Lethal Weapon

Deep Focus #4

by Chris Ryan, Sean Howe (Editor)

The aftermath of the Vietnam War, the war on drugs, the CIA, mental illness: These are not the ingredients one would expect from a big-budget action-comedy. But Lethal Weapon is not your typical big-budget action-comedy. The story of Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) uncovering a conspiracy involving ex-special forces soldiers and L.A.’s drug trade is mostly remembered for spawning the “buddy-cop” genre and spotlighting Gibson’s mullet.

Chris Ryan takes a closer look at Richard Donner’s 1987 film and unearths what it has to say about race, friendship, and aging—and about its co-conspirators Donner, Gibson, Glover, screenwriter Shane Black, and producer Joel Silver. Ryan sifts through the blood, guts, and cocaine of eighties Hollywood to find out what makes this violent and profane artifact so disturbingly mesmerizing.

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Colin Armstrong (b. 1961), usually known by the pen-name Chris Ryan, is a British author, television presenter, security consultant and former Special Air Service sergeant.
After the publication of fellow patrol member Andy McNab's Bravo Two Zero in 1993, Ryan published his own account of his experiences during the Bravo Two Zero mission in 1995, entitled The One That Got Away. Since retiring from the British Army Ryan has published several fiction and non-fiction books, including Strike Back, which was subsequently adapted into a television series for Sky 1, and co-created the ITV action series Ultimate Force. He has also presented or appeared in numerous television documentaries connected to the military or law enforcement.