KING OF NEW YORK, Abel Ferrara, director/Arrow Blu-ray This eye-popping Blu-ray edition of Abel Ferrara’s cult gangster classic King of New York is a splendid rediscovery, looking better than any previous incarnation. The film is inspired by the crime classics of the 1930’s, and King of New York showcases a typically over-the-top performance by Christopher Walken as the violent mob boss Frank White. The star-filled cast now looks quite imposing (several careers were launched with the film, including those of Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Steve Buscemi and David Caruso) and Ferrara’s delirious visuals positively leap off the screen. Walken’s mobster, newly released from prison, has his sights set on taking over New York’s drug gangs. He begins his campaign in style, taking up residence in an upscale Manhattan hotel and beginning to ruthlessly eliminate rival gang bosses. All of this is handled in appropriately kinetic style by Ferrara, channelling the energy that has been a characteristic of his work right from the start. And Christopher Walken is, of course, the perfect actor for him – never knowingly underplaying, and always pitching his performance at an operatic level which is absolutely on target for the character. This definitive special edition includes a new director-approved 4K restoration in UHD, as well as Blu-ray and DVD editions.
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS, Carl Franklin, director/Powerhouse Indicator Walter Mosley is a writer who doesn’t make life easy for his liberal (small ‘l’) white readers — which is a tad unfair, as the redneck racists who are the real targets of his anger are highly unlikely to be dipping into his books. But if those who regards Mosley as one of the most respected novelists in contemporary American crime fiction are to be discomfited by the scalding tone of the books when it comes to race (in which most non-black individuals share a common racial guilt), perhaps that’s the price to be paid for the way certain Caucasians behave, elements reflected in this acclaimed film adaptation. Mosley’s much-acclaimed Easy Rawlins series (notably Devil in a Blue Dress) has created a dazzling sequence of gritty and epigrammatic latter-day riffs on Raymond Chandler, and those familiar with Carl Franklin’s film tend to the celebrate this extremely efficient version of the novel. The film represents all involved at the height of their powers, from the director to Denzel Washington (perfectly cast as Mosley’s LA private eye). The visual palette here is striking indeed, and a perfect modern equivalent is found for Mosley’s feel for the past. Easy Rawlins has been described as a black Philip Marlowe, but a more apposite parallel might be with the saturnine sleuth created by Ross Macdonald, Lew Archer, similarly prone to find familial flaws (rather than venality) as the source of malign behaviour. As ever with Mosley, the narrative of the book (and film) is set against a picturesquely drawn Los Angeles, with the tapestry of American history always as significant as the violent activities of the protagonists. The siren call of drugs is examined dispassionately here, but not so race, which remains an incendiary element, and perhaps the one that most energises a writer who is as much a social critic as an entertainer.
HOUSE OF BAMBOO Sam Fuller, director/Eureka Blu-Ray French filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard greatly admired the primitive force of Samuel Fuller’s tough American films, regarding their almost total lack of nuance as a virtue – the director’s in-your-face tabloid style (echoing his days as a reporter) resulted in an abrasive cinematic quality that was very much his own. House of Bamboo is one of the director’s little seen films, but those who know it are always impressed by its unsophisticated but powerful staccato rhythms. Presented on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration as a part of The Masters of Cinema Series, the release is limited to 1000 copies only. When given the chance to film an entire movie in Japan, (Fox was the first American studio to do so), Fuller didn’t hesitate. In 1940s Japan, a military train has its cargo stolen by a gang (led by the always dependable Robert Ryan). Betrayal and death ensue. The stunning widescreen cinematography is by Joe MacDonald,
CAPE FEAR, Matin Scorsese, director/Fabulous Films The director J. Lee Thompson had a more pick-and-mix career than most: from massive hits such as The Guns of Navarone to end-of-career misfires such as Charles Bronson’s Ten to Midnight, the director had a wider range of achievement (and, for that matter, non-achievement) than many of his contemporaries. Far more consistent has been the career of the American director Martin Scorsese, who is one of the most respected auteurs in the American cinema – and is unquestionably the most successful practitioner of the filmic ethos of the Italian/American gangster. But Scorsese throughout his career has consistently wanted to set himself particular challenges, as he did with a remake of one of J. Lee Thompson’s best films, Cape Fear. That film had starred Robert Mitchum as a psychopathic criminal recently released from jail and exacting revenge on lawyer Gregory Peck, and had great problems with the British censor – it was at one point known as ‘the film of a thousand cuts’. No such prissiness about the violence or sexuality of the subject was to be found at the time of Scorsese’s remake, and audiences with who remembered the first film were keen to see what Scorsese had done with the material. Scorsese, of course, had two modern actors who were as charismatic as the originals in Robert De Niro (as the terrifying jailbird Max Cady) and Nick Nolte as the lawyerly object of his revenge. Scorsese upped his game and delivered a very professional piece of work without quite displacing the original – although, in fact, he retained Bernard Herrmann’s menacing score (Herrmann’s last score had been for Scorsese’s Taxi Driver), asking the equally distinguished film composer Elmer Bernstein to re-purpose the music for his version. Scorsese’s take on Cape Fear looks as good as ever in this splendid new transfer.
Fourteen years after being imprisoned, vicious psychopath Max Cady (De Niro) emerges with a single-minded mission: to seek revenge on his attorney Sam Bowden (Nolte). Cady becomes a terrifying presence as he menacingly circles Bowden’s increasingly unstable family. Realising he is legally powerless to protect his wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) and his troubled teenage daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis), Sam resorts to unorthodox measures which lead to an showdown on Cape Fear.
BURST CITY, director/Arrow Blu-Ray While there are gangster elements here, the violent activities of the Yakuza are only one aspect of a bizarre concoction that includes Mad Max-style motorised conflict, science-fiction and even earbashing punk music from the Japanese punk band bands The Stalin, The Roosters, The Rockers and Inu. Against a blighted industrial landscape that wouldn’t be out of place in an Antonioni film, the snarling punk bands and their equally antisocial fans set up a protest against the building of a nuclear power plant ,but their efforts are not welcomed by the big business Yakuza elements behind the development. Burst City is just as off the wall as it sounds, and will be catnip to admirers of deeply unorthodox genre cinema.
