By Geno McGahee
They used to make good made for TV films…until the sensationalistic crap became the in thing. In 1984, we still had the filmmakers and networks that understood the worth of quality films and you are usually guaranteed a good movie from this time period. This is the case with the drunk driving awareness film: “LICENSE TO KILL.”
Lynne Peterson (Kristen Vigard) is a girl going off to college and has the world ahead of her. She’s popular, kind, and is ready to take on the world. Unfortunately, a wealthy businessman, Tom Fiske (Don Murray), has a drinking problem and elects to drive his monster station wagon and is heavily under the influence. He nearly runs over a young boy on a bike and then plows into Lynne, killing her instantly.
John (James Farentino) and Judith Peterson (Penny Fuller) get the news that their child has been killed and when they discover that it was at the hands of a drunk driver, John is going to show Tom Fiske who his daddy is. Initially, his lawyer tells him that he could get a good settlement from this, but he wants Fiske fisted in prison and he’s going to see this through, but the pricey lawyer, Webster (Donald Moffat), is going to try to make this case go away. In the meantime, Fiske is still drinking like a fish, and has a great deal of bravado about the case. He has very little concern over the loss of a life and focuses on how important he is. It reminded me of THE SIMPSONS episode where Mr. Burns runs over Bart Simpson and Mr. Burns yells: “I should be allowed to run over as many kids as I want!”
John is miserable and his wife is paralyzed by depression. She won’t even give John any loving, noting that she has “nothing left to give.” He should have said: “Then don’t give…take!” I wonder if he can sue Fiske for his blue balls too.
The prosecutor, Martin Sawyer (Denzel Washington), has a lot on his plate, and cannot give the case as much attention as he should, but that slowly changes as he gets to know John and the story of their daughter. The smug prick that is Fiske helps Sawyer’s ambition to take him down. In his eyes, I could tell that he was picturing Fiske with pigtails and some big inmate rubbing a red M&M on his lips while he holds his belt loop in prison (OK, I watch a lot of BEYOND SCARED STRAIGHT. It’s fucking awesome).
Fiske’s positive blood test and past DUI arrests are not allowed into the case and it looks like he’s going to get away with it. His smirk makes you hate him. All is not lost though. Fiske’s wife, Mary (Millie Perkins), convinces her hubby to take the stand. I think she was tired of that drunk prick’s attitude and subpar love making and had no reservations about sending him away to the clink. Fiske’s lawyer begs him not to, but he’s like: “I’m so confident that I will win everyone over that I’m wearing women’s panties…that’s how sure I am I won’t be going to prison today!”
In the end, Fiske screws up, and gets locked up for 2 years and John and Judith have closure. It was a happy ending and justice prevails. LICENSE TO KILL is a great movie. I highly recommend this.
“Oh god, I hope what I see on BEYOND SCARED STRAIGHT isn’t true.”
Rating: 8/10