Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: the most famous pair of cops in cinema.
In 1985, freshly graduated from UCLA, Shane Black wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon: Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, two Los Angeles police officers with diametrically opposed temperaments, must team up to solve the murder of a young girl by former soldiers turned drug dealers.
After having suffered some refusals from the studios, his script aroused the interest of producer Mark Canton at Warner Bros. Associated with Joel Silver, he developed the project, which saw the light of day two years later with Richard Donner directing.
With a budget of 15 million dollars, Lethal Weapon was one of the biggest commercial successes of the late 1980s thanks to gross receipts amounting to 120 million dollars at the worldwide box office (including 65 million on American soil). In France, 1.8 million spectators are conquered. The film becomes the first opus of a cult saga made up of three sequels.
The reason for this success? The codes of the 1980s: the looks, the music, the extravagant staging… A perfect cocktail of humor and action spiced up by a fiery spirit. And of course, two iconic performers with undeniable chemistry: Danny Glover and Mel Gibson.
Considered one of the best buddy films of all time, Lethal Weapon, itself influenced by 48 hours, revisits the genre and becomes a reference for many feature films after him such as Tango & Cash, Starsky and Hutch , Bad Boys, Rush Hour or even Men in Black.
Find our AlloCiné ranking of the best buddy movies.
Lethal Weapon by Richard Donner with Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey…
From 12 years old
Tonight on TF1 Séries Films at 9 p.m.