A Celebration of “Speed” on its Silver Anniversary
One of my favorite things about film is the subjective nature of it. A dozen people can see the exact same film and each have wildly different assessments of its quality and interpretations of its themes. At times, it can be remarkably challenging to engage in calm, rational discussion when you feel so passionately about a piece of art and someone comes along and presents a diametrically opposed viewpoint. But, nevertheless I continuously strive to be open to such discussion and debate.
Well, most of the time, anyway. There are certain things I just flat out refuse to debate. One of these things is that Speed is the greatest action movie ever made.
Speed was released on June 10, 1994 — exactly 25 years ago today. The film was hardly projected to be a box office smash, let alone a genre classic. The film was the big screen debuts of director Jan de Bont and screenwriter Graham Yost, and was producer Mark Gordon’s sixth attempt at big screen success after his first five films failed to make a splash. The film also had no marquee names attached. Sure Keanu Reeves was a rising star who was well known in the industry, as he had already starred in the Bill and Ted films, Point Break, Dangerous Liaisons, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. And with credits like Easy Rider, Blue Velvet, and Hoosiers to his name, Dennis Hopper was a highly respected…
