State of Grace (1990)

In the lead-up to St. Patrick's Day, what better time to celebrate than to revisit what is considered by some to be a modern crime drama classic focusing on the Irish mafia?  Directed by Phil Joanou (Three O'Clock High), this story focuses on Terry (Sean Penn) who has recently moved back to the old neighborhood - Hell's Kitchen in New York City - and decides to join a "Westie" gang which includes his childhood best friend Jackie (Gary Oldman) and is also lead by Jackie's older brother Frankie played by Ed Harris.  Terry also rekindles a romance with his first love Kathleen (Robin Wright) who also happens to be sister to both Jackie and Frankie.  Further complicating matters, this Irish gang is currently negotiating a deal with the much larger local Italian mafia with which tensions are very high. :o And everything culminates just in time for St. Patrick's Day!  The stacked cast also includes John Turturro, John C. Reilly, Joe Viterelli, and Burgess Meredith. 

 Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon 

Transcript

STATE OF GRACE - 1990

Directed by Phil Joanou

Starring Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright, John Turturro, R.D. Call, Joe Viterelli, John C. Reilly, Deidre O’Connell, Marco St. John, and Burgess Meredith

Genre: Mob Crime Drama (Audio clip)

In the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day, what better time to celebrate to what I consider to be a modern mob classic focusing on the Irish....which features the following:

- All-time performance by Gary Oldman as Jackie who is the dialed-up Irish answer to Pesci's Tommy Devito though with a lovesick puppy lane when he's not acting like an angry pitbull

 - Pat Nicholson who has to be the most on-the-ball mob enforcer with THE best mob enforcer mug since Luca Brazzi....as played by R.D. Call.
 
 

- The definitive portrayal of the "Westies" of early '90's NYC as they were known marauding around Hell's Kitchen while it was being gentrified into Clinton...which "sounds like a f$%king steamboat!"
 
 

- John C. Really at 25 actually LOOKING 25
 
 

- Haunting score by the late, great Ennio Morricone
 
 

- Reminder that Bushmills were generally a mediocre, overpriced whiskey
 
 

- Sean Penn and Robin Wright first meet and have scorching chemistry - both have GREAT freak-out scenes in the second half!
 
 

- Ed Harris effectively playing one of the stupidest mob bosses ever...but with nice menace
 
 

- A bad-ass final barroom shootout right out of a Western that is only marginally more believeable than the climaxes of LA Confidential and Unforgiven
 
 

- "We're not TOUGH Nick! We're just crazy."
 
 

- Plot development around the 50 minute mark that you are better off NOT knowing about if you haven't already seen it
 
 

- Burgess Meredith and John Turturro bringing the heat with limited screentime

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Now speaking of that score from the LEGENDARY Morricone….this came out smack in the middle of a run of highly memorable scores which he would conduct for various crime films including Once Upon a Time in America, Bugsy, and previous episode The Untouchables.  The latter of which is just one of THE All-Time banger scores! (Audio clip) 

Now the music he produced for this movie wasn’t quite as propulsive as ‘Untouchables nor quite as melodramatic as ‘Once Upon a Time…it’s a quieter score with a few suspenseful flourishes but pretty meditative overall.  It’s honestly one of THE best aspects of this film and very much keeps the drama moving despite a screenplay (also by Joanou) which DOES get a bit clunky at points despite being pretty tight overall.  The score features mostly pretty spare melodies using a lot of strings and the occasional horn.  Right from the opening credits with this music playing over slow-motion foggy images of bagpipes, we are effectively presented with a soundscape which definitely portends dread. (Audio clip)   

For me, the definite highlight is a very simple stand-alone melody which sort of becomes the main theme for our protagonist – we hear this play over him from the get-go as he’s headed towards a money/drug exchange in the Bronx at the outset of the story.  Just GORGEOUS, haunting stuff with a horn and piano combining for twelve repeating notes….I have actually seen this theme referred to under two different names: “The Meet” or “Terry Noonan” – regardless it’s extremely effective and even a bit hummable. (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

State of Grace was released back in September of 1990 which you would THINK would be a smart time to release a tonier crime thriller like this featuring nobody whom you would consider to be an actual movie star at the time….even though SOME of the featured players had starred in some recent hits like Ed Harris in The Abyss or Robin Wright in The Princess Bride.  Overall there was some buzz for this film as reviews were pretty strong, the cast was pretty stacked with some acclaimed actors, and the director was coming off of two pretty well-liked films….U2 Rattle and Hum which was one of the more successful concert movies of recent years and previous episode Three O’Clock High which while not a hit was gathering a following on video and cable. 

What the good folks at MGM studios were apparently not counting on at the time was the COMPETITION…..and boy was there competition, within the same genre no less!  Now I can remember this time pretty vividly as hype was slowly building for what was supposed to be THE grandaddy of mob movies – likely the most HIGHLY anticipated sequel of recent years, The Godfather Part III.  Only Part III wasn’t coming out until December – any other mob-related or adjacent films were definitely keeping their distance from that one.  

