Tagarchief: Gangster Films

Dungeon Classics #40: Killing Zoe

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Killing Zoe (1993, USA, France)

Director: Roger Avary
Cast: Eric Stoltz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hugues Anglade
Running Time: 96 mins.

Before Tarantino and co-writer Roger Avary struck gold with Pulp Fiction in 1994, both had written and directed a feature. Tarantino made Reservoir Dogs in 1992. While searching for locations for that film, its producer Lawrence Bender found a great bank in downtown Los Angeles which, although not suitable for Reservoir Dogs, seemed perfect for a movie set in a bank. Bender called every screenwriter he knew, asking if they had a script set in a bank. Roger Avary lied and said he did, then furiously wrote the first draft in under two weeks. Although the film is supposed to be set in Paris, it was shot almost entirely in L.A., with only the opening and closing road sequences filmed in the actual city. The story follows a criminal named Zed (Eric Stoltz) – two links to Pulp Fiction right there – who joins his old friend Eric (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and his gang to pull off a robbery during Bastille Day. Beforehand, he orders a prostitute named Zoe (Julie Delpy), and the two immediately click. The night before the robbery, the crew goes out on a binge fueled by booze and heroin. This stretch of the movie drags, but once the robbery begins, the film shifts into the right gear. The heist goes spectacularly wrong, leading to a series of twisted and disturbing turns. Avary, whose filmmaking career never really went very far, proves himself a quite capable director here. Is this on the level of Tarantino? No, it’s too flawed for that, but this is still a memorable, exploitation movie known for its nihilistic tone and merciless violence.

Dungeon Classics #39: True Romance

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

True Romance (1993, USA, France)

Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper
Running Time: 119 mins.

In the early nineties, Tarantino wrote a couple of screenplays, including True Romance and Reservoir Dogs. He chose Reservoir Dogs for his directorial debut and was willing to sell True Romance. In 1993, after his debut was released, he took a date to the perfect date movie: True Romance, the film he had written. And boy, did it turn out to be a good movie; great fucking movie. Just looking at the cast members rolling by in the opening credits is astonishing; seeing so many (future) stars in one ensemble cast is rare. Director Tony Scott couldn’t deal with the screenplay’s non-chronological structure, so he changed it to a linear one. But aside from that, it’s a real Tarantino movie: the sharp dialogue, the great characters, the humor, the sudden bursts of violence; it’s all there. And then there’s an amazing sequence, one of the best he ever wrote: the famous Sicilian scene with Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken. Oh man, that is legendary. Also memorable is the brutal confrontation between Alabama and the sadistic Virgil, played by James Gandolfini. The whole movie is basically a rollercoaster in which the two main characters – Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) – fall in love, get married, kill Alabama’s pimp, take off with his coke, and head to Hollywood to sell it, stumbling into one crazy situation after another while always keeping the film’s romantic core intact. True Romance is Scott’s best film and by far the best Tarantino movie not directed by Tarantino. In other words: it’s a must-see.

Sugar Hill (1993)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘He wanted power. He wanted revenge. Now he just wants out.’

Directed by:
Leon Ichaso

Written by:
Barry Michael Cooper

Cast:
Wesley Snipes (Roemello Skuggs), Michael Wright (Raynathan Skuggs), Theresa Randle (Melissa), Abe Vigoda (Gus Molino), Ernie Hudson (Lolly Jonas), Leslie Uggams (Doris Holly), Larry Joshua (Harry Molino), Sam Bottoms (Oliver Thompson), Joe Dallesandro (Tony Adamo), Steve J. Harris (Ricky Goggles)

Sugar Hill feels like Wesley Snipes revisiting his New Jack City character, but through a more somber, tragic lens. The story follows two brothers, Roemello and Raynathan, whose childhoods were shattered by heroin addiction. Now adults, they control the Harlem heroin trade; a seeming success that’s revealed from the outset to be a slow-motion catastrophe.

