User Reviews

Despite the shameless overacting by almost the entire cast, and, despite the "chop shop" editing of the DVD, and, despite the two famous actors (Charlie Sheen, Joe Pesci) who yanked their names from the credits, and, despite the randomness and somewhat unbelievability of the script, and, despite the movie's tendency to vacillate wildly between genuine tension, dark humor, titillating nudity, and cartoonish situations, in spite of all these potential faults, "Backtrack" is very watchable. It has fantastic on location photography, that only adds to the enjoyment of a somewhat flawed, nevertheless intriguing, and ultimately entertaining movie. - MERK

A very strange film with a sterling cast.

Anne Benton (Jodie Foster) was in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed a murder. Now, the mob and the police are after her as she flees rather than enter witness protection.

On the police side, we get Fred Ward (Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins). On the mob side, we have the boss, Vincent Price; John Turturro (Barton Fink, "Monk"); Tony Sirico ("The Sopranos"); and Joe Pesci (Goodfellas, Raging Bull).

Cameos by Bob Dylan, Charlie Sheen, and Catherine Keener added up to a great cast. Too bad the movie wasn't as good as the people in it.

Dennis Hopper (Hoosiers, Easy Rider), who also produced and directed the movie, played Milo, a hit man hired by the mob to catch the girl. Unfortunately, they didn't figure him to become obsessed with her, and what's more we didn't figure that she would develop Stockholm Syndrome.

This film came in between Foster's two Oscar winning performances in The Accused and Silence of the Lambs. We get a good look at Jodie's Fosters not once, but twice in the most skintastic performance of her career. She is one good looking woman.

Dennis Hopper's go-for-broke-on-a-slim-budget black comedy about a hit-man falling for his target, a strange but alluring young woman who makes pop art out of neon signs. I enjoyed bits of "Backtrack" (see that, not the butchered European print entitled "Catchfire") such as the gorgeous theater in New Mexico where Jodie Foster hides out or the funny scene where she's pacing around in the bathroom, trying to decide how far she should go with her pervy kidnapper. Unfortunately, the knockabout editing leaves the film feeling somewhat disjointed and the actors are occasionally encouraged to just wing it, but without funny results. I didn't mind the ending--I was hoping for an upbeat one--but these characters don't turn out to be particularly smart people. They're dizzy, lustful little cyphers, and they might've been more engaging if they'd been written with brains.

I really liked everything about this movie...until I watched it spiral out-of-control into a nosedive ending. At some point, the whole tone of the movie changed....probably when the hit-man and his quarry finally meet. The premise is enticing...a man is hired to kill a young woman...but first he must locate her. Difficult, as she is in hiding from both the Mob AND the cops. She abandons her apartment, and the hit man moves in....by going through her personal things, he hopes to discover where she might have fled. More and more, he discovers her personality, her soul....and begins to fall in love with a person he has never met. What a great story! And someday, someone will make a better version of it. This one fell apart too quickly. Perhaps, once meeting her, the hit man should have spared the victim's life....without explanation...just turned and walked away. The End.

If that's what you want, you want this movie-- she bares it not once but twice. Or if Bob Dylan wielding a chainsaw is your bag... The script is clichéd and inept, the directing choppy, the excellent cast largely wasted. At least they look like they had fun making it. If it was better written/directed, the basic premise of the abductee falling for the abductor might be more believable. Jodie spends most of her time looking worried, until she suddenly mutates into passionate lover/co-conspirator. Joe Pesci managed to have his name completely scrubbed from the film and the packaging, although his part is not minor. Blink and you'll miss Catherine Keener, apparently in her first credited role. Somebody should put the soundtrack's sax player out of our misery.

