Watch Angel Heart

Angel Heart is a tense psychological thriller that stars Micky Rourke, Lisa Bonet and Robert De Niro. Written and directed by Alan Parker, the plot was adapted from a novel called 'Falling Angel', a work that would appeal to fans of horror that also appreciate a classic gumshoe style detective story. Atmospheric and brooding, Angel Heart is clearly a tip-of-the-hat to film noir, and covers that well-known territory concerning morals and lessons learned going back to the time of Aesop's Fables. The story of 'Angel Heart' opens in New York. The year is 1955. Mr. Harry Angel (Micky Rourke) is a private eye hired by the mysterious and dressed to the nines Mr. Louis Cyphre to find a missing person who according to the client is holding certain valuable property in the form of collateral pursuant to business arrangement that has fallen into default. At this time, it is important to point out that the period between the late 1970's and the mid 1980's was the high-water mark for the Hollywood team of Robert De Niro and director Martin Scorsese. At the time, it was common for Martin Scorsese to appear in public dressed in a business suit and a neatly trimmed Van Dyke. Those who know this fact may get a kick out of seeing Mr. De Niro in this film, dressed in that manner and sporting the same facial hair as his favorite director. As in many morality tales, things do not always turn out to be what they originally seem, and deep into this picture our main character Harry Angel realizes that his client Louis Cyphre (Lou-Cyphre) is in reality Lucifer, and that the collateral that Satan wants to recover has been in the possession of Harry all along. Throughout the film within several scenes depicting the dreams of Harry Angel, the audience is repeatedly exposed to short glimpses of the clockworks of a mid-century period elevator in perpetual decent. It is not until we come to the end of the film that we begin to realize the meaning of these elevator scenes. That they are symbolic for something rather grim and foreboding, and that like Harry Angel, we discover this long after it is way too late.