SALUTE DE SOUZA!

In all the pandemonium going on to celebrate the work of Shane Black, I feel it’s important to also pay tribute to a writer who had his hand in the scripts of practically every marquee action film not written by Black. That man is Steven E de Souza.

Unlike Black, de Souza did not hit it big right off the bat. He started out writing for television on shows such as “The Six Million Dollar Man” and “Knight Rider.” He first hit the cinema jackpot by contributing to the script for 48 HRS. That led to his involvement in many major films, including COMMANDO and THE RUNNING MAN. What also separates de Souza from Black is that he often was involved in projects with multiple writers on board, and in the case of THE RUNNING MAN he was given the task of adapting a Stephen King short story. This is no knock on de Souza, often adapting something into a screenplay is as tough as coming up with an original concept from scratch.

It was 1988 when de Souza, along with writer Jeb Stuart, essentially became immortal. Have you ever heard of the novel “Nothing Lasts Forever?” Not many have, but it served as the basis for a screenplay written by de Souza and Stuart. A screenplay titled DIE HARD. You’d be hard pressed to find a script for an action film that serves up as many interesting and/or entertaining characters as this one. There have been many imitators of the DIE HARD plot but I doubt anything will ever be able to top the amazing amount of fun the movie has to offer.

After DIE HARD de Souza was still involved in writing many huge, if not always beloved films. He co-wrote DIE HARD 2 which some folks consider the weakest of the series, not me though. From there he left his mark on HUDSON HAWK, (the underrated) RICOCHET, BEVERLY HILLS COP 3, and THE FLINTSTONES. Certainly a mixed bag right there but it was obvious that Hollywood had de Souza on the brain and it was inevitable that he would take a shot at directing a film.

In 1994 de Souza wrote and directed STREET FIGHTER. I’ve written about that film at length here before so all I’ll say now is that the movie is a total mess, a total delightful mess. The box office for STREET FIGHTER was decent but the writing was on the wall that de Souza’s time in the cinema sun was coming to a close. He worked on the script for JUDGE DREDD and penned the disastrous Van Damme flick KNOCK OFF. The party was over.

I’m not really sure if de Souza has been exiled from show business or has stayed relatively free of the industry by choice but the 21st century has been mainly de Souza free. The last script he wrote that was filmed was BLAST!, a DTV flick starring Eddie Griffin as a guy stopping terrorists from taking over an oil rig. I have not seen BLAST! This is saying something because I watch all sorts of shitty movies. But even I have my limits and they usually involve Eddie Griffin.

It’s often that you hear people wish for a comeback for the action icons of yesterday. But it’s not so often where people clamor for the comebacks of the people behind the scenes that were involved in classic action films. De Souza deserves such a comeback. He has a few projects in the works but it’s tough to tell whether they have any substance or are just IMDB pipe-dreams. No matter what he does in the future his legacy will live on in the DVD collections of men age 18-80 forever.