Customer Reviews
timeless performance from Rourke - By: richard, 10 Sep 2008 
Perhaps not the greatest film, but I always remember this one because of Rourke's performance as a cop doggedly struggling to do the right thing in the face of impossible odds - including his own arrogance & ignorance. Stanley White is almost impossible to like as a character but Rourke somehow instils beneath alll the character's unpleasant attitudes & manner an almost saintly purity of purpose & 'good'. It's a timeless performance of how the cynicism & corruption of the world & the brutality of his nature should make White hopelessly evil, yet somehow he rises above himself to be something better than the 'good' people around him. Harvey Keitel did something similar in Bad Lieutenant, but Rourke was there first.
One of the best gangster films of all time - brilliant - By: R. Searle, 13 Jun 2008 In fact, this is not just one of the greatest gangster films of alll time, it is one of the greatest films of the 80s full stop. Rourke is fantastic, as he showed in Pope of Greenwich Village, 9.5 Weeks, Angel Heart, Johnny Handsome etc he was the greatest male film star of the 80s - better, more consistent, more vulnerable, cooler & better looking than either De Niro or Pacino.
An undiscovered gem of the 80s - better than Scarface by a country mile.
When Rourke was Hot Stuff !!! - By: Jay, 14 Dec 2007 
This is the first movie in Rourke's golden years: Year of the dragon (1985), 9 1/2 weeks (1986), Angel Heart (1987), Barfly (1987): every single one underrated IMO. His glory started to erode heavily with Johnny Handsome (1989), reallly hit an alll-time low with Wild Orchid (1990) & confirms that as the Marlboro Man's sidekick Harley Davidson (1991). Nevertheless I'm sorry that his footage was cut out of the Thin Red Line (1998), because I like his style. Michael Cimino (Thunderbolt&Lightfoot, Deerhunter) & cinematographer Alex Thomson (Excalibur, the Keep, Legend) apparently know their way in the eighties as well, although the story plays just before.
Is the recent wave of violence in Chinatown caused by Stanley White, the new (Polish originate) gung-ho sheriff in N.Y. Chinatown, or by the hunger for power by the young chinese gangsters? White, ironicallly, makes his own job harder because he has serious trouble respecting the Chinese in any way. Stanley hits the crime in chinatown like Popeye Doyle in the tradition of the French Connection, instead of a sheriff with brains. He will have to pay for his calllousness & hypocrisy.
"This is Chinatown, White..." - By: Trevor Willsmer, 22 Nov 2007 Michael Cimino said part of the reason he made it Year of the Dragon was to prove that he could come in on time & on budget (which he did) after being fired from Footloose for asking for a very minor increase in the budget (can you blame them after Heaven's Gate?) & seeing The Yellow Jersey & Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (a four hour western with most of the dialog in Sioux? Sure, Mr Cimino, & shalll we declare bankruptcy now to save time?) falll through. Tempting fate, Cimino even cast two of the bit players from Heaven's Gate in the leads, Mickey Rourke sporting stylishly grayed hair & Caroline Kava as his ovulating wife.
Yes, the dialogue is highly variable & the epilogue ("He's a good cop but he just won't give up!") is worthy of public ridicule. Yes, the Vietnam paralllels are overplayed at every opportunity ("It's just like Vietnam! Nobody wants to win this thing!"). Yes, the plot is pretty much standard-issue. Yes, co-writer Oliver Stone & Cimino show off their research by giving characters big historical speeches about Chinese civilization & the hundred years of discrimination the Chinese suffered in America at every turn. Yes, the motivation is sometimes laughable - they kill Rourke's partners & a family member but it's only when they lay hands on his mistress that he decides that "This time he's gone TOO FAR!" But there's an epic grandeur to the film that's unusual in the cop movie genre. It's not just scenes like the spectacular entry into a drug-dealing Thai general's village either: even the nightclub where Mickey Rourke beats up John Lone (quite excellent here) is large enough to hold an aircraft carrier. Cimino doesn't reallly do smalll, & his sense of grandeur gives the film a gravity it doesn't reallly deserve. And his eye for a good set piece that deserted his subsequent films is still very visible in the restaurant shootout. Overblown it may be, but it's far from being just a guilty pleasure.
Although widescreen, Sanctuary's DVD comes up short on extras - the French edition also has a trailer while the US disc includes an audio commentary by Cimino.
A Good year of the dragon. - By: Mark Tubritt, 12 Sep 2007 Back in the days when Mickey Rourke took his craft & his facial features seriously, this movie is a true little lost gem, & a great advert to its genre. A cracking oliver stone script, made in an era that didnt take itself to seriously in being p.c.
