No Mercy (Full Screen Edition)

Director Richard Pearce gives this crime story a special atmosphere as it moves from Chicago to the hustle and bustle of New Orleans and finally to the marshy swamps of the Bayou. There is a good script from James Carabatsos that adds a gritty realism missing in many films of this kind. The chemistry between Gere and Bassinger is explored slowly while they are on the run and the romance is very credible because of it.

Eddie Jillette (Gere) and his best friend and partner Joe Collins (Gary Basaraba in a nice role) are undercover at a car wash and when they blow a drug bust by jumping the gun they get a chance to redeem themselves by pretending to be hitmen. All they know is someone from Louisiana wants to make a hit in Chicago and their contact is suppose to be a heartstopper. It turns out to be gorgeous beauty Basinger. She is the heartstopper with a blue parrot tattoo on her shoulder and a rich Loisiana lawyer looking to hire a killer.

The man they want killed is a Loisiana crime lord named Losado (creepily played by Jerome Krabbe) who runs Algiers and owns Basinger, literally. Her parents sold her to Losado when she was thirteen in a world Jillette can't understand but is about to find out about when both the lawyer and Eddie's best friend are brutally killed. Michel dissappears back to the Big Easy with Losado and Eddie goes after her to get to his partner's killer.

It's a whole 'nother world down there and in spite of warnings to leave from the cops he tracks Michel down through her pretty Creole friend Cara (Aleta Mitchell), who finds it is unwise to cross Losado. There is some true menace here and not the cartoon stereotype villian we find in some action flicks. As Eddie and Michel leave the Big Easy for the Bayou handcuffed together he begins to sympathize and care for the illiterate Michel and she finally begins to have a little hope in escaping.

When Eddie tries to get rid of her so she doesn't get killed while he seeks his revenge, things get complicated emotionally for both of them and there is a terrific love scene that has the ring of truth. The gritty atmosphere and involving story separates this film from the rest of the pack. The final confrontation as Eddie and Michel face down Losado in an attempt to survive together is well staged and exciting.

George Dzundza as Eddie's Captain is noteworthy but so is the whole cast. The story is solid and the atmosphere simply dripping with the juice from crawfish. You feel like you're really in the Bayou here and that atmosphere adds greatly to the tense climax and the epilog to wrap up a very special film.

If you've never seen this or you can't remember it it's one you'll want to go back and take a look at. It will be one of your favorites after you do. This one is a real winner....