The film’s message is unmistakable: drugs destroy everything they touch. The narrative begins and ends on a bleak note, anchored by the trauma that set the brothers’ trajectory. Raynathan (Michael Wright), who accidentally killed their mother with a ‘hot shot’, is emotionally broken, unstable, and haunted. Roemello (Snipes), meanwhile, built a drug empire in uneasy partnership with the Italian mob, led by Gus Molino (Abe Vigoda – yes, Tessio from The Godfather).

Although Roemello was once a hardened kingpin in the mold of Nicky Barnes or Frank Lucas, by the time the film begins he’s already looking for an exit. He’s grown weary of the life, and the movie focuses more on his yearning for redemption than on gangster swagger. This shift in emphasis makes Sugar Hill more of a tragedy than a straight crime thriller.

Roemello’s relationship with Melissa (Theresa Randle) gives him hope for a way out, but Raynathan’s instability threatens to pull him back in. On top of that, a new rival – backed by the Italians – escalates tensions and violence.

Visually, the film is impressive, and the cast is stacked with talent. However, Michael Wright’s perpetually tormented performance becomes overwhelming; his intensity, effective in Oz, feels exhausting here. On the other hand, Ernie Hudson (also from Oz) shines as Lolly, the ambitious newcomer.

In the end, Sugar Hill is a flawed but intriguing companion piece to New Jack City. Strong performances and striking cinematography work in its favor, but its relentlessly grim tone and absence of humor make the viewing experience heavy and, at times, draining.

Rating:

Quote:
ROEMELLO: “C’mon Lolly. Look at Harlem, seems like someone is always dying before their time.”

Trivia:
Also known as Harlem.

New Jack City (1991)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘It was a time that there was a new gangster in………’

Directed by:
Mario Van Peebles

Written by:
Thomas Lee Wright
Barry Michael Cooper

Cast:
Wesley Snipes (Nino Brown), Ice-T (Det. Scotty Appleton), Allen Payne (Gee Money Wells), Chris Rock (Pookie Robinson), Mario Van Peebles (Stone), Michael Michele (Selina), Bill Nunn (Duh Duh Duh Man), Russell Wong (Park), Bill Cobbs (Old Man), Christopher Williams (Kareem Akbar), Judd Nelson (Det. Nick Peretti), Vanessa Williams (Keisha)

This trip back to the nineties opens with shots of New York and a news report about economic hardship. “The deficit now stands at an astounding 221 billion dollars, and income inequality is at its worst level since the Great Depression”, the voice-over says. Oh boy, if only they could see us now.

In an amazing shot, the camera swoops in on a bridge where a gangster is dangling a man by his feet. Drug kingpin Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) steps out of his car and orders the man dropped, apparently over a drug dispute.

The movie sets the year at 1986, the height of the crack epidemic in Harlem. Brown, along with his lieutenants Gee Money and the Duh Duh Man – collectively known as the Cash Money Brothers – has seized control of the drug trade. They take over an entire apartment block called The Carter and run their crack empire from within its walls.

Ice-T plays Scotty Appleton, a detective with a personal grudge against Brown. He joins a special police unit tasked with taking down the increasingly megalomaniacal Brown and his CMB crew. The team is led by Stone (Mario Van Peebles, who also directed the film), Detective Nick Peretti (Judd Nelson), and the ex-junkie turned informant Pookie (an excellent Chris Rock).

New Jack City is a true product of its time: the nineties, the crack era, rap music, and capitalism gone wrong (though nothing like today). The costume designers clearly had a field day. The film is also distinctly postmodern: Nino Brown watches Scarface even as he heads toward the same mistakes Tony Montana made. Overall, it’s an effective crime flick: it pulls you in like a crack pipe does a junkie, and you ride it out until the end, when Nino Brown’s empire inevitably comes crashing down.

Rating:

Quote:
NINO BROWN: “You cut a side deal with that motherfucker. Yes, you did, Gee. Fucking Cain. My brother’s keeper. Was it this glass dick you’ve been sucking on? Was that it? Now I see how you let that motherfucker infiltrate. He used you, Gee. What ever happened to, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’”

Trivia:
Wesley Snipes originally wanted to play Scotty Appleton. However, Mario Van Peebles and screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper insisted that he play Nino Brown, as the part was written especially for him.