Beverly Hills Cop rates as one of my all-time favorite movies. In theory, I might would judge it a notch or two down the food chain of great movies. However, in practice I have owned this movie in multiple formats, and have watched it more times on purpose than any but maybe a couple of other movies ever.
Eddie Murphy just burns up the screen. He's so funny, and so purely charismatic here as to defy adequate description.
Axel Foley amuses me so much indeed that it is only after 20 years and probably 100 viewings that I've become conscious of some very dangerous authoritarian underpinnings of the show.
Axel Foley represents a greater danger to our freedom than any of the usual movie suspects that civil liberties groups like to talk about. Dirty Harry Callahan might push the envelope a little, but he's intending on playing pretty much by the rules.
Even The Shield presents police abuses in a careful box with a flashing neon sign saying 'Look, the cops are breaking the law!' They carefully reflect a mix of motivations to these abuses, from the more excusable to the purely self-interested. They put a frame around these actions, and invite open public discussion on right and wrong and acceptable police procedures.
Axel Foley, however, isn't interested in any of that, nor would it likely occur to anyone watching the movie to see anything really questionable in his tactics. He's just doing whatever he thinks he needs to do to get what he needs to get, and doesn't give it a second thought. "Come on guys. I know how we can get around that" he says to a Beverly Hills cop protesting that they need a search warrant to do what Axel wants them to do. After all, he's investigating the murder of a friend.
The biggest point of the movie is (gently) mocking the Beverly Hills Police for being rigid, and by the book. What they're mocking is PRECISELY the careful respect for the Bill of Rights and proper police procedure displayed by the Beverly Hill cops. Apparently the constitution is just for stick-in-the-mud old white fuddy-duddies.
Whereas when young, persuadable officer Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold's greatest role) objects to Axel's brash plan, Foley gives his most specific justification. "You guys act like you're all a bunch of robots. This case is very personal to me." Just like that, the constitution and all those legal procedures become just so much red tape in the away of Axel's important personal mission for Justice.
Article comments
1 - ClubhouseCancer
I wish my local cops would act more like the Bronson Pinchot character.
2 - homer jay
Man, Eddie Murphy has gone downhill since those days. What happened to him?!?
3 - Al Barger
What has happened to Eddie has mostly been a lot of crappy formulaic family movie scripts he's signed on for.
On the other hand, he sometimes gets a good part. He was just KILLER in Bowfinger. That was certainly one of his couple of best acting performances, and as good a film as he was ever in.
4 - David Flanagan
I thought Eddie Murphy's best acting job in recent years was as the donkey in "Shrek." He stole the whole show! Who knew that transforming him into a short dumpy ass would release his inner child.
David Flanagan
5 - Eric Olsen
The thing about Murphy is that he is ultimately a character actor - there is no there there, he has to have a meaty character to best express himself. The less specific the character he has the inhabit, the worse he is and the worse choices he makes. In this regard he is not a "movie star."
6 - Johno
All, I don't know whether to hail you for your insight or berate you for the stick in your ass, so I'm gonna flip for it...
Heads it is! Nice work on uncovering the disturbing subtext to Eddie Murphy's best work.
Two thoughts. First, haven't you merely seen the fnords? The practice of advancing political positions through entertainment strikes me as pretty common (hell, Veggie Tales, Queer Eye, and The Apprentice all spring to mind). The folks at the National Review already vet films based on whether they hew to some "Conservative Agenda," and you better believe that Aaron Sorkin preaches to America through the West Wing, so the process of using entertainment as indoctrination is already well underway.
But before I run off the Cliffs of Paranoid Fantasy, I gotta ask my second question: what would film be without rogue cops? Antiauthoritarian subtext or not, that's a funny damn movie.
One last thing: does anyone else remember a Popeye Cartoon where his nephews spend a lot of time playing fighter pilot and shooting down "The Japs"? Even when I was 10 that gave me the creeps.
7 - JR
Actually, I think the problem with Beverly Hills Cop is that it is so far from thinking about any social consequences, let alone political agenda, that it ends up basically promoting police brutality. Neither the left nor the right would approve of unintended message of that film.
I didn't even think it was all that funny; 48 Hours was much better.
I don't know about the Beverly Hills police, but LAPD certainly couldn't be accused of "careful respect for the Bill of Rights".
Re Popeye: I remember the one where all the bucktoothed, thick-spectacled "Japs" went around sinking ships and then saying "So solly". Haven't seen that episode in a while.
8 - Al Barger
There may be several "offensive" Popeye cartoons, but the main classic one is called "You're a Sap, Mr. Jap" which involves Popeye taking out a whole submarine full of "Japs," with the sub eventually going down the drain like a big turd- complete with toilet flushing sounds.
I doubt that it is circulating commercially, but can usually be found on Kazaa. It is a fascinating little historical document.
9 - ramesh
can i have Eddie murphy Email address or postal address?
10 - Bob A. Booey
What subtextual analysis are you talking about?
Ramesh: only if you're a man with nice feet. Eddie likes nice feet.
That is all.
