The Shortest Distance Between Life and Death
1988-04-04
N/A
91 min
An American military advisor becomes disillusioned by the brutality and corruption of the Central American government which hired him. When his shift in sympathies becomes known, he's arrested and tortured but soon escapes, along with a beautiful American woman, in order to join the rebels.
Many cinephiles often wonder why I would bother to watch a disgusting piece of senseless trash like 'The Firing Line', but I feel that cinema has many uses, and that even rotten films can be entertaining, thought-provoking, and just as educational as masterpieces. It's useful for growing film-lovers to see hideously-composed scenes and stupid lines, to see what not to do, and to get those wheels spinning in their minds, as to how they would have done something much better.
There is much to howl at here. Pivotal cheese of the finest vintage is a scene, in the midst of a Central American country in the chaotic times of civil war--yet Shannon Tweed and Reb Brown strip and neck by a scenic waterfall, and she goes down to give him a blowjob. Great timing. Anyways, there's an hour-and-a-half like that, with something for everybody--especially if you enjoy better-made films from the era like 'Commando'. You could be doing far worse--such as arthouse-wannabes like Lena Dunham's 'Tiny Furniture'...
