Above the Law

The next generation in Eastwood cop thrillers

An ex-CIA martial artist, is now a vice squad detective in Chicago (Steven Seagal) where he and his new partner (Pam Grier) investigate a drug ring, but are shocked when the drug lord (Tony Salvano) is let go by the Feds, which can be traced to his nemesis in the CIA (Henry Silva).

"Above the Law” (1988) was Seagal’s cinematic debut. He claimed he picked the movie from a pile of scripts that Warner Brothers had lying around for Clint Eastwood. I bring that up because the film is basically the next generation in Eastwood’s detective thrillers, just mixed with the martial arts and general plot of “Code of Silence” from three years earlier. That one had the same director, as well as the same actor in the villain role, Silva.

Sharon Stone is on hand as the protagonist’s wife and she looks great, but her role is decidedly peripheral since she was still fairly unknow when the film was shot in the spring/early summer of 1987. Grier has a much bigger part and she said this is one of her personal favorites in her oeuvre because she actually got to act.

Seagal proved right out of the gate that he had the masculine screen presence to star in an action thriller. His movies kept making more money until he achieved his greatest box office success with “Under Siege” four years later, followed by “Under Siege 2” and “Executive Decision” in the mid-90s. His career then took a downturn to mostly direct-to-video productions.

The story gets a little convoluted, involving the assassination of a nosey Chicago Senator, but at least no one can say it’s a simpleminded action flick. It’s thought to be the first American film to feature Aikido in fight sequences.

It runs 1 hour, 39 minutes, and was shot in Chicago. The aerial scenes of the Southeast Asian jungle were filmed in O'ahu while the jungle scenes featuring the actors were done at Warner Brothers’ backlot in Burbank.

GRADE: B/B-