On King of New York: Abel Ferreras 1990 Gothic gangster masterpiece was quite rightly derided on its release for its racism, social irresponsibility, juvenility, sub sophomoric politics, violence, and all-round-imbecility and moral degeneracy of its plot. It has survived as a cult classic despite those failings, which should have been fatal, because it is one of the best acted, shot, edited, scored and scripted films ever made, and achieves a ghoulishness that lingers long after you have seen it. It is certainly the best work by the patchy Ferrera and his pet script writer Nicky St. John, but more importantly, of actors Christopher Walken, Lawrence Fishbourne, Wesley Snipes, David Caruso, Victor Argo, and even Steve Buscemi for the 40 seconds he appears in it. The genius of the film, however, lies in its tone; it is a (moronic) crime film that is played out like a horror film - if traditional noir is a stylistic melding of expressionist horror with the crime film, this is a slightly different beast. This is stylistic cross-dressing, complete with haunting string arrangements and references to Fusili paintings. From the very beginning, when the king himself, Frank White, leaves prison, we are made to feel that he is a ghost having been given a temporary reprieve from the bowels of hell like some demented, gun-toting Orpheus so that he may haunt the damned world of 80s New York, and our imaginations (incidentally this somewhat reminiscent of John Boormans Point Blank). To make this dynamic subtly clearer, White even describes himself later in the film as Back from the dead! and watches Nosferatu in a cinema run by a Triad. And it is this quality that ultimately redeems the film, which would otherwise be sabotaged by its puerile glorification and apologia of violence and criminality; by making it a horror film, Ferrera by necessity makes his hero, Walkens Frank White (and his carnival of racist-stereotype-grotesques) into a monster - a monster of supernatural evil such as Freddy Krueger. And thus Ferreras lionizing of White is totally subverted - how intentionally is not at all clear. Thereby turning the film, perhaps accidentally, into one of the most moral crime films ever... as it proclaims in its style that a gangster is vampire, a serial killer, a cannibal, who is only distinguished by loving money as well as blood. Sweet dreams. youtube/watch?v=zDeSSbr6Qe4
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 09:43:56 +0000
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