Cloak & Dagger (1984) Review

 

Cloak & Dagger (1984)

Cloak & Dagger follows Davey Osborne, a kid with a big imagination and a penchant for spy games, who unknowingly gets thrust into a game of life or death after he witnesses the murder of an FBI agent, whose parting gift to him is an Atari game full of government secrets. 

Man, not too often can I say that a film is exactly as I remember it from my childhood, but damn if Cloak & Dagger isn’t as darkly entertaining now, as it was 15 years ago, likely acting as the catalyst for my love of video games for years to follow. The way it blurred the lines between fantasy and reality was satisfying, even from a young age, because it recognized that a child's fantasy life can feel as real as anything else happening around them. And where the child's fantasies literally come true, it always felt like vindication to young viewers such as myself. 

It uses Davey’s imagination to create a life he wishes he had, complete with a fatherly spy figure named Jack Flack, who (in Dabney Coleman playing double time) was everything he wishes his absent, unencouraging, often stubborn father was—a hero, who paid attention to him. Which by movies end, allowed for a growing moment for both Davey and his father to not only understand each other but accept one another’s realities as being able to coexist. 

Relatively untouched upon so far though, is just how dark Cloak & Dagger goes to give them this acceptance, as Davey must brave his friends being killed, survive being killed himself (on many, many occasions), and commit the ultimate loss of innocence and must commit murder, himself, in order to live. The lengths it goes to force him to grow up and not longer crave the excitement of being a spy is hugely grim, something especially noticeable as an adult. 

We get a great cast here too, starring Tim Rossovich, Eloy Casados, William Forsyth, Michael Murphy, John McIntire, Jeanette Nolan, Christina Nigra, Dabney Coleman, and Henry Thomas. The way that Thomas handles the dark and extremely complex subject matter of this film is stunning because while he’s certainly put through the ringer, he always retains that steadfast, childish spirit for adventure, that, when paired with Coleman, who is wonderful by the way, feels like a relationship that all of us wanted growing up, especially those with absent fathers. 

Cloak & Dagger, directed by Richard Franklin, is no doubt, one of the darkest kids movies of the 80s (this is PG!!) but the seamless way it combines the conventions of adult thrillers and children's adventures holds up really well and is just entertaining as an adult, long after having set aside your own childhood fantasies of espionage and adventure. 

7.7/10