So what resulted was an utter logjam of organized crime dramas ALL coming out within a few weeks of each other, this is nuts!  Abel Ferrara’s King of New York starring Christopher Walken, Miller’s Crossing a stylized period piece focusing on the Irish mob directed by the Coen Brothers, AND…..oh this little film directed by Martin Scorsese starring DeNiro, Pesci, and Liotta.  Wow what a LITERAL murderer’s crow of crime CLASSICS!  I happen to love all of these films and sadly the only one I saw in theaters was Miller’s Crossing because…..I don’t know, I was young and stupid at the time….and I was more eager to see junk like Marked for Death at the time, that being the latest Steven Seagal vehicle.  I guess we didn’t know just HOW good we had it…..and neither did the marketplace as the only one of these films to be financially successful was Goodfellas which justifiably took the world by storm as soon as it was released….which was the SAME week as State of Grace, talk about the luck of the Irish! 

Goodfellas made money, garnered some serious awards attention  - even eventually stealing much of the thunder from Godfather III – and what resulted for THIS film was that it was barely released into theaters, never going wide.  State of Grace ended up grossing about $2 million worldwide on a $18 million budget – yes it was sadly considered a flop.  Maybe they should have held on its release a bit?  Maybe…maybe not because coming out the following February was the surprise gangster hit New Jack City, then a few months later…..previous episode Boyz N the Hood.   So maybe there was never going to be THE right time to release this movie….no matter because it has since garnered a solid following on both video, cable, and streaming.  And the beautiful thing is now thanks to modern technology, you can rewatch ALL FOUR films whenever you like…..which I definitely do.  But would I have loved the opportunity to see this in theaters?  You bet. (Audio clip) 

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Within a crime epic which features some pretty wild set-pieces, my personal favorite would have to be one pretty early on which sets the tone pretty well for the rest of what follows for these characters….meaning that these are NOT the smartest gangsters around and they’re far from the toughest, but they certainly ARE the craziest. 

Simply put, this Irish gang lead by Ed Harris’ Frankie is doing their part to prevent gentrification in their area…..by setting fire to abandoned buildings.  And this is the first assignment for Sean Pean’s Terry who is new to the gang as he joins Oldman’s Jackie. They have doused this entire indoor area with gasoline and the last step is to simply ignite the area…..only Jackie has a game he likes to play with this task which he refers to as the “100 Yard Dash.” Yup you guessed it…. (Audio clip) 

As absurd as this sequence is, I have to say that it’s all pretty convincingly filmed – it DOES look as if both Penn and Oldman are running through flame-filled hallways….which apparently they did to some extent.

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

The main driver of this film’s success with it’s most complex and electrifying performance HAS to be Gary Oldman.  His Jackie is very much a sad, lonely, perpetually tragic figure but is also played with enough overt homicidal dickishness that you could be forgiven for wondering how EXACTLY he has stayed alive as long as he has.  It’s not really a particularly nuanced performance but you could have actually said the same for Joe Pesci’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas which was in theaters at the SAME time as this.  By definition, these are just not subtle people nor are they even wired to be that way…..they’re forces of nature not just because that makes them comfortable but also because that’s the only way they know how to earn respect from folks around them.  I mean seriously I’m of the opinion that Oldman is JUST as strong here as Pesci was in that movie….and in any other year, he might have gotten some Oscar attention.  (Audio clip) 

And this was part of ONE hell of a run for Oldman KINDA kicking off with him playing Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy back in ’86 followed up by some genuinely strong work to close out the ‘80’s in Prick Up Your Ears, Criminal Law, and Chattahooche.  And THEN came the ‘90’s with bigger movies and he was STILL cooking: Dracula in previous episode Bram Stroker’s Dracula, Drexel in True Romance, Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, STANDSFIELD in The Professional, and one of my personal favorites….Lee Harvey Oswald in previous episode JFK. (Audio clip) 

As far as I’m concerned even though he would deliver many strong performances well into the 21st Century all the way to his Oscar win just a few years ago for playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour – which I STILL haven’t seen by the way, I know crazy – the early ‘90’s was PEAK Oldman.  Besides Denzel, I don’t think there was any one else on-screen who delivered quite as much electricity whether they were playing real-life figures or completely fantastical ones.  He is SO good in this movie that after his character Jackie is dispatched in the third act, you actually FEEL a bit of a drop-off….and that’s even with a HIGHLY entertaining blood-soaked climax cross-cut with the St. Patrick’s Parade in Manhattan.  For deliver one of his best career performances which undoubtedly casts a shadow over a film loaded with several other great actors, Gary Oldman is the MVP. (Audio clip) 

Final Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Bottom line THIS is the movie to watch for this time of year….you’ve got the parade, bagpipes, Bushmills, and oh I did forget to mention that there ARE needle-drops here from U2 AND Sinead O’Connor no less?  My best wishes for a safe and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  

Streaming on Roku, tubi, PlutoTV, and freevee

And that ends another WESTIE review!