At Close Range
by James Foley
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Candy Clark, Chris Penn, Christopher Walken, Mary Stuart Masterson, Sean PennDirector: James Foley
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-12-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of At Close Range
Movie Review: Evil is boring
Summary: 5 Stars
Director James Foley probably didn't have to try too hard with this grim, all too real slice of life starring Sean Penn (Bruce Whitewood Jr.) and Christopher Walken (Brad Whitewood Sr.).
Taking place in an impoverished small town in the center of Nowheresville, a hopeless little plot of land populated with drifters, aimless young men like Bruce (a young, built Sean Penn) and his slightly punchy young brother Tommy played by the late Chris Penn with an innocence and skill that makes his early death all that much more tragic.
In exactly 111 minutes Christopher Walken shows us what evil men look like in real life. And how boring, empty, and absolutely dangerous they are. From his arrival on the scene, green eyes snapping back and forth like some hungry lizard looking for the next fly he intends to digest with one flicker of his forked tongue, there is not a second that one can doubt we are looking at Satan himself--and surprisingly enough, he's driven by a lot of the same motives we are.
Mary Stuart Masterson symbolizes the will to transcend her modest surroundings as Terry, a nice and idealistic young girl Bruce falls in love with. Though this is an adolescent romance, there is more of a strength and maturity to it because it is born in poverty and hardship and is not a luxurious middle class game of playing house. Bruce is of course the bad boy from a family married to crime--what struck me about the film is how passive the mother is, simply ironing the clothes and chain smoking while her sons become enamored of Old Dad, who she knows is Beelzebub himself. She doesn't really do anything except give passively angry looks at Walken and play bingo.
With no prospects of moving ahead or doing anything with his life whatsoever, Bruce falls under the spell of his father--magnetic, dangerous, lawless and without care for the next day (as long as the stolen tractors, wine, etc pay the bills). He learns quickly though that Dad is not just some mischevious thief, not a free spirit, when he witnesses the murder of one of his fallen comrades who fell in cahoots with the police.
This is when the trouble starts. Bruce no longer wants anything to do with his father or his backwoods gang of psychopathic hillbillies. Just like a deep sea predator, there is a unforgettable scene in which Bruce takes Tommy from the county fair to a wooded area and, surrounded by darkness, tells him an inverse sort of anti-parable about coyotes out in the west. His eyes flicker with a demonic emptiness, a secret joy in the boy's fear, right before he does away with him and we hear the scream of a coyote.
While the ending is a little unrealistic--I don't think getting shot nine times allows one the physical freedom Sean Penn as he confronts the Old Man--it serves as a definite period, a definite final verdict on the elder Bruce, as though we totally needed one. The guy has had all his friends killed, tried to have him killed, and when confronted by all this his response is: "Well, I bought you a car and took ya in. Doesn't that mean something'?" Younger Bruce has nothing to contend with except a dangerous animal lacking in conscience or anything else, and that's his own father.
Crispin Glover really should get more career breaks. He is such a naturally diseased and frightening eccentric that I think he's owed more credit then he's gotten. His short time in this film sort of proves it. A magnificent movie that also reminds us of our obligation toward the very real flesh and blood human beings who we like to laugh at when they are exploited on shows like "Jerry Springer
Summary of At Close Range
A teenage farm boy looking for excitement finds himself on a collision course with his smooth-talking gang leader father in this "powerfully disturbing (Newsweek) tale based on the story of real-life killer Bruce Johnston. OscarĀ(r) winner* Sean Penn (Dead Man Walking) and OscarĀ(r) winner** Christopher Walken (Pulp Fiction) star in this "hot, horrifying saga of an American criminal family" (Los Angeles Times)! Juvenile delinquent Brad Whitewood, Jr. (Penn) knows about petty theft, but he wants big moneyenough to blow the lid off his boring life, enough to get out of town and to find his ol' man (Walken). He wants to be like his dad, a big-time thief, who knows "the business." Seductive and sinister, Brad's father is full of toxic wisdom that makes his illicit life appear eerily sexy. But when Brad witnesses his father deliberately killing someone, he realizes he may not only be in over his head he may also lose it for good. *2003: Actor, Mystic River **1978: Supporting Actor, The Deer HunterSimilar DVD Movies
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