Our Weekly Entertainment Dispatch
Mickey Rourke invades Chinatown
Year of the Dragon (1985)
This is an often overlooked 80’s crime classic. Year of the Dragon is a New York movie that shows the city in all its pre-Giuliani grittiness.
Mickey Rourke stars as NYPD Captain Stanley White. A hardened Vietnam vet and the most decorated cop in the NYPD. He is assigned as Commanding Officer of Chinatown’s 5th Precinct. His mandate is to clean up the youth violence problem. What he walks into is a full-blown gang war involving the Chinese Triads.
White is a bull in a china shop (no pun intended) and lays the secret gang problem out in the open for all to see. He makes enemies in Chinatown and the NYPD as he takes his usual hard-nosed approach to a problem that is different from anything he has known in the past. White uses all the tools at his disposal to break the gangs. search warrants, gambling raids, undercovers, and even towing cars to get the job done.
The Stanley White character is a case study in police social problems. A failing marriage, a workaholic attitude that puts everything second to the job, hard drinking, a bit arrogant, and dedicated beyond rationality. He confronts work problems head on, booming doors, making collars, and pissing off the brass.
The movie is a case study in New York itself. The Chinese community, Italian mobsters, and a Polish cop. The relationships exemplify the melting pot of New York ethnicities and the politics that make the city run. And it’s all shot on the streets of Chinatown. Year of the Dragon has some great film of 1980’s lower Manhattan. This is a throwback movie, no political correctness or pulled punches here.
Year of the Dragon runs a bit long at 2 hours and 15 minutes. It’s a good story though and it keeps moving. We always like the scenes from the New York of our youth and there is plenty of that here. Year of the Dragon couldn’t be found for free, but you can rent it through the usual services for $4.
Enjoy a trip to a lost New York and remember the myriad of cultures and crime problems that the NYPD was able to get a handle on just a few years after this movie hit the screens.
Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Enjoy the movie!
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