One sharp knife can feed you, clothe you, keep you warm and dry.

I was never really tuned in to the 1980’s. I mean, I was alive then, yeah, but I always felt like I was one step out off the marching line. I despised the whole “preppy” thing to the point of deliberately dressing non-preppy. I took Urban Cowboy to heart, and went with rodeo shirts, jeans, and boots. If I had to go more dressy, I unbuttoned my collars and wore Chuck Taylor Converses rather than penny loafers or, God forbid, those L.L. Bean duck boot things. I leaned more toward classic rock and country music than most of the pop music on the radio. Yeah, I was a rebel without a cause… sue me.

It was only about fifteen years ago that I really started embracing ‘80’s music. I am known now to wear the occasional polo shirt, albeit minus that stupid alligator. I even wear khakis now and then.

But, one thing I never rebelled against in the ‘80’s was the movies. We really had some kick-ass stuff going on in the ‘80’s, thanks to Hollywood. I particularly enjoyed the whole “Miami Vice”- genre of movies, full of intricate mood lighting, shadowy colors, neon lighting, and lots of pretty twenty-somethings playing teenagers. One of my favorites of that genre was a movie I think a lot of people overlooked because it got buried under the landslide of Aliens, Platoon, Crocodile Dundee, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Top Gun. The film I am talking about is Band of the Hand.

In the story, a former war hero, a Seminole Indian named Joe (Stephen Lang), is allowed to take custody of four teenagers who are already career criminals. Gang members, mostly, with some history of murder, drug running, arson, and other assorted lovely habits. The teens, played by Al Shannon, Michael Carmine, John Cameron Mitchell (who would go on to create and star in Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Leon Robinson (now known only by his first name, go figure…), and Danny Quinn, as the unofficial second-in-command of the team, Carlos. Joe is determined he can save these kids from a life in prison, if they lived at all. He takes them deep into the Florida swamps and begins training them in survival techniques – building shelters, hunting and trapping for food, and hand-to-hand combat. His theory is one well-known now, used by “boot camp” reform camps for juvenile offenders. Strip away the persona the juvenile has been brought up with, and teach the kid how to live on their own. No phones, no contact with their peers who were their partners in crime, nothing. Break away the tough-guy/girl brickwork they have built,, and rebuild them with skills and knowledge that can take them out of the sewers of our society and set them on a new course in life.

In this case, Joe does, indeed, make these kids, who were all bitter enemies from rival gangs, into a trusting team who are ready to work together to take on the crime in the inner-city streets of Miami. They buy a beat-up house in the middle of the crime area, fix it up, and make it their base. Once Joe’s team starts challenging the order of crime, though, the gangs start fighting back.Cream ( played by a young Laurence Fishburne), the head crime lord, has had enough, and declares war on the team. One of Cream's underlords, lords, Nestor (the always-great bad guy James Remar), who had been Carlos's boss, takes Carlos’s girlfriend in as his new “pet,” and Carlos is not happy about this. Joe keeps him in check and focused, though, until the time is right. But, in a vicious assault on the base, Joe is gunned down. His last words to the team – “You know what to do…” set the team into motion, their leader gone but not forgotten.

On the surface, this movie is a lot of shine and substance, I’m not gonna argue that. It fits the mold of every MTV-reflection movie of that decade. But director Paul Michael Glaser (yes.. the Starsky and Hutch Paul Michael Glaser…) pulled a rabbit out of his hat and produced a basic plot line from years before – he made a 1940’s war movie in the 1980’s. Think about it for a minute – in all those WWII movies, you always seemed to have a platoon made up of one soldier of every basic stereotype (one Brooklyn guy, one Italian guy, one country boy, one scared guy, one guy who could care less about anything but killing Nazis, etc). In reality, how many platoons would have six guys THAT spread out across the American melting pot, all somehow in one group? And that platoon would be led by a sergeant who is gruff, mean, stand-offish, but had a heart of gold buried under all the soldiering stuff? It’s positively ridiculous, but you know what? It works. It did then, and it works now (*ahem* Saving Private Ryan.. *ahem*). And it worked in Band of the Hand.

Granted, the Nazis in this case were Miami street gangs, but hey…

Here lately, it feel s like Stephen Lang is in about every fifth movie that comes out, but he was a newcomer in 1986. With this film and Manhunter, which I talked about earlier on in 365 Degrees, he got his feet firmly planted in the movie world. His intense, chiseled face, his riveting eyes, and his “I can kill you with a glance” looks were just beginning to take form, but they’re there, you can see it. James Remar has made a career out of his oddly-mean looks and voice. Michael Carmine had a great run in movies until his very untimely death, at the age of 30, in 1989 of heart failure. Lauren Holly, who was in our previous movie, plays the tragic heroine, Carlos’s girlfriend, Nikki, and she is every bit of the young girl, trapped by her past and her love for her boyfriend.

I will refrain, of course, from divulging the ending, but, if you know the WWII-platoon plot line, you can guess…

I do want to throw this out there, though. As a newcomer to the world of “I LOVE THE 80’S” army, this movie has one hell of a soundtrack. You have Prince, with “Let’s Go Crazy,” you have Mr. Mister’s “Broken Wings,” which has almost become an anthem of 80’s music, you have Andy Summers’ “Carry Me Back Home.” It’s like MTV (the REAL MTV, not the faux version we have now) fell in your lap. But you also have Bob Dylan’s title song, “Band of the Hand.” Dylan was in an odd funk for most of the 80’s, delving into more bluesy work, exploring new ways of making his form of music. I don’t know how he got talked into doing a song for a movie, but bless whomever it was that made the deal, because this song KICKS ASS!! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXcsW-5ueVQ

In many ways, it was the rebirth of Dylan as a performer. The song was produced by Tom Petty, and Petty’s mixing of the tune shows – heavy on the guitar, hard blues guitar, killer back-up singers. In many ways, this song led to the making of the British-American supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys, a teaming of Petty, Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison. Some scoffed at this group at first, until the first album, The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1, came out and it was, in a word, amazing. Each of these phenomenal performers collaborated on each of the songs on the album, and each one had a lead in at least one song. The blend was perfect, and the group won a Grammy for their effort.

But, I digress…

If you are looking for a trip back in time, minus a DeLorean and an old guy yelling “GREAT SCOTT!”, throw Band of the Hand into the player. Then put on your pink Izod and khakis, pop the collar, open a couple of wine coolers (yeah, remember them things???), sit back and enjoy. Double it up with Manhunter, and you may never look back at the 80’s with anything but nostalgia again.