Plot: A female undercover detective crosses the line and becomes entangled in a murder of an underworld figure. Soon, she will have nowhere to turn and nowhere to run, and the only way out will be at the end of a gun.
Impulse was barely released by Warner Bros back in 1990, and it’s a damn shame. This excellent, little-seen crime flick directed by Sondra Locke, is well written and gives the insanely gorgeous Theresa Russell her best role as Lottie, the tough undercover cop who has a blurry moral code.
Dismissed as a pulp thriller on it’s initial release, if Impulse was to be re-appraised by modern critics today, they’d applaud it as a brave feminist action piece that casts a light on toxic masculinity and the plight of female cops in a profession essentially dominated by men. While those statements aren’t necessarily untrue, there is far more to this fun pic than a “message” movie.
Russell’s performance as Lottie can’t easily be forgotten. She gives the character a three dimensional feel but she also makes her tough, and believable as a street-wise cop. Especially when the time for action comes. To me she’s up there with Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor and Megan Turner.
Impulse has a couple of pretty good shoot-outs. One in a convenience store is particularly brutal and bloody and left me wincing. The final confrontation isn’t afraid to spill some blood, even if it is in the dark. Lottie isn’t from the Cagney and Lacey school of weaponry. She packs a gnarly 357 magnum and has a Beretta as her back up piece so when she puts someone down, they’re staying there.
Sondra Locke (YES THAT ONE!) directed this film and she did a great job capturing the glitz and sleaze of Los Angeles and the ominous, sinister nature of its back alleys and crack dens. The score by Cop’s Michel Colombier is suitably bruising and slick and cinematographer Dean Seller’s camera work is too notch. I feel outsiders capture locales we are familiar with in a new, sharper light, rendering them fresh again, and this happens here. Seller went on to shoot Costner’s superb Dances With Wolves.
Although the pic is Russell’s, the supporting cast is filled with dependable, reliable performers like Jeff Fahey, who is vulnerable and smooth as the DA who falls for our heroine, and George Dzundza, who is slimy as hell as Russell’s miscreant, sexist boss who is only interested in bedding her instead of commending her for her excellent work.
Yeah the film does have a lot to say about toxic men, their behaviour and how women in authoritarian roles are poorly treated and marginalised, but unlike other pics that have done it before, this film still carries that message AND delivers it in an entertaining way where the audience get a story and learn things without being preached to.
I wish Locke had gone on to a bigger directing career because if Impulse is any indication, she would’ve made our day.
