Brat Pack Feature: Blue City (1986)

 Written By: Danny Albers 

In my recent blog covering About Last Night I touched on how Rob Lowe and Demi Moore were a pairing that both directors and audiences wanted to see because of their onscreen chemistry. The same sentiment can be talked about between Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy. The two played a couple in St. Elmo’s Fire and looked to rekindle that fire in Blue City. In the famous article about the Brat Pack written by David Blum, he touched on Judd Nelson being overrated as an actor (a sentiment I emphatically disagree with) and that Judd has become typecast as the “bad boy.” I think typecasted is a wrong term for Judd, simply because he excels at playing a “bad boy” role, but is capable of much more. Leave the type casting for actors stuck in Medieval pieces and Star Wars universes. I say that Judd is capable of much more because there is much more to his characters than having a chip on his shoulder and being just a tough guy. In Blue City he plays a young adult trying to find justice for his father who was murdered. While searching, he develops a love affair with Ally Sheedy’s character who’s the sister of his childhood best friend. Let’s recap the movie and take a deeper look into some of the movie's themes and things we liked and didn’t like. 

Synopsis (Spoiler Alert) 

Judd Nelson plays a troublemaker Billy Turner, who’s returning to his small hometown in Florida where his father is the mayor. He finds out that his father was killed, and suspects gangster Perry Kerch and Billy’s stepmother Malvina were involved to take his dad’s fortune. Chief Luther, the cop investigating his dad’s case, tells Billy to leave it alone. But that is not an option for Billy. He reconnects with his old friend Joey Rayford who works on the docks on a fishing boat, and has a permanent limp because of Kerch and his gang, to take part in a war against Kerch. Billy’s plans are to ruin Kerch’s empire, from going to his strip club outside of town where he destroys all his slot machines, to stealing a lump sum of Kerch’s money at a dog race. Eventually, Kerch offers $50,000 for Billy to leave town, but Billy says that he wants justice, not money. Eventually, Kerch uses one of his dancers to set up a meeting with Joey’s sister Annie, a known love interest of Billy, at a motel. She says she had proof Kerch killed Billy’s father. This ends up being an elaborate set up that sends Joey and Billy to jail after a gunfight. Finally ready to give up the war, Billy finds out Joey was shot and killed on the docks from Annie, and tells Annie he’s going to have one final showdown to kill Kerch and his crew. Billy shows up to Kerch’s property and runs into the Chief, who tells Billy to draw Kerch out while he gunsdown the entirety of Kerch’s gang. In the final showdown, Chief kills Kerch, and reveals himself to Billy as Billy’s fathers killer. Billy wins a struggle for a shotgun and kills the Chief, getting revenge for his late father and Joey. The movie ends with Billy being embraced by Annie. 

Your typical cheesy 80’s action movie 

This movie is a cliche for a cheesy 80’s crime VS justice movie. The acting in this film is pretty awful and I can’t tell if that’s by design or not. Judd Nelson is a much more capable actor than the Billy Turner character. And in this film, it seems like character death doesn’t mean anything. Billy comes unaffected by the news of his fathers death, a revelation that typically would result in a dramatic ordeal. But Billy takes this as if somebody told him “it’s going to rain today” or “your shoes are untied.” Maybe he had a bad relationship with his father, but then why would he get involved with this dangerous war with a gangster, and tell the Chief his father was always there when he needed him? It just made the war feel meaningless and ridiculous, and felt more about an ego trip than a personal grudge over a dead father. They do it again when Annie tells Billy Joey was killed. This should be a crushing blow, instead, it’s done in a casual phone conversation where Billy asks Annie “you know what I need to do, right?’ For all the classic films the Brat Pack members created, there are some poorly done films, and that is Blue City. It’s got a terrible soundtrack/score which usually elevated cheesy 80’s movies to give the sensation that the film was done with higher quality than what it was. Judd’s character using firearms all move feels like a ridiculous comedy, like a little kid using a gun and not a grown adult. But then there are moments in the movie where we’re supposed to take him seriously in conflicts, like the scene where they stick up the club or the final showdown at Kerch’s property. If this proves anything, it’s that Judd Nelson is not a main character for a feature film, and does a much better job as a side character or supporting actor. He’s not the best actor (not the worst either) so when the spotlight is all on him, his limited range as an actor is on display for the world to see. 

Danny’s Star Rating (1-10): ★★★★ 4