Revisiting 1999: The Top 10 Films of the Year, #10 --- The Limey (Steven Soderbergh)

Steven Soderbergh’s neo noir-revenge tale The Limey is about as ordinary a story as you will likely see. You have a man named Wilson (Terrence Stamp) fresh out of prison and seeking revenge on the man who was responsible for his daughters death, a hipster 60’s record producer Valentine (played by Peter Fonda, in a bit of perfect casting) who “tapped into the 60’s zeitgeist and ran with it.” Along the way Wilson gathers information from new-found friends who aide him in finding out the truth about his daughter (great supporting roles by Luis Guzman and Leslie Ann Warren). All of this sounds rather ordinary and banal, however, Soderbergh and his editor Sarah Flack dice up the films events in a way that makes it feel fresh, and surprisingly, free from all contrivances.


The aesthetic isn’t simply a distraction from Lem Dobbs’ rather ho-hum attempt at neo-noir; it serves as a perfect coda for these icons of 60’s cinema. The film plays out like the long awaited final showdown between two aging gunslingers. Wilson is a machine in the way he goes about getting information, and Valentine is a man who is content hiring out for people to do his dirty work. Valentine still (like Fonda) evokes that certain quality about the 60’s that makes him almost likable – he just can’t seem to separate himself from the era that made him so much money (and yes we’re talking about Valentine the character and Fonda the actor, here).

I also like how Soderbergh splices in footage from Stamp’s films from the 60’s (especially a beautiful piece of footage that ends the film in a poetic, elegiac way) to act his memories of his daughter when she was younger. Soderbergh also appropriately opens the film with The Who’s “The Seeker” – the perfect song to be playing in the background as Wilson begins his search for the truth. All of the elements are here, presented in a way that gives a fitting send off to these recognizable stars from the 60’s. The film even feels free from all hindrances associated with modern filmmaking…it has that 60’s “free and easy” attitude about filmmaking – the vibe found in the films that made Fonda a star of that decade.

At a brusque 88 minutes there’s nothing superlative in The Limey. It’s one of Soderbergh’s best films, and the one film where he shows the most restraint. There’s a great scene where Wilson is approached by a bodyguard at Valentine’s place, and in a botched attempt to throw Wilson out of the party the bodyguard ends up getting head-butted and tossed over the railing. The scene is made all the more interesting by the fact that the action doesn’t appear in the foreground. Instead the viewer is listening to Valentine talk about the horrible parking situation on Venice Beach, and in the background we see Wilson toss the bodyguard over the rail. It’s a perfectly executed scene because of Soderbergh’s restraint.

Another great scene sees Wilson entering a garage of sorts where a bunch of toughs work. He’s looking for some information about his daughter but gets beat up for his troubles and thrown out on the pavement. Soderbergh keeps his camera at bay, as we watch Wilson walk back into the garage and the next thing we hear are gunshots and men screaming. Then a man comes running out past the camera. The static camera begins to move in to get a closer look at a bloodied Wilson as he screams: “You tell him I’m coming!” The fact that Soderbergh shot the scene in long shot makes it much funnier and a better effect as opposed to if he would have followed Wilson in and shot all of the bloody action. The scene reminded me of the end of William Wellman’s brilliant noir The Public Enemies where the viewer is deprived of the final shoot-out as the camera sits outside in the rain and all we hear are gunshots from inside a building.

There’s no doubt that the editing is the star of the film here, but Terrence Stamp is pretty damn brilliant, too. He plays Wilson with a head-to-the-ground intensity that reminded me of the robot from Westworld. Soderbergh trusts his audiences to know why the characters – Stamp playing an ex-con and Fonda playing a man who profited off the 60’s zeitgeist – need no fleshing out. It allows him to pace his film effectively at 88 minuets, a perfect time for the audience to be swept away by the interesting editing technique (obviously influenced by one of Soderbergh’s favorite movements The French New Wave) and great performances before realizing that this story is old hat.

Today filmmakers employ all kinds of editing trickery to try and make their films appear like they are saying something, when in reality they are just annoying attempts at distracting the viewer from what’s really going on: no storytelling ability. Soderbergh is seemingly doing the same thing here, but by showing scenes out of order, and context – mixing in dialogue from one scene with multiple locations – he is giving us the recollection of events through Wilson’s memory as he thinks back on his trip to the States while aboard a plane.

In addition to the editing, Soderbergh really shows his chops in the way he wisely uses the hand-held format. Any filmmaker who wants to know how to effectively use the hand-held format should watch this film (and others by Soderbergh) because Soderbergh is a master at it. Nothing feels shaky for the sake of being shaky – every camera bump or unsteady movement is the perfect accompaniment to what is going on in Wilson’s quest for answers about his dead daughter.

This film was kind of the jumping off point for Soderbergh’s recent success. Sure he made it big with his Sundance smash Sex, Lies, and Videotape; but, The Limey, and the film that came out the year before Out of Sight, reaffirmed his skill (in the public eye...I've always loved his work...even his failures are interesting failures) as a director after a few flops: Kafka was an experimental failure (even though I quite like the film), King of the Hill was a brilliant film but failed to get him recognized by a wider audience, The Underneath was a filed attempt at noir, and Schizopolis was clearly a personal film with no intention of making money. All of these films failed to get him the same recognition his debut Sundance hit did.

However, after the critical success of Out of Sight and The Limey Soderbergh made financial headlines with his underdog film Erin Brokavich, and in the same year his interpolated masterpiece Traffic – which kind of set the trend for the hyper-link films that would follow (Syriana, Babel, Crash, et al). Since Soderbergh has gone the Frank Capra route: one personal film and one for the studio. In between the Ocean movies Soderbergh has made the brilliant Bubble, the not-so-brilliant Full Frontal, the criminally underrated Solaris, Che, and The Girlfriend Experience. Soderbergh is a director of astonishing talent, and lost in his oeuvre is this small classic from 1999. The Limey may not be the sexiest film on Soderbergh’s resume, but there’s no denying that it’s one of his most interesting and successful experiments.

A special shout-out to one of my favorite character actors Bill Duke who has a small role as a DEA agent. Hence the picture of him below. Hehe.