Sightlines · reception
How To Live and Die in L.A. was received
1985 · William Friedkin · To Live and Die in L.A. on Sightlines
The arc
A modest performer with mixed reviews in 1985 — many critics shrugged it off as Friedkin chasing his own French Connection glory in pastel Miami Vice clothing — it's since been reappraised as one of the great '80s crime films and arguably peak late Friedkin.
What’s debated
The eternal fan debate: does the wrong-way freeway chase actually top The French Connection's — and is that audacious ending a masterstroke or a cheat?
Its footprint
The wrong-way freeway chase is endlessly clipped and ranked among the greatest car chases ever filmed, and the Wang Chung synth soundtrack has become as beloved as the movie itself — shorthand for a whole neon-'80s L.A. mood that films like Drive get compared back to.
Where it stands
A cult object turned canon climber — a neo-noir 'you must see this' among Letterboxd crime-movie devotees and a fixture of best-of-the-'80s lists.
Did you know? The film is based on a novel by Gerald Petievich, a real former U.S. Secret Service agent who also co-wrote the screenplay — one reason the counterfeiting sequences feel so unnervingly procedural.