Streets of Fire - Tonight is what it means to be young

One of the iconic movies of my youth and young adulthood, I believe this superb movie was released to the general public in 1983, I was 21 years of age then. I had the Video Cassette Tape of it and then the CD. I must have watched it over 20 times, I was so enthralled with the actors then as well as the music.

The director was the renowned Walter Hill and he cast the then heart throbs of Michael Pare, Diane Lane as the leads as well as several renowned actors as the supporting cast. The storyline is simple, a rockstar girl who is on her way up is kidnapped by a gang of hoodlums in the '50s ghettos of New York.

Word gets around and her old flame Cody comes flying in to save her from the bad guys, and then its just a cat and mouse game of guy saves girl, they go into hiding with their sidekicks and the 'keh lair fair' (bit part band mates) and the bad guys go all around town looking for her and creating mayhem, finally culminating in a one on one street fight between Cody and the Boss (superbly played by Willem Dafoe).

This final scene is the song of the movie and Cody makes his exit, and once again leads to Ellen's heartbreak but he realises it for the best, so strolls off into the sunset and hops a ride onto the butch girl's car and they lived unhappily ever after.

The acting was quite stiff in retrospect, Diane Lane gave a pretty superb performance but Michael Pare's acting was as stiff as cardboard. He rarely showed emotions as perhaps that was the 'macho' image of the 50s.  

Nowadays with the confusing titles of Metrosexuals, SNAGs, Me Too women and LGBT, we men frankly don't know what persona to carry let alone show. I think the women are just as equally confused.