Backtrack, aka Catchfire, is one of those classic "Alan Smithee" cases, but unlike say David Lynch's Dune it's hard to feel too sorry for the filmmaker in the case of producers fiddling with the "original" vision. Dennis Hopper's original cut of the film was three hours, which is more akin to a move out of Erich von Stroheim; maybe it is genius in its full form, but perhaps Hopper would have been better just taking what is a half-bitter, half-sweet neo-noir with pitch black comedy and crazy romance as a shorter feature. Is the question more that a 3 hour cut may *still* be a mess rather than it's a lost masterpiece? (Originally Easy Rider had a fate like this with Hopper's original cut something like 4 hours, then trimmed to 95 minutes it was great). A Magnificent Ambersons butchering it also is definitely not. No tears are shed over Backtrack/Catchfire's status.

Matter of fact there is a 2 hour director's cut, which somewhat sadly is hard to track down. So, taking into account this 98 minute "studio" cut (studio in a loose term since Vestron is no longer even around), it's bound to have flaws. To give Hopper his credit a lot of this is due to a choppy rhythm; sometimes there's a spectacular cut (i.e. when he jumps from a rooftop it cuts right away to him opening a drawer in a room), and sometimes it really does feel like a little extra detail or moment is excised in favor of keeping the plot going.

It's not a bad plot either, if somewhat typical in the film noir tradition: a woman has one of those freak chance of occurrences on a road as her tires go flat on a highway, and walking along the side of the road she sees in a wasteland a mob hit. The mobsters see her, she escapes in time, goes to the cops, and then when the mob comes by and kills her boyfriend she goes on the run - not taking into account a strange, soulful hit-man is on her trail, more as a stalker than a killer, leading to a very challenging moment halfway where the gears shift in tone.

The first half is fairly fun as a chase movie and has some surprises, mostly in cameos that had me smile (Vincent Price) and shaking my head and laughing like I was having a hallucination (Bob Dylan), with Hopper creating what looks to be another in a line of classic psychos (he has the skill of a puzzle-solver following Foster's trail, and sometimes plays the saxophone to relax). The mood also reflects wonderfully a sense of the noir with Foster changing her look (blonde wig and black jacket) with the conventional jazz music put behind her. When he finally tracks her down, however, there's a possibly great scene: Hopper, with a tie around her neck and handcuffs on her hands, gives Foster a choice, either die right now or be "mine" so that she would be under his total control. There's such tense acting here by the leads that it promises that this will lead to an electrifying second half.

This is not the case. Instead we get a fairly quickly unfolding of a romance, oddly enough, as Hopper's quasi-captive finally falls for her sort of sensitive and awkward hit-man, and there's even a weirdly "cute" scene where Hopper fulfills a secret that she has which is to have lots of pink Hostess cakes! There's a sort of absurdity here that maybe echoes Bunuel; it's kind of sadistically dangerous, and at the same time starts to make less sense even as it ratchets up some memorable, baroque images (the burning figure at night right before Hopper goes into Foster's room to take her sort of hostage). The acting isn't bad either, but again the sense of rhythm is off, and it's hard to look past that as the film is what it is and has to be seen like that.

As a curiosity it's surely a must-see - it's got a who's who of stars and character actors, from Charlie Sheen to Price to Joe Pesci to Catherine Keener to Jon Tuturro to Paulie from the Sopranos - though it's hard to exactly call it a very "good" movie. Too much of it ticks and tocks with a near originality to ignore it, but it's too flawed to see as some work of tortured genius either.

As I said, Hopper plus Foster = great chemistry. These two make a great movie out of a plot that is absolutelu unbelievable. What hit man falls in love with his hit sight unseen? What hit falls in love with her hit man after a one night stand? What hit man has a helicopter set aside for just the right escape? What mafia boss has ten or more hit men who can't hit a one man target? You see, this is a plot that no one could believe in. But, no one cares, because you are so involved in the evolution of the relationship between the Hopper & Foster characters that you overlook or forgive everything else. These two are so powerful that they make Fred Ward look like a character actor.

This is a violent movie where the violence never seems to override the comedy/relationship/slice of life issues that the film portrays. Plus, you get to see Jodie Foster naked!?! Who would have thunk it? By the way, she has a very nice body.

I don't know how this movie has not become a cult favorite, but give it time. It is a gem!

