Flashback Reviews

Never as funny or as satirically sharp as it wants to be, this generation-gap comedy succeeds only as a vehicle for Dennis Hopper. It's only too bad that it's such a flimsy vehicle. Hopper plays legendary 60s radical Huey Walker--a fictional blend of Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin--who has come out of hiding after 20 years to face charges of endangering the life of Nixon-era Vice-President Spiro Agnew, whose train car Walker unhitched during a whistle-stop tour in 1969. Sent cross-country from Washington, DC, to bring Walker to trial is yuppieish FBI agent John Buckner (Kiefer Sutherland). We know from the start that Buckner is not as tough as he appears to be when he giggles while reading Walker's file and questions his superior (Paul Dooley) about the purpose of using Bureau time, money, and manpower to arrest Walker. Nevertheless, Buckner dutifully heads off to the Pacific Northwest, where Walker has been captured. Because bad weather has closed the airport, Buckner takes his prisoner aboard a train for the long, slow trip to the site of the trial. (An obvious gimmick to allow Buckner and Walker to develop a relationship, this screenwriter's device manages to work, and it's only when Buckner and Walker get off the train that FLASHBACK gets into trouble.) Once on the train, Walker tricks Buckner into getting drunk so he can switch clothes with him. During a stopover, Buckner is mistaken for the legendary radical, and abused and brutalized by Hightower (Cliff DeYoung), the local sheriff who also happens to be running for Congress. Meanwhile, the identity switch backfires when a pair of aging would-be hippies (Richard Masur, Michael McKean) take Walker hostage, believing him to be an FBI man, and offer him in exchange for Buckner, whom they think is their countercultural hero. The sheriff, fearful that Buckner will expose his brutality and cost him the election, decides it would be just as easy to kill both Buckner and Walker during the hostage exchange. When Buckner manages to outwit Hightower and save Walker, the sheriff has more of an excuse than ever to go after Buckner, who is now aiding and abetting the escape of a prisoner. Arriving on the scene, Buckner's boss, for reasons of his own, is none too convinced that Buckner has turned outlaw. Naturally, Buckner has a few surprises of his own up his sleeve. Firstly, he's not quite who he appears to be, as he reveals during a visit to a commune-turned-60s-relic watched over by Maggie (Carol Kane). As it happens Buckner was born and raised on this commune; joining the FBI has been his own unique version of rebelling against his parents. After sitting through some scratchy home movies of himself and his parents, Buckner decides that he will help Walker escape across the border into Canada. And having taken a liking to Buckner, Walker becomes just as determined that he will help the young agent save his career by making sure Buckner brings him in for trial. While FLASHBACK has plenty of comic potential and enough plot for two movies, the film rarely rises to the occasion. The script is too flat and contrived most of the time, with its changes in direction mostly a matter of convenience rather than arising from the characters or situations. (How is it, for example, that Buckner has been able to hide his hippie background from the FBI?) The film is finally slowed to a crawl by its heavy cargo subplots. In his American debut, Italian director Franco Amurri does a mediocre job at best in orchestrating the action. At its worst, FLASHBACK has the tinny shrillness of a mediocre made-for-TV movie. But had this been produced for the small screen it would probably have been made without the participation of Sutherland and Hopper, and the R-rated invectives that Hopper so frequently offers up would certainly have been absent. While Sutherland contributes a capable performance as the embattled Buckner, it is Hopper who justifies FLASHBACK's existence. The genuine article, he brings the authority of his experience to the role. In his best scenes, Sutherland is wise enough to step back and let Hopper work what turns into a kind of magic despite the lackluster script and direction. In the process--and before he, too, begins showing the strains of making the plot's dull contrivances believable--Hopper provides glimpses of the kind of madly grand entertainment FLASHBACK could have been but, sadly, is not. Buried in the cloying soundtrack of 60s hits are superior renditions by Natalie Merchant of "Walk on the Wild Side" by Edie Brickell, and of "People Get Ready" by Bob Dylan. (Profanity, adult situations.)