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(1953– ). American artist and director.
Directed music videos: "Bizarre Love Triangle" (1986); "The
One I Love" (1987), Appeared in: The Making of Johnny Mnemonic (short
documentary) (1995).
However, he merits attention here primarily because someone
else surely watched "Bizarre Love Triangle," with its gritty footage juxtaposed
with kaleidoscopic animation, and decided that he would be the perfect choice
to direct William GIBSON's film adaptation of his short story "Johnny
Mnemonic." With only an episode of Tales of the Crypt to serve as a
formal apprenticeship, many must have regarded this as a risky decision, given
the amounts of money involved in the project. Still, despite many contrary
opinions that I have read, I believe that Longo acquitted himself quite well by
directing what was, in most respects, a more than satisfactory film. Its
visualization of a dark and nightmarish future metropolis was flawlessly
executed; its animation of its hero's ventures into cyberspace were
appropriately surrealistic and desperately rapid (something that even the film's
detractors usually praise); and both its villains and its secondary
heroes—Ice-T, Henry Rollins, and Dina MEYER—were more than persuasive in their
roles. There was just one, teeny-tiny little problem, which was that Longo
chose, or was forced, to employ Keanu REEVES as
his star, and Reeves picked this occasion to provide the most wooden, inert
performance of his career (which for Reeves is saying quite a lot); and,
with a cigar store Indian as its centerpiece, the film was simply doomed to
fail. Unfairly but inevitably, Longo took the blame when the film
tanked at the box office, and subsequent film offers must have been rare or
nonexistent, because after Johnny Mnemonic he returned to the world of
art, where he apparently remains active to this day. But someone else may
someday watch that film and, looking beyond its abysmal leading actor, might
decide that Longo would be the perfect choice for some new film project—such
as, for example, the long-delayed film adaptation of Gibson's breakthrough
novel Neuromancer. Such an assignment would represent both artistic, and
poetic, justice. |
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