Dennis Hopper's neo-noir Backtrack, originally titled Catchfire, wasn't a hit in 1990, and unfortunately, time hasn't transformed it from a misfire into a hidden gem—even in the extended director's cut included with this release. At best, it's a fascinating muddle starring two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster and an improbably stacked supporting cast. Even Bob Dylan drops by for a cameo as a chainsaw-wielding artist (though Neil Young's scene was cut).
Foster plays Anne Benton, a successful Venice, California conceptual artist who lives in a Frank Gehry-designed structure (one of Hopper's personal properties). Her good life comes complete with a supportive boyfriend, Bob (Wall Street's Charlie Sheen in a brief appearance), and a calico cat. All that changes the night her car breaks down and she witnesses a mob hit. Carelli (an uncredited Joe Pesci, mere months before Goodfellas) does the deed, while mob fixer, Luponi (Hopper's Blue Velvet costar, Dean Stockwell), spots her running away. After that, Mr. Avoca (Vincent Price), the mob capo, orders a hit on her.
After Anne reports the killing to the cops (Fred Ward and Sy Richardson), Pinella (Do the Right Thing's John Turturro) and Greek (Tony Sirico, years before The Sopranos) slip into her condo and shoot Bob while she cowers beneath the stairs. When she revisits the cops, they recommend witness protection, but once she realizes Luponi has followed her, she devises an on-the-spot disguise involving a platinum blonde wig, withdraws $15,000 from the bank, finds a cat sitter, and hits the road.
Avoca turns to Milo (Hopper), a sax-playing hitman, but after stalking, and exploring her Jenny Holzer-created video art, he becomes smitten. Once he spots a lipstick ad with the same text as one of her art pieces, he tracks her to Seattle, where she's been working at an ad agency. When the hit man reappears, she splits again, this time to Taos, New Mexico to stay at a former art professor's converted theater (a venue Hopper bought while making 1971's The Last Movie), but Milo isn't far behind.
Things take an improbable turn when he kidnaps her in hopes of kindling a romance. After a cursory period of resistance, she gives in. At first, she appears to be faking it--she isn't. When the mob tracks them down, Anne and Milo flee to his cabin in the mountains at which point guns, helicopters, and deadly explosions enter the scene as they face off against their enemies.
According to the dishy commentary track from uncredited co-writers Alex Cox and Tod Davies, Catchfire was intended as the story of "a woman who falls in lover with her rapist," a risible concept made palatable through the impression of consent. Though Foster may seem miscast, unlike Virginia Madsen in The Hot Spot, she's good value in a film that rarely deserves her.
What kind of film series would this narrative fit in?
Backtrack would fit with a series on the films of Dennis Hopper or Jodie Foster, two former child actors who turned to directing in adulthood. In terms of Hopper's directorial career, it should be a lower priority than the 1980s Out of the Blue, his recently restored cult classic, or 1969's Easy Rider and 1988's Colors, his most commercially successful pictures.
What kind of film collection would this title be suitable for?
Backtrack would be suitable for noir, crime, and thriller collections in public libraries.
What type of library programming could use this title?
Library programming on visual art in 20th-century cinema could make creative use of Backtrack since Hopper was an avid art collector, and the film features references to Jenny Holzer, Cindy Sherman, and even Hieronymus Bosch. It would make for an inspired double bill with Julian Schnabel's 1996 Basquiat in which Hopper plays Swiss art collector Bruno Bischofberger.