If you don’t feel good and need some cheering up, the worst you can do is to watch a film by Abel Ferrara. Populated the characters that are either extremely despicable and/or extremely tortured inside, his films often depict unpleasant and depraved behaviour in naturalistic, dark and depressive ways that could turn away audiences that might otherwise appreciate author’s undisputed skill. Same thing happened with his 1990 gangster film King of New York, an interesting piece of cinema that was initially rejected by critics and ignored by public only to later gain some sort of cult status.
Titular protagonist, played by Christopher Walken, is Frank White, gang boss who had spent many years in Sing Sing prison. He returns to his gang, led by his somewhat trigger-happy but loyal lieutenant Jimmy Jump (played by Laurence Fishburne) and claims that he is “reformed”. This change of heart, however, doesn’t involve following the law. On the contrary, White is actually determined to take over all crime in New York City and does so by brutally exterminating anything than stands in his way, including Colombian cocaine smugglers, Mafia and Chinese Triads and takes over their businesses. White quickly gains not only immense wealth and power, that allows him to enjoy good life in Plaza Hotel surrounded by glamorous concubines and also mingle with city’s politicians and celebrities. He decides to exploit his newly gained status to try helping his old impoverished neighbourhood with a new modern hospital. His actions, however, can’t go unnoticed by police, including Lieutenant Roy Bishop (played by Victor Argo) who is quite frustrated with White’s ability to wiggle out of jail with bails and other legal tricks of his glamorous attorney and part-time lover Jennifer (played by Janet Julian). Some of Bishop’s subordinates, like Dennis Gilley (played by David Caruso) and Tommy Flanigan (played by Wesley Snipes) are even more frustrated and decide to take matters in their own hands, without bothering with legal niceties, which would result with even more bloodshed.
For all those accustomed to Ferrara’s latter work, King of New York looks unusually conventional. The plot follows the established path of most gangster epics by showing the rise and fall of the main character. There is plenty of action including shootouts and even rather spectacular car chase scene while finale that takes place on a busy street couldn’t be out of place in films by Brian De Palma. On the other hand, King of New York is another example of very 1980s “style over substance” ethos, with Ferrara using cinematography by Bojan Bazelli and its dark and blue tones to depict New York as dark, cold and unforgiving place. That includes even the scenes that appear to show the good life White’s minions enjoy, that involves a lot of easy women and plenty of drugs. It was the latter that created a lot of controversy, when such content was viewed inappropriate in light of America’s War on Drugs. The biggest problem for the film is, however, the script by Ferrara’s old associate Nicholas St. John. Despite being written for five years, in many ways it looks unfinished, with plenty of plot elements – like White’s actual background and motivations being unexplored. The predictably violent ending seems like an afterthought or attempt to wrap things up when author ran out of other ideas.
Those flaws are, however, more than compensated by brilliant performance of Christopher Walken. He shows great skill even when his character is actually underwritten and remains an enigma for other characters as well as the audience. He portrays Frank White as undoubtedly intelligent, thoughtful and, most importantly of all, charismatic. This explains how that character doesn’t have problems going over various barriers – racial (that allow him that as a white man leads black gang) or social (that allows him to mingle with members of social elite). Walken allows only a bits of roguish charm for his character (to some degree modelled after John Gotti and his initially successful mockery of law enforcement in 1980s), mainly at the beginning when he shows his love of dancing. The rest of the cast is, unsurprisingly, overshadowed by this formidable performance but some actors leave good account of themselves – mainly Fishburne, Caruso and Snipes that would have good careers in 1990s. Although, like with all Ferrara’s films, requires proper mood from the audience, King of New York is a very good film that should be recommended to the fans of gangster genre.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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