How come none of you melon farmers have mentioned the TV edit? Flip you all.

"...let's go do some crimes."
"Yeah, Let's get sushi." / cut to commercial break.

I saw this version once.
posted by ovvl at 4:33 AM on November 1, 2011


Speaking of different versions, I once saw what I think must have been a "director's cut" on British TV (probably BBC2) in the late 80's. The only scene I remember for sure that isn't in the general release is one where J. Frank Parnell has stopped at a gas station and goes into the convenience store to buy "Cheetos, Fritos, Doritos .." and possibly some other -itos.

Anyone else remember seeing this? Or where the "director's cut" is available?
posted by kcds at 5:04 AM on November 1, 2011


Love this movie (was just trading lines with friends Saturday night) and love the soundtrack...it's pretty much permanently installed on my iPod. (Of course, I also listen to The Crow soundtrack all the time, so my taste is obviously questionable.)
posted by JoanArkham at 5:56 AM on November 1, 2011


What about our relationship?
Fuck that.
posted by plinth at 6:18 AM on November 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


Plate of shrimp!! I just watched Kiss Me Deadly for the first time this weekend, which this movie draws from of course, and also Southland Tales, which draws from both.
posted by heatvision at 6:28 AM on November 1, 2011


I saw a car parked on our road the other day with one of those green tree-shaped air fresheners in it

You find one in every car. You'll see.
posted by Gelatin at 6:43 AM on November 1, 2011


I read this thread last night before going to bed, and for the next twenty minutes Repo Man lines were running through my head the way a good song does. They just coming. It might have been easier for me to just get up and watch the damn movie.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 6:46 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


For a second I thought that said "Axe Cop" and got unreasonably excited at the prospect of the first (?) movie written by a kindergartner.

Obviously, you haven't been keeping up with the Transformers movies.
posted by xedrik at 7:01 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Sid and Nancy is absolutely painful to watch. The entire latter half of the movie is the phrase "YOU PROMISED, SID" shouted ad nauseum.

If you think that's painful, just imagine how awful it would have been with Courtney Love instead of Chloe Webb in that role.

Bonus pain: imagine how awful it was to have Courtney harangue me about her disappointment in not being cast in the role, followed by Zander Schloss whining about not being cast as the star of "Full Metal Jacket," and then performing his audition monologue at our restaurant table, loud enough to draw fearful attention from other restaurant patrons when he got to the part about killing gooks.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:49 AM on November 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


I read this thread last night before going to bed, and for the next twenty minutes Repo Man lines were running through my head the way a good song does.

and yet still no mention of sending bibles to El Salvador.
posted by philip-random at 7:57 AM on November 1, 2011


I admit: have never seen this movie. I graduated high school in 1989, so I have no excuse. I've seen Streets of Fire many times since my dad was so into it, and it rubbed off on me. ("Knock knock!")
posted by Foosnark at 8:17 AM on November 1, 2011


You're fuckin' right I'm Plettschner! Otto Plettschner! Three times decorated in two world wars! I was killing people while you were still swimming around in your father's balls! You little scumbag! I worked five years in a slaughterhouse, and ten years as a prison guard in Attica!

So what?
posted by silkyd at 8:28 AM on November 1, 2011


A chicken man.
Did you ever see a farmer's wife?
posted by humboldt32 at 9:04 AM on November 1, 2011


No beer is needed here.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:26 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I've seen this film so many times, but every time I get to the "put it on a plate"-scene, I sink into some sort of contemplative bliss. It's so beautiful. So I only get the rest of the film on some sort of subliminal level. Like a dream. However, I do seem to remember a scene with cheetos, fritos, doritos... I just thought it was from another movie. It might have been anyway.
posted by mumimor at 10:57 AM on November 1, 2011


I told my wife that it was part of a triptych with Repo Man. I have been looking for the third movie ever since

May I suggest The American Astronaut?
posted by The Man from Lardfork at 11:04 AM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


Well, now I know what I'm watching tonight.
posted by davejay at 11:37 AM on November 1, 2011


I told my wife that it was part of a triptych with Repo Man. I have been looking for the third movie ever since

This is totally a "plate of shrimp" moment, but I swear I was discussing this at a Halloween party on Friday. We decided the triptych is: Buckaroo Banzai, Repo Man, and Big Trouble in Little China.
posted by JoanArkham at 12:01 PM on November 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


Here is the Repo Man soundboard.
posted by exit at 12:04 PM on November 1, 2011 [1 favorite]


I saw "Streets of Fire" at one of the old movie theaters on 42nd st. I was in a state of acute intoxication and can honestly say that movie is to this day some weird kind of dream analogue of almost all my drug experiences of that time. Leather, motorcycles, fighting with sledge hammers, excruciating music, utter and incomplete incoherence.

