* * * *
Life, love,
loss and labour disputes in 1950’s New York City.
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stephen Lang, Burt Young, Peter Dobson, Jerry Orbach
Written by Desmond
Nakano
Produced by Bernd
Eichinger
Duration 103
minutes
Sometimes, you see
the reference before you know the thing it's referencing.
The early, golden episodes of The Simpsons were chockablock with brilliantly conceived movie references. CITIZEN KANE was a favourite, getting a whole episode with Mr Burns' childhood teddy bear substituting the sled Rosebud. Hitchcock came up a lot, too, specifically PSYCHO, VERTIGO and REAR WINDOW – which also got its own whole-episode parody, when Lisa and Bart think Ned Flanders has murdered his wife.
One of my favourites is 'Last Exit to Springfield'. The
one where Homer becomes the head of the power plant's workers' union to try to get free braces for Lisa. ("Dental plan!"
"Lisa needs braces." "Dental plan!" "Lisa needs
braces." "Dental plan!" " ... If we give up our dental plan
... I'll have to pay for Lisa's braces!")
It's an episode
that makes several references, among them THE GODFATHER PART II; 1989's BATMAN;
the Beatles' YELLOW SUBMARINE; How the Grinch Stole Christmas; and Moby-Dick.
But I didn't at first know what that title was alluding to. It definitely
sounded like a reference, and I just supposed that it must be somehow relevant
to the episode's plot.
I came to realise
that it was a nod to an '80s-shot, '50s-set movie called LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN. But I
never saw it back then, and my interest was only piqued (before now) after I
became a fan of drugged-up misery-fest REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, and learned that
both it and LAST EXIT were adapted from novels by the same author, Hubert Selby
Jr.
Apparently, the book is a loose collection of inter-connected short fictions set in the same area, rather like Trainspotting. If that's so, then screenwriter Desmond Nakano did a great job of blending them into a coherent narrative.
Characters
in the ensemble include Georgette (Alexis Arquette), a brash transgender
prostitute; dockworker Big Joe (Burt Young, playing Paulie from ROCKY as if he
finally left Philly and started a family), whose
daughter's baby out of wedlock prompts a hasilty arranged wedding and
christening; Jennifer Jason Leigh's Tralala, a prostitute who makes a few extra
bucks from propositioning sailors and then robbing
them when the deed is done; and Stephen Lang as Harry, a closeted factory
machinist, who during the strike abuses his position in the union by using its
funds to take his deadbeat mates out boozing, while exploring the local
underground gay scene on the sly.
With the exception
of Big Joe's, none of these storylines end well. Georgette is thrown out of the
family home by her homophobic brother and is then killed in a hit-and-run.
Harry is viciously beaten by the same buddies he had been trying to impress
after they uncover his sexuality. And Tralala is brutally gang-raped
in an abandoned car and then left for dead.
It's this last character who I found the most heart-breaking. Tralala meets a nice guy for once, a sailor who wants to get to know her and hang out for a few days doing 'couple' things before he ships out; when he does, he leaves her a love note that almost brings her to tears.
But Leigh is playing a character who is so used to getting a bum steer from life that when she's shown a little glimmer of tenderness she can't handle it. She reacts by subjecting herself to self-flagellating humiliation – her fate at the hands of dozens of leering, drunken barflies comes at her own invitation, when she binge-drinks whiskey, rips off her own clothes and challenges them to do their worst. She doesn't think she deserves happiness and takes comfort in sinking back to the gutter, where the world has convinced her she belongs.
Leigh is utterly mesmerising in
the role; with this and 1990's MIAMI BLUES, she was truly graduating from teen
films to more grown-up fare.
Stephen Lang,
meanwhile, I mostly knew as psychotic serial killer The Party Crasher in
mis-matched buddy action comedy THE HARD WAY; that, or for playing a psychotic
military type in AVATAR, or even the psychotic blind dude in the DON'T BREATHE
movies. But here, he's agonisingly soulful as a regular guy who's desperately
trying to find his place in the world.
Also in the cast
are Jerry Orbach (the dad from DIRTY DANCING) as a principled union boss; a
young Stephen Baldwin as a local hoodlum; Ricky Lake as Big Joe's daughter; and
apparently a pre-fame Sam Rockwell was in there somewhere too, but I didn't
spot him and I don't think he has any lines.
German Uli Edel is
example of a foreign director with an outsider's eye of New York City, like the
French Luc Besson (LEON), Polish Roman Polanski (ROSEMARY'S BABY), Austrian
Billy Wilder (THE APARTMENT), Italian Sergio Leone (ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA)
... does Canadian Ivan Reitman count, with GHOSTBUSTERS? Anyway, in LAST EXIT, the titular borough is
depicted like another planet or a subterranean level of hell. Cinematographer Stefan
Czapdky shoots it like Michael Chapman did Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER (that director being an actual
New Yorker, of course): all rising steam and dark alleys and dirty puddles.
There's another
Scorsese-style touch when the camera cranes away, ashamed, during Harry's
beating. His assailants leave him bloody and propped up against wooden rafters
in a crucifix pose – and then we cut to a christening! So, the religious
allusions are very Marty, too.
This is a harsh film, despite them actually toning down the book – which had been strong enough to earn it a trial in the UK under the Obscene Publications Act. But LAST EXIT is more moving in its humility and rawness than anything I've seen for a good while. Ultimately, it's about trying to find pockets of happiness in an ugly world; just by keeping up that pursuit, you're not letting go of hope.
No mention of
dental plans, though.
(Also, there's a
beautiful score by Mafk Knopfler, although it can't quite match his masterful
earlier work on LOCAL HERO – the theme from which is so good that Newcastle
United Football Club run onto the pitch to it,)
Four stars out of
five.
Valid use of the word ‘last’? If we’re going to Brooklyn, where are we coming from? Tarlala romances the kind sailor in Manhattan, so in theory she could go back and forth on the Brooklyn Bridge. But chances are she takes the subway.
What would a movie called FIRST EXIT TO BROOKLYN be about?
There is apparently an album by something called The Foetus Symphony
Orchestra entitled ‘York (First Exit to Brooklyn)'. So, some kind of concept
movie based around that, I guess, like Pink Floyd’s THE WALL or The Who’s
TOMMY.
Previously: LAST CALL
Next time: I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DIDLAST SUMMER
Check out my books: Jonathanlastauthor.com
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