Dir Barry Levinson

Written by Barry Levinson & Lorenzo Carcaterra

Robert DeNiro, Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Ron Eldard, Patrick Fugit, Joe Perrino, Brad Renfro, Dustin Hoffman, Minnie Driver, Bruno Kirby, Jonathan Tucker, Geoffrey Wigdor, Vittorio Gassman.    

In 1967, in Hells Kitchen NY, four friends Lorenzo “Shakes”, Tommy, Michael and John are the best of friends living it up. They are church going lads, with their local pastor, the reformed Father Bobby (DeNiro) who is an almost more like a father to them than some of their own, trying to keep them on the right path, and away from King Benny, the local mobster who the boys are doing the odd job for.

One summer day, they take a silly prank too far, which almost kills a man, and has them sent to Wilkinson Home for Boys, where they are to spend the next 18 months. Their time there is torturous and filled with the worst kinds of abuse, led by the vile Nokes (Bacon, doing an exaggerated Philly accent).

Years later, in 1981, the boys, now all grown men have gone their separate ways. Shakes (Patric) is now a reporter, Michael (Pitt), is an Assistant District Attorney – but Tommy and John (Crudup & Eldard), have not been able to leave the past behind. A chance encounter with Nokes is going to bring them all back together.

Incredibly confronting film directed by Levinson, who co-wrote the film with the real life ‘Shakes’ Carcaterra. There has been controversy whether or not these events did actually occur to himself and his friends since the film was released. The way some of the scenes were depicted, were well choreographed, and could be hard to watch due to the nature of what occurred.

The cast is quite large, with an extended timeline occurring there were of course two groups of actors playing the roles of the boys in childhood, and adulthood. At 150m, there is almost identical on screen appearances by both groups, with Patric’s narration playing over both. DeNiro is brilliant as the priest the boys all turn to in their time of need, and when he appears again in the 1981 timeline, the make up people did a great job at making the then 50 year old appear to be much older.

The pacing is a little off, and the film is quite lengthy. Some edits might have helped a little, but it would have been difficult from the creative choice in order to show the ordeal that the boys went through. The third act ‘courtroom’ drama was probably the poorest part of the film, but it gave Hoffman his part in the film.

The score by the legendary John Williams is very impressive, and worthy of one of his many Oscar nominations. The setting of 1960’s New York, is what I imagine it would have looked like (having not been alive at the time, nor having ever been to NY).

There was probably a little too much narration used, and it is present throughout most of the proceedings. I wonder if the script would have been as effective, and the characters would have been as empathetic (or hated) if they did not use it. There are also some idiosyncrasies of Pitt’s Michael that is a little off putting (hanging cigarettes in his mouth).

A very good film of the 90’s, and worth a watch, but it is tough to get through.

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