Band of the Hand (1986) TriStar/Action RT: 109 minutes Rated R (violence, language including sexual references, racial epithets, drugs) Director: Paul Michael Glaser Screenplay: Leo Garen and Jack Baran Music: Michel Rubini Cinematography: Reynaldo Villalobos Release date: April 11, 1986 (US) Cast: Stephen Lang, Michael Carmine, Lauren Holly, John Cameron Mitchell, Daniele Quinn, Leon Robinson, Al Shannon, Larry Fishburne, James Remar, Danton Stone, Paul Calderone. Box Office: $4.8M (US)
Rating: ****
I’ve given it careful thought and have decided to classify Band of the Hand as a Hidden Treasure. I’m basing this on the fact that I rarely, almost never hear it brought up in conversation. It seems to have been forgotten. Not that anybody cared when it came out in April ’86. Audiences ignored it and it was gone in a week. I missed my chance to see it at the movies because I opted to see The Ladies Club that weekend. I was operating under the assumption that the Miami Vice-influenced action flick would be held over a second week. Okay, so I called it wrong. Thank God for home video.
I considered placing Band of the Hand in the Guilty Pleasure section. It wasn’t reviewed favorably when it came out. It holds only a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I’ve heard it described as a TV pilot with strong violence and curse words. NONE of this makes a difference to me. I think it’s GREAT! Also, I feel no shame in going against majority opinion. I like what I like and love what I love. I love Band of the Hand.
Director Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky & Hutch) makes his feature film debut with this tale of five incorrigible youthful offenders learning survival skills as a means of reform. They are rival gangbangers Ruben (Carmine, Leviathan) and Moss (Robinson, Cliffhanger), Cuban drug trafficker Carlos (Quinn), intelligent but insane punk Crazy (Mitchell, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and car thief/habitual escapee Dorcey (Shannon, Casualties of War). They’re taken from juvie hall and dropped into the Florida swamplands where they’re forced by circumstance to undergo an intensive survival training program run by Joe (Lang, Manhunter), a Native American Vietnam vet trying out his unique program for the first time.
About midway through, the action shifts back to Miami where Joe and his guys move into an abandoned house once occupied by drug addicts and prostitutes. It sparks a war with the local dirtbag population led by drug dealer Cream (Fishburne, The Matrix) who works for drug lord Nestor (Remar, 48 Hrs.). For Carlos, it becomes personal when he learns his girlfriend Nikki (Holly, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) became the property of Nestor while he was locked up. Eventually, the guys set out to take down Nestor’s entire operation.
At one point, Joe explains to his guys they are like fingers on a hand; they must work together for the hand to work. Hence, the title Band of the Hand. So let me get this straight. In order to rehabilitate a group of violent youths, Joe trains them to be vigilantes. It makes about as much sense as a senior citizen single-handedly waging war against a large street gang in Death Wish 3. Guess what? I like that movie too. Of course, it would be unfair to label Band of the Hand as a mere vigilante flick. Glaser tries to do something different with the whole survival program thing. Joe’s theory is if his charges can survive in the wild, they can survive the mean streets of Miami. Okay, it’s a bit of a stretch seeing that there are no rattlesnakes or bears in the city but I get what Joe is getting at. Some ideas have to be taken at face value. This is one of those times.
Remar has always been one of my favorite character actors. He plays a great villain. I’m sure I’ve said this before, most likely in my reviews of 48 Hrs. and The Cotton Club. He takes it down a notch here in that he leaves the scenery mostly intact. He’s still evil and menacing in how he runs the criminal underworld in Miami. One of Cream’s guys gets a knife through the hand for just looking at Nikki. To be fair, she is wearing a bikini at the time. In any event, Nestor is one guy you do NOT want to f*** with. For my part, I say Remar is always a very welcome presence. He’s as cool as David Patrick Kelly and the late Billy Drago.
Aside from Remar, there’s really not too much to say about the acting. It’s pretty good for this type of movie. Robinson and Carmine spend the first half of Band of the Hand trying to kill each other. Quinn’s character broods about the high life he left behind after he got busted. Shannon plays it cool and understated. Mitchell is the real wild card. His character gets jailed for killing his abusive father after he sets off an explosion at his school. He spends the whole movie living up to his nickname. One question, where did he find mousse in the swamplands? His hair stays spiky. Lang is pretty good as the leader of the band even if his character is a Native American stereotype. Holly is okay as a teen runaway forced into prostitution.
The look of Band of the Hand is incontrovertible proof that it was made in the post-Miami Vice 80s. Check out the pastel color scheme, a lot of pinks and yellows. The soundtrack, which includes a theme song sung by Bob Dylan and The Heartbreakers (Tom Petty’s back-up band), cuts in and out like an episode of the popular cop show. The clothes are laughable now but they were cool at that time. Bottom line, this movie is definitely dated yet still cool. It has some well-mounted action scenes. There’s a bit of humor too. I got a real kick out of Ruben and Moss pulling a Tom Sawyer on the local punks by tricking them into painting the house.
I’ll grant that Band of the Hand isn’t one of those fast-moving action flicks. It takes time to get going. First, it establishes the characters and lets them build trust with each other before sending them into battle. In this case, it’s a good thing. On the other hand, Band of the Hand is as silly as any other action flick. It’s not believable for a minute. It is, however, a lot of fun. And it has style that only sometimes trumps substance. Bottom line, Band of the Hand is one of the great unsung actioners of the 80s. It is truly a hidden treasure.
