As the 90s would begin Jean-Claude Van Damme was still sort of finding his footing in Hollywood. He’d just done Bloodsport and Kickboxer to strong financial and critical success. But as the 80s would end and the door to the 90s would open Van Damme would start his rise with movies that could pull him out of being just a good-looking dude in lower budget karate movies. And it wouldn’t be long before he’d introduce himself to the world as a force to reckon with in the action genre and he kicked it off with this little prison-set action thriller.
Now, Death Warrant is a bit of a forgotten film on Van Damme’s resume. As mentioned, he’d starred in Bloodsport and Kickboxer, a pair of traditional martial-arts movies and he also did Cyborg, a weirdly awesome cyberpunk meets martial-arts mash-up that would take audiences many years to come around too before it would claim its cult-classic status. 1990 however would see the beginning of Van Damme’s rise as a true action star as he’d start to take on more mainstream Hollywood roles with more traditional character types.
Van Damme’s film Lionheart, a street fighting action flick, would actually drop into international theaters in late 1990 after getting screened at the Cannes Film Market. There it was eventually picked up by Universal who’d give the film a wide Jan ‘91 release. But he already had another movie completed and that would be Death Warrant. A by-the-book action thriller about a detective who goes undercover inside a prison as an inmate to investigate a series of murders inside.
Cannon Films was the studio producing Death Warrant. The script was written by David S. Goyer, known for penning films such as the Blade and The Dark Knight trilogy among many others. Goyer actually wrote this script while he was a student at USC. This would end up being Goyer’s first writing credit, and young director Deran Sarafian with only a few films under his belt would be hired to direct. The original title for this was supposed to be Dusted and that’s the name it went as when principal photography would begin with a budget of just $6M.
Casting for Death Warrant was relatively uneventful. Jean Claude Van Damme would be cast in the lead after Bruce Willis turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts with Die Hard 2. Van Damme also stated in an interview Steven Seagal was up for the lead in this one as well, but I couldn’t find anything to substantiate that although I don’t see Seagal being as effective in this role.
The film’s villain The Sandman is played-up perfectly by Patrick Kilpatrick who delivers a comically sadistic performance. Other known Hollywood heavy Peter Greene was also in contention for the part, but I think Kilpatrick with his stature, and imposing features, was the better choice despite Greene always delivering a great villain when called on.
Well known actor Robert Guillaume of Benson fame plays a fellow inmate and eventual friend of Van Damme’s detective Burke. And he certainly delivers the film’s best pure performance right there with the ever-scowling Art LaFleur who breathes a ton of life into his role as the evil prison warden. We’ve seen this character many times but the menacing performance by LaFleur makes it his own.
And rounding out the focal characters as the leading female, or the only female this movie, is Cynthia Gibb. Most known for her long running role on Fame. She plays the liaison to Van Damme’s character, his only connection to the outside world and Van Damme’s #1 on the conjugal visit list. Her character is simplistically written, but Gibb is strong in the role and overall, I think Death Warrant lands an effective cast from the main roles down to the smaller ones.
Shooting for Death Warrant would take place throughout southern California. The abandoned Ambassador Hotel in LA which was scheduled for demolition was used as the primary location for the prison. Production built sets in the hotel’s ballrooms and took advantage of the hotel’s industrial-sized laundry, kitchen, and staff facilities as backdrops as well. Something I think was great about this movie. It feels lived in, naturally gritty, and that isn’t easy to do with fabricated sets, or with a smaller budget.
Filming would last from July to September of ‘89 and then things would hit a snag. During post-production Cannon Films would go bankrupt. MGM/United Artists would step in and take over Cannon’s remaining projects and this film would be one of them. They promptly changed the name of the film from Dusted to Death Warrant which is a fantastic title that just reeks of late 80s action movie awesomeness and that’s essentially what this was. A total 80s movie in vibe despite being released in ‘90.
Death Warrant would be delayed almost a year as Cannon Films and MGM/UA would hit the conference rooms to decide on who would handle the distribution rights. The rights would ultimately go to MGM/UA and Death Warrant would finally drop into theaters on September 14th, 1990. The film would land in the #3 spot with a $5M opening weekend. Postcards from the Edge opened the same weekend and took the #1 spot. And Ghost in its 10th week would take the #2 spot. Death Warrant would pull in $16.8M in the states and international sales would bring Death Warrant’s global total to $46.7M which wasn’t bad for a film with only a $6M budget.
Despite the simplicity of the plot, it more than works for the needs of a traditional action flick with a heavy 80s vibe. As I mentioned, Van Damme plays a detective who goes undercover inside a prison to investigate a string of inmates being murdered. He also takes down a maniacal serial killer called The Sandman to open the film and when he arrives on the scene later Van Damme has not only the criminal activities inside the prison to solve, but he will immediately have to contend with his sadistic nemesis The Sandman.
Everything wraps up as nice and simply as you’d expect but the balance of tropes in Goyer’s script is tightly woven to give the film a smooth pace. From Van Damme’s generic love interest to his being double crossed, to his alliances formed inside, and the underworld working inside this prison, it’s all familiar but it also creates an easily consumable action thriller that provides ample opportunities for Van Damme to flex his martial arts skills. With a gritty production design that felt like you were really inside a dangerous prison.
The action overall is toned down and fitting for the story. There are a couple prison scuffles. Van Damme delivers a great laundry room fight with legendary stuntman Al Leong. And the final battle is more than satisfying as Van Damme takes a beating but ultimately brings his arch enemy The Sandman down for good while also solving the case.
Death Warrant would be a big intro for Van Damme to western audiences and it was a solid showcase of his action skills. But with other scenes like this amusing intro to the office that plays more like a Mentos commercial inside an action movie, Van Damme would give not-so-subtle hints of his true charisma as well as his ability to ham it up to hyper levels. Something that would go on to assist him on his rise to the top of the action genre in the early to mid-90s and this prison flick would be a great boost for that.
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2024 SilverScreen Analysis & Movies Never Say Die!
CAST: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Robert Guillaume, Cynthia Gibb, Patrick Kilpatrick, Art LaFleur, George Dickerson DIRECTOR: Deran Serafian WRITER: David S. Goyer DISTRIBUTOR: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer RUNNING TIME: 89s minutes RATING: R (For language and violence) YEAR: 1990 LANGUAGE: English GENRE: Action/Crime/Mystery