11 - jasbir singh Khun-Khun
i also love eddie murhy films and his best are Beverly hills cop 1,2 and 3 they are also so fuuny and i like the theme tune too. i wish that he did a Beverly hills cop 4 also his part in sherk to was class
12 - jamie Myrick
In these days of political questions about the process of having fair elections, I would love to see a sequel to "Distinquish Gentleman." Is there anyway to email Murphy's agent to get him to consider this idea. It would even be great for him to tour the country with a standup routine during the next election period to promote a series of his best comedy movies and include Distinguish Gentleman in the packet. Everyday our congress and President remind me of the truths that are exposed in this great comedy. Oh if only he had ran for President like the Smother's brothers, or Dick Gregory once did. I believe many of us would have voted for the name we knew and Murphy could have sold new DVD releases of some of his older comedies.
13 - richard yongu
I a nigeria upcoming stand up comedian so i need ur help
14 - Scoota Rey
Talk about masturbating duck-monkeys.
15 - Mariah Veasey
Hi Mr.Murphy you really dont kown me but you know my father Earl A Veasey and My mother Diane Veasey.The loving parents of 22 kids. Write back.
Mariah Veasey
16 - Earl Green
Eddie Murphy, you are very misinformed about Elvis Presley. You said he said blacks were not good enough to shine his shoes. That's not true. He gave Red Foxx and Sammy Davis Jr. a $70,000 diamond-sapphire ring each. Elvis was so distraught over the slaying of MLKJr. that he got with RCA and recorded a song patterned after MLKJr.s
"I Have A Dream" speech. Some of the words in the song (If I Can Dream) are "If I can dream of a better land,..where all of us brothers walk hand in hand...oh why, can't that dream come true." You should recant your statement about shoe shining.
17 - Cerulean
I'm disappointed that the Eddie Murphy divorce was so amicable. If a marriage could stand for transvestite hookers in the car, what was too much for her? What was a bridge too far?
18 - Al Barger
I don't recall ever hearing Eddie talking such about Elvis, though he has just once or twice shown minor flashes of racial paranoia.
I do know that Eddie Murphy has shown great fascination with Elvis Presley in particular as an idol.
19 - Will the real critic please stand up!
My first question is if the author is serious or has dryer humor than the ass hole of the tranny Eddie Murphy fucked. Either way it's one of my favorite essays ever.
I want to hear his take on Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure!
Reading this article reminds me of seeing Mr. Murphy's protrayal of Buckwheat and thinking to myself, "who's standing up for the rights of other Cajuns, Creoles, and other orally impaired ethnic minorities?"
Meanwhile, many of Axel's actions were justified under the exigency exception to the Warrant Clause. Just kidding: it's a fucking movie wherein Eddie Murphy combines deep-seeded vengeance with vacation.
Seriously, does anyone else think this was the groundbreaking homoerotic love story predecessor to 'Brokeback Mountain'. How prescient must Jerry Bruckheimer be to know that a gay love story between Axel Foley and Mikey could be such a moving experience for our generation of deviant minds? We have all the elements of trage-come-drama, a love story between old friends, 50,000 Deutsch Marks in bara-bonds, coffee grinds, cocaine and espresso with a bit of lemon twist.
My last question is this: if 'Beverly Hills Cop' is dangerously subversive and fotells a vicous police state, will Trading Places spark a new Black Power movement on the east coast?
20 - Al Barger
Howdy Real Critic, glad to hear from you. Glad to hear that you enjoyed my commentary.
I'm all about humor. It is one of my recently stated goals that I'd LOVE to write the screenplay for a new Cheech and Chong movie. Also again, I re-iterate that BHC was one of the funnier movies ever.
But you're just making my point some more. Hey, you say, it's just a joke. They probably weren't thinking things through that deep as they made this movie, and it is just a joke. But ideas have consequences, and by that same thinking any asshole cop wants to run over little inconvenient constitution type things could very well justify himself by reference to this movie. Play it off with a couple of amusing fag jokes, and it's all good. You don't think people's minds work that way?
I've sure seen a lot more signs of cops lying and just running rampant in the last couple of decades than previously. A big part of the public at this point (wisely) does not just presumptively believe that cops will tell the truth, even in court.
I'm not blaming Eddie Murphy for all this, but think how proud Eddie was congratulating the lieutenant because "you were lying your ass off." Think how easy it would be for some young cop to take that kind of message and use it to justify some bullshit in the real world.
I'm not saying that somebody will see this one movie and go off crazy, and people are still responsible for their own actions. Still, you watch enough movies where it's clear that cool cops are rebels and they play by their own rules, you don't think stuff like that has some cumulative impact?
That these ideas are couched in exceptionally good humor makes them more insidious. They get slipped in under the radar of consciousness. Even someone tuned into such things as much as I am watched this movie for most of 20 years before I noticed.
Or would you like to argue that ideas presented in the popular culture mean nothing and have no influence?
21 - ak47
a i see that the last comment is from 2006, i don't know if anyone will read this, but as someone in a previous comment said Eddie Murphy has gone downhill since those days. In 2007 made a stupid, and mean really, really stupid movie: Norbid. Who knows,maybe in the near future we will see him in a new memorable role.
22 - Al Barger
AK47- Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Over the years, Murphy has proven himself to be a whore. Particularly note the overtly crappy family movies like Daddy Day Care, pure commercial crapola clearly done just for the paycheck.
Then again, he really made Steve Martin's Bowfinger movie. Credit must be given for Life, and definitely high marks for the underappreciated Harlem Nights.
23 - Damian
brilliant, but very true, eddie has slipped since these days, i hear beverley hills cop IV is being made for release in 2010?