At Close Range

Year 17, Day 158 - 6/7/25 - Movie #5,041 - FATHER'S DAY FILM #2

BEFORE: I don't know if this one will be on theme for Father's Day, I know I'm still a bit early but we'll hit more films about fathers next week.  Even if this one is about an absent father or a terrible father, hey, that still counts. All fathers are welcome and can be film-worthy. I have a separate list of potential films on this topic, it's a bonus that this year I found a way to program 6 or 7 of them into June.  

I've had a couple chances lately to cut straight to the Doc Block, like with Mary Stuart Masterson and Sean Penn tonight there's probably a chance to link to that doc "Brats" about the Brat Pack actors of the 1980's, or I could easily get into the Doc Block via Eddie Murphy next week, but no, I'm going to hold off until ALL the possible Father films are viewed, and then a few days after that I should be able to link into the Doc Block exactly where I want, and since the docs form a giant circle, then the entry point determines the exit point, and I can also get out where I want so I can more easily move forward after. It's a delicate, precise thing. Not really, but saying that makes it sound like I really know what I'm doing. 

Christopher Walken carries over again from "Fade to Black". 

THE PLOT: Reunited with his career criminal father, tough teen Brad thinks he's found his ticket to an exciting life of crime, only to find out he's wrong. 

AFTER: This film is based on a true story, that of the Johnston crime family that operated in rural Pennsylvania in the 1960's and 1970's. The film changes the name of the gang leader to Bradford Whitewood, so nobody would profit from real crimes or maybe so no victims would sue them for not getting the rights to their stories. Either way, it's a double tonight, we have Christopher Walken playing an absent father who then becomes a terrible father once he's present in his sons' lives again. It counts as being on theme. 

Brad Sr. comes to visit his sons, Brad Jr. and Tommy, driving a fast car and giving each son a couple $100 bills as, well, back allowance, maybe. For doing all those chores that he never made them do, considering he hadn't been around for most of their lives. Well, he sure makes an impression, and he seems more fun than mom's live-in boyfriend, who won't even let them watch TV after 10 pm.  Later, when Brad Jr. gets kicked out of the house, he drives a few towns over in his pick-up truck to see what good old Dad is up to. Mostly stealing tractors.  

Brad Sr. runs a tight gang, except for his brother, Uncle Patch, who should be on look-out but keeps getting distracted by the opportunity to steal jewelry from the sleeping night watchmen. Brad sees how easy it is to steal stuff, maybe Dad's gang just makes it look easy, but he still wants in. Brad Sr. is hesitant to let him in, but does eventually let him run his own "kiddie gang" that succeeds until they don't get the memo that too many tractors in Pennsylvania have gone missing, and the tractor yards are being observed closely.  

When the Kiddie Gang gets pinched (because of course they do) they all get free on bail except for Brad Jr., because the cops think they can interrogate him to get the dirt on his thieving father's gang - except Brad Jr. knows not to turn on the family, or "the family". Hey, if this is organized crime, it really should be a lot more organized. Brad Sr. suddenly gets paranoid and thinks that his own son is going to turn on him, so he starts killing the other members of Brad Jr.'s gang, you know, just to be on the safe side.  

And that's the lesson, I guess, you can run a ring that steals tractors from all different townships, but know when to say "when", because if you don't then before you know it, you're forced to decide whether you need to kill your own son and his friends to save your ass. Umm, Happy Father's Day?  Or maybe the lesson is, if you want to get closer to your suddenly-returned father, maybe try bowling, or fishing. Or you guys could go to the movies together, just saying. 

I kind of avoided this movie when it first came out, back in 19-aught-86, of course I was a little busy being 17 years old, getting ready to graduate high school and working that final summer before college in a retail store. We'd all only known who Sean Penn was for a few years, since 1983 and "Fast Times", and we'd known Madonna just about as long, maybe she really broke through in 1984 or 1985. This was, I think, the first time they worked together on the same movie, with Madonna singing the song "Live to Tell" for the soundtrack, and I want to say they were married at the time, to each other, but that didn't last long. They acted together in "Shanghai Surprise" and that was pretty much the end of that. 

Directed by James Foley (director of "Fear")

Also starring Sean Penn (last seen in "Sheryl"), Mary Stuart Masterson (last seen in "Mr. North"), Chris Penn (last seen in "After the Sunset"), Millie Perkins (last seen in "Ensign Pulver'), Eileen Ryan (last seen in "Eight Legged Freaks"), Tracey Walter (last seen in "Destiny Turns on the Radio"), R.D. Call (last seen in "The Weight of Water"), David Strathairn (last seen in "Where the Crawdads Sing"), J.C. Quinn (last heard in "Places in the Heart"), Candy Clark (last seen in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Jake Dengel, Kiefer Sutherland (last seen in "They Cloned Tyrone"), Stephen Geoffreys, Crispin Glover (last seen in "Dead Man"), Noelle Parker, Alan Autry (last seen in "North Dallas Forty"), Paul Herman (last seen in "The Daytrippers"), Gary Gober, Marshall Fallwell Jr., Doug Anderson, Nancy Sherburne, Michael Edwards, Myke R. Mueller, Bob McDivitt, Bonita Hall, Janie Draper, Charles "Tatoo" Jensen, E.R. Davies, James Foley. 

RATING: 5 out of 10 broken windows