PS Don't overlook a dynamite performance by Joe Pesci, who is not listed in the cast. Go figure.

Yes, the script is so terrible that Dennis Hopper made the decision producers remove his name. Yes, it bombed so badly that it was released to video under another name. Yes, the preposterous idea that a man could rape a woman into loving him was still alive in 1990. Yes, actors who knew better chewed the scenery so much that it's hard to tell if they are in on the joke. Yes, the Mafia tropes are so bad that it's surprising Joe Columbo didn't picket the film. Yes, Jodie Foster is so numb to the stupidity of her part that she seems to have been tranquilizer in order to make it to the end. Yes, major plot lines go nowhere. Yes, it is colossally stupid. And, yes, that is Bob Dylan in that cameo.

However, if you treat it as a satire of the empty 1980s Hollywood action thriller (complete with that awful saxophone that signals "sexy time") and just enjoy what little of the New Mexico scenery wasn't chewed to death by Dennis Hopper, you will thank me for telling you to watch it.

Really great actors, almost all of them were at (or near) the peak of their careers at the time of making this movie, but however good an actor Dennis Hopper might be, he is NOT good at directing AT ALL. I blame him for some pretty stupid plot turns, of which there are simply too many to take this movie seriously. It is even listed as a comedy at Imdb, which it certainly is NOT. It was not meant to be a comedy anyway, but this goes to show the mere stupidity of certain scenes that are laughable dumb indeed.

Any good? You get to see Jodie Foster naked. Some men will like that perhaps? 4 stars for the cult factor combination of really great actors in a terrible movie.

With huge screen personas such as Dennis Hopper and Jodie Foster it really makes this film fun to watch. The dialogue works with these actors as it would usually with any actor you like. The story progresses in a way that suits me down to the ground, in that there are no scenes that I dislike and it's always on the move.

The idea of a hitman giving his prospective hit a choice of death or come with me with on a provisional basis is a good one. The cinematography is nice also with some shots of the American mid-west (I suspect).

The supporting actors are a refreshing bunch as well including Vincent Price (nice to see him away from all those creepy horror movies of the 50s and 60s)and Dean Stockwell, who is a very likable and I think an underrated actor (may be best known in Quantum Leap as Al). Not to give the ending away but I never guessed it was coming and it is very satisfying. This film is worth a 9.

For about a decade, I swear I saw a number of films with the same trait: trying to make a hardened cold-blooded hit man into a sympathetic softie at heart. Oh, filmmakers just love to make evil look good.

Who better to play a twisted wacko than Dennis Hopper? Here, Hopper has the hots for Jodie Foster. To quickly summarize, the film is pretty interesting but with a bad message, as just mentioned. What's really interesting is the cast. Check this out: Hopper, Foster, Joe Pecsi, Fred Ward, Dean Stockwell, Vincent Price, John Turturro and Charlie Sheen. Obviously, this cast is what primarily makes the film fun for a viewing or two. The more you see it, and analyze it, the dumber it gets so don't see this more than twice....maybe once is more than enough. The dialog is pretty dumb in spots.

This is also unique because they can't seem to figure out how long this film runs. When I first saw it on VHS, the box said it was 102 minutes but it was really between 112-115 minutes. When the DVD came out, it also said "102" but only ran 99 minutes. They must have edited out quite a bit of footage from the tape! It was probably a smart move as the second half of the movie dragged too much. However, I've heard of a case like this with tapes and DVDs.

This film mixes some features rarely found together: mob violence, guns, murder, chases and crashes, a woman in jeopardy... AND some understated humor, would-ya-believe romance and kindness to animals, and a happy ending of sorts.

Dennis Hopper took his name off the cut version, which apparently omits, among others, parts of scenes featuring Jodie Foster's nudity. This is the version I saw, and even thus cut I give the film a 7.

The plot is straightforward: a hitman (Dennis Hopper) hired to kill a woman (Jodie Foster) who witnessed a mob murder gives her the option of staying alive and being "his." Then, since he defaulted on his assignment, they must flee mob reprisal.