I saw Repo Man a couple years later on VHS (or possibly VideoDisk?) also in a state of intoxication, but this time in a trailer home in the boonies of Virginia. There was no chaos, no madness. Though there was real squalor all around us. I understood this movie, this movie understood me. I have gone back to it as frequently as ... Uh, well a couple times at least. It's never let me down.

Inebriation is a useful critical tool, I've come to decide. If I can follow the movie, though intoxicated, it's probably pretty alright. If it feels like I'm intoxicated, though I'm not - all leather and sledgehammer fights and scowling Willem, the movie's likely shit. Good movies will put up with you at your low points, the bad ones bring it on.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:06 PM on November 1, 2011


"Well you see, I've been in the hos-pi-tal"

Every word of this movie is etched in my brain, and most any random experience can draw out an applicable quote. And I haven't seen it in probably 20 years.
posted by stargell at 12:23 PM on November 1, 2011


Otto: You eat a lot of acid Miller back in the hippie days?

Miller: I'll give you another instance. You know the way everybody's into weirdness right now? Books in all the supermarkets about Bermuda triangles, UFO's, how the Mayans invented television. That kind of thing?

Otto: I don't read them books.

Miller: Well the way I see it it's exactly the same. There ain't no difference between a flying saucer and a time machine. People get so hung up on specifics. They miss out on seeing the whole thing. Take South America for example. In South America thousands of people go missing every year. Nobody knows where they go. They just like disappear. But if you think about it for a minute, you realize something. There had to be a time when there was no people. Right?

Otto: Yeah. I guess.

Miller: Well where did all these people come from? hmmm? I'll tell you where. The future. Where did all these people disappear to? hmmm?

Otto: The past?

Miller: That's right! And how did they get there?

Otto: How the fuck do I know?

Miller: Flying saucers. Which are really? Yeah you got it. Time machines. I think a lot about this kind of stuff. I do my best thinking on the bus. That's how come I don't drive, see?

Otto: You don't even know how to drive.

Miller: I don't want to know how. I don't want to learn. See? The more you drive, the less intelligent you are.


God, I fucking love this movie...
posted by fikri at 1:24 PM on November 1, 2011 [2 favorites]


We decided the triptych is: Buckaroo Banzai, Repo Man, and Big Trouble in Little China.

I'll give you Buckaroo and Repo Man no problem, but replace Big Trouble with Return of the Living Dead. Or there's always Brazil, but then that did score a couple of Oscar nominations, so it's suddenly not quite so ... outside.
posted by philip-random at 4:15 PM on November 1, 2011


We decided the triptych is: Buckaroo Banzai, Repo Man, and Big Trouble in Little China.

Laugh a-while you can, monkey-boy.
posted by ovvl at 7:52 PM on November 1, 2011


Wait, are people dissing Big Trouble in here?
posted by Artw at 7:57 PM on November 1, 2011


Is this gonna get ugly, now? Huh? I hope not.
posted by dragonsi55 at 4:04 AM on November 2, 2011


Wouldn't Liquid Sky complete the triptych?
posted by jindc at 7:18 AM on November 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


also, I actually really liked Walker....
posted by jindc at 7:19 AM on November 2, 2011 [1 favorite]


Wait, are people dissing Big Trouble in here?

I didn't diss it -- just wouldn't put it in same rare 80s air as Repo Man and Buckaroo Bonzai. Liquid Sky on the other hand -- that I would diss, with extreme prejudice. Weirdness alone is no argument for quality.

Eraserhead on the other hand ...
posted by philip-random at 9:20 AM on November 2, 2011


The triptych is Repo Man, Repo Man (drunk) and Repo Man with the commentary track, drunk.
posted by Hogshead at 9:31 AM on November 2, 2011 [3 favorites]


sorry but this triptych is American. you don't get much more profoundly, weirdly, uniquely American than Repo Man + Buckaroo Bonzai.
posted by philip-random at 10:22 AM on November 2, 2011


I lived - roommated - with Alex Cox's Repo Man prototype. I think he's in the credits somewhere. Cox had been his next-door neighbor in Venice, CA, and took Mark's Detroit repo experience as a starting point for his fiction.

Mark was a gentle guy. He loved the Three Stooges. He was not a very articulate man, but he was kind, and he was sorta funny and he had sardonic take on things. His physical attitude was hangdog, but he was a very large man, which must have made repo-ing a good career choice. When I knew him, Mark was very happy not to repo anymore.

The Harry Dean Stanton character was very much like him. I don't know that Mark liked that.
posted by goofyfoot at 5:24 AM on November 3, 2011 [5 favorites]


Did Mark have a code?
posted by philip-random at 11:10 AM on November 3, 2011


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