Washington D.C. is a city filled with crime, but the address of this particular murder will change all the rules when a D.C. cop on the outside, is teamed with a Secret Service Agent on the inside, to track a mysterious homicide right up to the First Family’s front door. That was the tagline of 1997’s Murder at 1600. A political thriller starring Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane that I think’s a bit forgotten.
The film came from simple beginnings. Writers Wayne Beach and David Hodgin had written a script revolving around a murder that occurs inside the White House. And the plot would follow a savvy detective and a Secret Service Agent who’d work together to uncover layers of conspiracy to solve the case. Producer Arnold Kopelson known for films like The Fugitive, Seven, and Outbreak would be attracted to the script so along with fellow producer Arnon Milchan they’d offer it to director Dwight Little.
Now Dwight Little at the time was an accomplished action director with films like Marked for Death, Rapid Fire, and Broken Arrow under his belt. Suspense wasn’t Little’s forte, but he had always wanted to make a political thriller given conspiracy movies were his favorite genre, so he accepted and production was underway over at Warner Bros. with Murder at 1600 being given a $40M budget.
From there casting would begin and this is one of Murder at 1600’s strongest aspects because the ensemble wrapped around its two stars is fantastic. Now Murder at 1600 was originally slated to star Bruce Willis and Diane Lane. Lane had always been attracted to the role of Secret Service Agent Nina Chance. The character was supposed to be a former Olympic sharpshooter, Lane had markswoman training, and the character was strong willed, clever, abided by a personal code, and more importantly was vital to plot, so Lane was in.
Bruce Willis on the other hand wasn’t so sure about the role and decided to leave the project to take the lead in Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element instead. Which would turn out to be a great career move for him at the time. This leads us to an unmade movie that Warner Bros. had high hopes for at the time called Sandblast. It would follow an explosive expert who’d team with a group of commandos to hunt down lost nuclear warheads in post-war Iraq before an evil group of Green Berets can get their hands on them.
It was originally planned to star Eddie Murphy. But when he left due to scheduling conflicts Warner Bros. signed Snipes to a $10M contract to take over as the star. Jean-Claude Van Damme was going to co-star as the villainous leader of the Green Berets but as pre-production neared a close the studio began to have growing concerns over the needed budget, and the potential box-office draw of Snipes and Van Damme. So, feeling unsure Warner Bros. canceled the film just before production would begin.
This cancellation left Snipes with an opening in his schedule so he would take over the part of Detective Harlan Regis. And really, I think Snipes was great in this role and alongside Diane Lane to give this movie a strong 1-2 punch. During his prime Snipes showed he could work alongside anyone with films co-starring Dennis Hopper, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Stallone, Woody Harrelson among many others and here he pairs nicely with Diane Lane to solidify this chance encounter partnership that will find the truth and solve a murder.
As I said, the supporting ensemble is a quality group of actors. Ronny Cox plays the president; Tate Donovan plays his son. Then you get the great Alan Alda as the National Security Advisor, Daniel Benzali as lead Secret Service Agent, and Dennis Miller as Snipes partner on the force and the film’s light comedic relief. It’s a balanced cast of familiar character actors that all are able to easily elevate the admittedly generic material they have to work with to fill out this cast of characters.
Filming for Murder at 1600 would take place from August to October of 1996 throughout parts of Toronto and Washington D.C. and production would be relatively smooth. However, there were some cuts made to the film in the editing room. If you watch the trailer, you’ll see Snipes makes a grand helicopter entrance to the crime scene at the White House. This was deemed unrealistic and too over-the-top, so it was cut. There were also scenes between Snipes Detective Regis and Benzali’s Agent Spikings that were cut.
In one instance Benzali says Snipes was born to be a chalk outline and since it implied Spikings was a villain and not the devout agent he was framed to be, these scenes were cut. Also cut were love scenes between Snipes and Lane which I think was a good choice as keeping their relationship platonic felt more realistic and served their partnership far better for this film had Lane been turned into a love interest.
Once completed Murder at 1600 would land softly into theaters on April 14, 1997. Opening in the #3 spot with a $7.9M weekend. Box office numbers would drop 40% the next week placing Murder at 1600 in the #6 spot and it would limp out a meager $25.8M stateside with international totals boosting the final tally for Murder at 1600 to just $41.1M. Not the best numbers for a film with a $40M budget with additional promotional campaigns boosting the overall cost of the film even more.
The film also did little for Snipes career at the time who was sort of in limbo as a leading man. His action flicks Drop Zone and The Money Train weren’t well received. In ‘95 he garnered praise for his performance in To Wong Foo, and for his uncredited and heartbreaking role in Waiting to Exhale where he shares a few scene chewing moments with Angela Bassett. The year before Murder at 1600 Snipes would star in the thriller The Fan with Robert De Niro that didn’t do too well either and Murder at 1600 would fail to boost his stock much as well.
However, despite the film being a financial loss for Warner Bros., and it being forgotten relatively quickly, I think it holds up surprisingly well and I think it’s actually much more enjoyable than you would expect. Sure, it doesn’t do anything extremely amazing, but it does many things very well and when you put them together you get a quick-moving, by-the-numbers thriller with a solid plot, just enough action, and a collection of capable performances.
To me what stands out most about this film is the awesome music score from Christopher Young. It’s a slow instrumental score that’s a bit elegant, a little seductive, and ominous at the same time. It’s a perfect tone for Washington D.C. as the backdrop and it complements the mysterious political atmosphere extremely well. So, the movie definitely creates a charming mood for a mystery.
The plot is layered just enough. Snipes Detective Regis is assigned a massive case involving the murder of a White House secretary. He’s also an American history buff which will of course come into play later and he and his fellow residents are all being evicted from their building so it can be torn down to allow space for a government parking garage. So, there’s just enough going on without too much to distract from the focal plot of solving this murder and discovering why this other subplot of POWs being held captive in North Korea is a frequent topic of conversation.
Overall, the film moves well and Snipes and Lane work together as a strong pair to solve this case. Snipes and Lane’s characters have differing approaches to their work. Lane is also bound by her responsibilities to the Secret Service and as more secrets are exposed, and tensions are dialed up and emotions are swirling, Snipes and Lane are able to deliver the needed layering for their characters. Nothing special but both very capable and naturally likable.
Snipes gets his moments to deliver some action. The end of this film does veer into more of a traditional action flick from the methodical mystery of the first two acts. This was something many critics had issues with at the time but it’s not all bad. Snipes and Lane do a lot of their own stunts and despite the convenient feel of our main character sneaking through these tunnels to try and save the day at the last minute it still provides a charming adrenaline boost to close things out.
Murder at 1600 is an easy watch with both Snipes and Lane delivery spots of action and landing and authentic chemistry. They have a natural rapport that makes watching them work together to solve this crime enjoyable and with a handful of familiar faces in supporting roles the entire cast feels nice and lived in. In particular from Alda and Benzali as well as Dennis Miller whose sarcastic humor is a constant source for levity to break the mood when needed.
Grade: B
CAST: Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, Alan Alda, Dennis Miller, Daniel Benzali, Ronny Cox, Tate Donovan DIRECTOR: Dwight Little WRITER(S): Wayne Beach, David Hodgin DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros. RUNNING TIME: 107 minutes RATING: R (For sexuality, violence and some language) YEAR: 1997 LANGUAGE: English GENRE: Action/Crime/Drama
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2023 SilverScreen Analysis