My relatively high rating is based on Hopper's direction and on the acting, principally of the two main stars. (Joe Pesci and Dean Stockwell contribute wryly amusing mafioso figures.)

This is certainly not a comedy or romance film, nor is it intended to be. Nor is it "warm human drama." It's not at all slapstick or maudlin.

What impressed me most were Hopper's characterization and the scenes of their developing relationship. Hopper's Milo is a professional killer, a man of little polish (contrasting the wheelchair-ridden Vincent Price as the mob boss).

But a man's a man, for all that. Especially good is a scene early in their relationship, in which the hitman expresses his awed smittenness for his then-captive. His plain-spoken awkwardness shows, low-key, the loneliness and vulnerability of a man who has not experienced much love in his life.

And if you think a woman in such a situation could never respond favorably (albeit gradually), you don't know much about women -- and I don't mean the Stockholm Syndrome(?), that phenomenon of hostages warming up to their captors. The dynamics of their relationship -- the gradual, subtle shifting of their feelings and reactions -- are masterfully but quietly, almost incidentally, portrayed by Foster and especially Hopper. This film is certainly in the European style.

Still, you action fans shouldn't stay away; though not much gore, there is a sufficiency of sinister dread, gratuitous violence, and crashings and burnings.

It it an astonishing accomplishment to give such a great cast such bad lines and direction that they accomplish the worst performances of their careers. Compellingly bad.

Despite a marvelous cast and some pretty good ideas, pedestrian writing keeps this movie from being as good as its cast would have make one think it would be. Although Catchfire, or Backtrack as it is known in the U.S., clearly tries to be a black comedy it does not have quite enough humor in it to qualify. That said, though, this is a consistently interesting film that is filled with excellent performances. 7 out of 10.

If you are going to have characters doing things which seem inexplicable from a behavioral standpoint, you had better lay out some damned good reasoning why these characters do such things. The trivia section on the imdb says that an original cut of this was 180 minutes long. Maybe studio meddling and an editing process brutalized the film. It wouldn't be the first or last time studios butchered a winner in order to get down to an arbitrarily selected run time. What may or may not have been lost in the process was clear motivating factors for just about every character in the movie. Early on Jodie Foster declines entry into witness protection because she doesn't want to give up her life as it currently exists. Her solution? Take it on the lam in perpetuity for some undetermined future. What? This movie is filled with non sequitur thinking like that, and yet... isn't a comedy.

This is one of those movies like The Last Tycoon, Spirit, Kill The Irishman, where you look down the amazing cast list and wonder how it all could have gone so wrong. Whether Dennis Hopper's directing is to blame, or studio editing, or lazy screen writing, who know? It's unpleasant to watch. Unless you really get your rocks off seeing Jodie Foster naked. Then have at. Otherwise overacting and piss poor plotting run this off the rails right from the get go. The two stars I'll give it are generosity, believe it.

An artist (Foster) witnesses a Mafia hit and calls the police. At the police station she realizes that the Mafia has a man in the force, so she runs. Trailed by the police, who need her testimony, and a hit-man (Hopper) hired by the Mafia, she goes to Mexico, where eventually she meets the hit man, who has become infatuated after studying her art and life to prepare for the hit.

Cast of characters in walk ons can't save this horribly flawed film. Jody Foster is way too muscular to be parading around half naked through much of the movie and she isn't really good at acting scared either. And I never thought Hopper was a good actor. He's dismal in this one, pretending to be a killer by putting on a fake accent.

It's directed well and very arty, but the story is so poorly written not one scene is believable.

The only way to watch this film is the Director's Cut version, which only made it onto a VHS release (only the theatrical edition was ported over to DVD). That version improves the film tremendously. It's more of a slow burn and a bit more on the art-house side, but the character arcs and evolution make more sense, some plot holes are filled, the theme is more clear, and it's an overall better film. It focuses more on the theme of fulfilling ones subconscious desires, having a message regarding art and the art of film itself, daring the audience to bring out the kid in them for a film that isn't kid-friendly, among other stuff on similar lines.

