Blaze

1989 "A governor. A stripper. Forced to chose between the office he held and the woman he loved, he chose both."
6| 1h57m| R| en| More Info
Released: 15 December 1989 Released
Producted By: Touchstone Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

This movie tells the story of the latter years of Earl Long, a flamboyant governor of Louisiana. The aging Earl, an unapologetic habitue of strip joints, falls in love with young stripper Blaze Starr. When Earl and Blaze move in together, Earl's opponents use this to attack his controversial political program, which included civil rights for blacks in the 1950's.

Genre

Drama, Romance

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Blaze (1989) is currently not available on any services.

Director

Ron Shelton

Production Companies

Touchstone Pictures

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Blaze Audience Reviews

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
SnoopyStyle It's 1950. A young woman (Lolita Davidovich) leaves her rural West Virginian childhood home with a guitar and hopes for a singing career. Burlesque club owner Red Snyder finds her working at a diner. He pushes her to perform more risqué and she runs away from the sleazy promoter. She ends up in New Orleans performing under the name Blaze Starr where she catches the eye of flamboyant Governor of Louisiana Earl Long (Paul Newman).Paul Newman is really chewing up this role. Lolita Davidovich is a fiery redhead. These are great characters. The story and how it's played out isn't the most compelling. This needs more tension in the drama. Earl is a wild character but he's not particularly funny. These are good performances but the drama could be more intense. It's a bit too long and has a bit too much filler.
Michael Neumann Director Ron Shelton's second romantic wet dream transposes all the heavy breathing of his Minor League debut hit 'Bull Durham' to the shady arena of Southern politics, where the randy and eccentric Earl K. Long (in his own words the "fine governor of the great State of Louisiana") falls in love with Bourbon St. stripper Blaze Starr. With his auteur's eye firmly affixed to the bottom line (pun intended) Shelton turns an unlikely true story into a colorful live-action cartoon, with plenty of all-too clever (at least to its author) dialogue and a not unexpected measure of character whitewashing: Starr is of course no common stripper, but a well-proportioned angel with a heart of gold. In her big screen debut Lolita Davidovich gives the title role an appealing vitality, but the lip-smacking, lecherous governor is an odd role for Paul Newman. His wild (if memorable) performance approaches a pitch-perfect facsimile of Long's actual personality (listen to the governor's recorded voice at the end of the final credits), but watching the actor submit to Shelton's idea of a dirty old man can be as much an embarrassment to viewers as it must have been for Newman himself.
ccthemovieman-1 Mix a flamboyant, famous politician of the late '50s - played by one of Hollywood's most famous actors - having an affair with a famous stripper and what do you have? An interesting story, but a movie that still lacked a lot of spark in a number of areas.I can't blame the actors so my best guess is Director Ron Shelton. He wrote the screenplay for this and has the distinction of directing the only sports movies I ever disliked - all of his! This guy's resume of bad movies is brutal. Look it up!You could see Paul Newman really relished playing Louisiana Governor Earl K. "Huey" Long, who was scandalized after it was divulged he was having an affair with the notorious stripper, Blaze Starr, played well by newcomer Lolita Davidovich. Some think Davidovich stole the movie from Newman, but I don't know if I would go that far.However, to me, this was another Newman movie that was overly profane in the language department, a little over-the-top in a performance and just lacking something that made me care about the characters. Starr was portrayed as someone you liked, admittedly, but when has Hollywood not made a stripper or prostitute look good? Newman's role as the flipped-out governor was overacted. One thing, though: Paul Newman is never boring whoever he's playing.I like movies about eccentric characters but this film just had too sleazy a look and feel for me to enjoy it. In the end, who better to blame than Shelton? This just wasn't the appealing story it should have been.
KyleFurr2 This was one of the few times that Ron Shelton made a movie that didn't deal with sports and he did a pretty good job. Paul Newman plays the democratic governor of Louisiana and he has an election coming up but can't run for governor again, so he has a friend of his run for governor and Newman will run as lieutenant governor and right after the election the friend will step down and Newman will become governor. Lolita Davidovich plays a big time stripper who at first is suspicious of Newman when he comes on to her but the wind up falling in love. This is set in the late 50s and is down south and since segregation is a big issue Newman's rivals will use it against him in the election. It doesn't help when Newman is having an affair with a stripper and supports civil rights for black people. This is a really good film about politics and also turns out to be a good romance.