When a rich industrialist and his wife are murdered, psychologically unstable police detective Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) and coroner’s assistant Whittington (Gregory Hines) find that wolves are involved. Dewey’s only lead is an ex-con, Indian activist (Edward James Olmos).
In a year where traditional werewolves were making a big comeback, Wolfen took a different route. For those who haven’t seen it, I’m afraid I’m not going to tell you what that route is.
I enjoyed Wolfen a great deal back in ’81, but except for the final scene, it isn’t a movie that calls me back. It isn’t an “exploitation” film, where heads are ripped off just for the sake of the gore. Not that the heads aren’t ripped off, along with hands, but it’s all supporting a story and a theme, and once you know those, there’s not a lot of reason to return.
This is a sharply directed, steadily paced thriller. Its lupine point-of-view shots have been copied over and over, most notably by Predator.
Albert Finney leads the cast, twisting the police stereotype to make an interesting and bizarre character. He’s not a pretty-boy, maverick cop. Hurrah! And you have to love any character that eats over an autopsy. Hines adds humor, and another character worth my time. This was early in his career, and also early in Olmos’, who was only better in Blade Runner. Olmos adds to Wolfen’s unusual amount of male nudity as he strips before he howls at the moon (and no fear gentle readers, I haven’t given too much away).
Director Michael Wadleigh (Woodstock) is a bit heavy handed with his message, having the zoologist (Tom Noonan) spout off philosophically about the wonder of wolves and the destructiveness of man. Wadleigh continues this trend, having Finney voice a coda containing the film’s moral. If the movie communicated what it was supposed to, there’s no need to state the theme. I agree with Wadleigh’s views, and I think it’s too much.
Constructed as a mystery, Wolfen suffers by not being one. Yes, the explanation of the killings doesn’t come till the end, but the viewer knows from the beginning that a wolf (or wolves) is doing the killing. It’s an hour before Dewey knows, and all that time, he’s gathering information that has been spelled out for us. It’s not until he’s caught up to the audience that new twists pop up. Perhaps it should have been hidden from the audience that a wolf ripped apart the industrialist, so that we could discover it, but then a title change would have been in order.