That being said, if you absolutely hated the theatrical version and its Stockholm Syndrome tendencies, and aren't one of those who thought, "There's a good movie in there somewhere," then that version probably won't change your mind.

An ok movie that starts off well but loses its way towards the end. Has an impressive looking cast but everyone is somewhat underused, asides from Dennis Hopper, who as director pushes himself centre stage around the halfway point. Jodie Foster in particular is wasted as her character goes from resourceful resilience to doe-eyed sidekick with Stockholm syndrome.

One of Dennis Hopper's finest movies! Also one of Jodie Foster's finest. The supporting cast has some of Hollywood's best in it. If not already, this film will become a movie cult classic! There are scenes in this movie that my wife and I always reference and talk about with friends when discussing favorites. I am surprised to see that the movie has another name (Catchfire). I am also surprised to see that the movie was edited again and some actors took their names off of the credits. I will purchase the DVD just so that I can remember Mr. Hopper's great skill at acting and directing. Also to remember how pretty Jodie Foster was. This movie is worth seeing at least once.

First off, I saw the 1992 director's cut (BackTrack), so I can't judge how previous versions of the film were. That said, what I did see in some ways enthralled me and in some ways disappointed me. The basic plot had great potential, and some of the film was really good. As well, a *stellar* cast really helped to improve the film. It was shot beautifully, with some really creative cinematography.

On the other hand, the plot bottomed out, predictable in most ways. From beginning to end I could tell what was going to happen next, and there were few surprises. There are really good, fresh moments. But in general, there's nothing new here.

Jodie Foster was very good, she's a very expressive actress and her body language and facial expressions helped to light up her character. But there wasn't much of a character to light up. Poor dialogue and lack of depth hurt her (and other characters) and much of what her character did was straight out unbelievable. In fact, the whole budding romance between her and Hopper was completely unbelievable, not just in how quickly it happened (gotta love those Hollywood 'love'-storms...) but how it progressed as well. And it's quite amusing how often and quickly these films throw the word 'love' around (about as often as they find excuses for full frontal shots...not that seeing Jodie Foster nude in the shower isn't appealing, but when nudity is unnecessary it kind of ruins the moment;)

And what was with that *horrible* accent Dennis Hopper failed to pull off? And his character was so up and down inn terms of intelligence and intellect...one minute he's a total dumbass (forgetting that his house was given to him by the mob don) the next he's a warehouse of useless trivia (the historical knowledge of the canyon) and then suddenly he's a wannabe talented neo-jazz sax player?? (Nice 'I wish I was Angelo Badalamenti' soundtrack by the way...) And his dialogue was probably the worst of all!

This film tried to hard to mix odd and quirky with straight and gritty. In the end, it's amusing to watch for the classic actors (not often one gets to see Vincent Price as a mob boss;), great sets (and the Anne Benton art was really cool!), gorgeous shots, not to mention Hopper's antics (and the same pleasure-filled hyper-ventilation sounds he used in the sex scenes in Blue Velvet;)

Look for cameos by Charlie Sheen and Bob Dylan...and does Joe Pesci ever play anything else but a trigger happy mob goon?? Goodfellas, Casino, even My Cousin Vinny had hints of it...and this character was ironically named 'Leo', an amusing reflection of his Lethal Weapon character...

Overall: a good watch, though I won't run out to see it again. It could have been a LOT worse, but it had so much potential to be better. The acting saved this from being a disaster 6/10.

"Catchfire" or "Backtrack" as it is sometimes called, is not very good. That is, it's bad. Jodie Foster had already won an Oscar at this point. Why did she agree to do this? I don't know.

The hostage/kidnapper relationship is not believable, even if it is a common psychological phenomenon in real life.

Worst of all, this film features a scene where Hopper and Foster ride a boat under the Fremont Bridge (a bridge in Seattle) which means that traffic had to stop so that the bridge could open. I've had to wait for that bridge to go down many times, almost all of them on the bus. It's not a pleasant wait. This film caused unnecessary bridge-waiting and the world is a worse place for it.