If there ever was a punk rock director, it would be Alex Cox. His debut film “Repo Man” is a cult classic and features self described White Suburban Punk lead characters.
His follow up film, Sid and Nancy followed the train wreck of all relationships starting with the lightening speed rapid rise and fall of the Sex Pistols and the decent of Sid and Nancy into drug addicted despair.
Both Sid and Nancy (love kills) and Repo Man are cult films directed by Alex Cox that explore themes of rebellion, alienation, and self-destruction. They also share a similar visual style, characterized by gritty realism and dark humor. The film also introduced the world to the talent of Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious.
Both films are available via Criterion Collection editions. 1987’s Walker is also in the collection.
After such a promising start Cox found that the big budget, high concept world of Hollywood really wasn’t compatible with his version of film making. The amazing results he achieved with the low budget film Repo Man just wasn’t understood by Hollywood film execs who believe the more money you throw at a film the better it will be.
Heck, Repo Man didn’t even get a chance until the Repo Man soundtrack became a hit and then the studios took noticed and gave the film another chance.
The 1984 cult classic “Repo Man” written & directed by Alex Cox and featuring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez. The original soundtrack celebrated the southern California punk movement of the late 70’s/early 80’s with bands Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies, the Plugz, and Iggy Pop.
Alex Cox’s climb to fame failed soon after when he was blackballed by the industry for writing during a writer’s strike. He never really recovered in mainstream Hollywood. His next film was a commercial failure – Walker (1987).
The same year he produced an independent film Straight to Hell is a starring some of his favorite musicians and friends including Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer (frontman of the Clash), Dick Rude, and Courtney Love. The film also features cameos by Dennis Hopper, Grace Jones, Elvis Costello, Edward Tudor-Pole, Kathy Burke, and Jim Jarmusch. Band members of the Pogues, Amazulu, and the Circle Jerks are also featured in the film. The film borrows its title from the Clash’s 1982 song of the same name.
The film Straight to Hell has been called a parody of Spaghetti Westerns
His career then moved towards independent films, including Highway Patrolman (1991) and Three Businessmen (1998), and microbudget features such as Searchers 2.0 (2007) and Repo Chick (2009).
Other films by Alex Cox
A hallucinatory biopic that breaks all cinematic conventions, Walker, from British director Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy), tells the story of nineteenth-century American adventurer William Walker (Ed Harris), who abandoned a series of careers in law, politics, journalism, and medicine to become a soldier of fortune, and for several years dictator of Nicaragua. Made with mad abandon and political acuity and the support of the Sandinista army and government during the Contra war the film uses this true tale as a satirical attack on American ultrapatriotism and a freewheeling condemnation of manifest destiny. Featuring a powerful score by Joe Strummer and a performance of intense, repressed rage by Harris, Walker remains one of Cox s most daring works.
Revengers Tragedy (2005)
“He Who Seeks Revenge Should Dig Two Graves”
Alex Cox’s new film is a scathing black comedy about love, sex, family, murder, incest and revenge, set in a post-apocalyptic Liverpool. After ten years in hiding, Vindici (Christopher Eccleston-28 Days Later, The Others) returns to destroy the Duke (Derek Jacobi-Gosford Park, Gladiator) who murdered Vindici’s wife on their wedding day. During his absence Vindici’s family fell into poverty, while the Duke, Duchess and their decadent sons acquired wealth and power, ruling over their court obsessed with transient beauty, money, inherited privilege and power. Determined to exact his revenge, Vindici sets out to gain the confidence of the Duke and his villainous heir, Lussurioso (Eddie Izzard-Dressed To Kill, Circle).
Featuring brilliant performances by Eccleston, Izzard, and Jacobi, Revengers Tragedy proves once again that Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy) is one of the few truly subversive filmmakers at work today. Somewhere between A Clockwork Orange and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, this updated telling of Thomas Middleton’s notorious 17th century play is an energetic and stylish masterwork.
Alex Cox’s Highway Patrolman (El Patrullero) (2011)
Against his father’s wishes, Pedro – a naive kid from Mexico City – joins the Federal Highway Patrol.
Tombstone Rashomon (2020)
A modern-day film crew time-travels back to the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral. As they try to get the real story of the showdown, they hear varying accounts from Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, along with tales from colorful witnesses.
The gunfight at the OK Corral only happened once, but has been tirelessly recreated in films, television shows and western towns ever since. No one has a monopoly on truth, and in Tombstone Rashomon, the truth is shared by six conflicting, yet historical perspectives. In doing so, the film s narrative becomes prismatic and the result is perhaps the most comprehensive telling of the most important gunfight in American history.
The Winner (1997)
A micro-budget film. When you want to make your movies and the studios say “No!” – grab the green screen.
Spoiled rich girl Pixxi de la Chasse has been disinherited by her family due to her numerous arrests for bad driving, her failure to get a job and her overall lack of some semblance of a responsible life. When her car gets repossessed, Pixxi ends up getting hired by repo men Arizona Gray and Aquas, and she soon becomes the best repo chick around with the help of her entourage – punk girl confidante, model-looks bodyguard and flaming hair stylist. While on the hunt for some antique railroad cars which carry a million-dollar bounty reward (also being sought by a secret government agency!) clueless Pixxi ends up on a wacky train ride which is actually a plot by a terrorist organization. If their demands for the criminalization of golf are not met, then the train (whose caboose is carrying long-missing growler bombs from the Soviet Communist era!) is headed straight for downtown Los Angeles. It’s up to Pixxi de la Chasse to save LA!