"Makes you want to slit your wrists..." - William Lustig (Director of Maniac)
Anyone who has read this dumb blog (...anyone? no?) knows that I love 1980's New York in any kind of movie. This could be the definite scum trashterpiece NYC flick of all time.
Frankie is an unemployed Vietnam veteran living in Staten Island with his nagging wife, and deformed, always-crying-baby. His child is deformed due to Frankie's exposure to agent orange in 'nam. Frankie struggles to get out of bed to face his harsh reality. The unemployment line is longer than expected, the eviction notice is on his door, his friends are junkies shaking him down, and he owes money to everyone on the street. Frankie's life is complete shit, he can't catch a break and everyone is out to get him. He's a nice guy, just beaten down. A series of flashbacks from the war show him on his own in the jungle as he is forced to do things to children to save his own life. He is captured and put into a POW camp for years and years.
("I see it all so...clearly now")
All of the horrors of war stick with Frankie, but the hard part wasn't over. His life afterwards is what pushes him over the edge. The movie hits like a boot to the teeth, it's bleak, sad, and unrelenting in it's pessimistic direction, and it never lets up. Underpasses, cockroach filled apartments, and the cracked sidewalks of New York City paint the backdrop. It's awesome, it's harsh, but it rules. Child hookers, crackheads, pimps, violence, all rolled up in one block of Staten Island. This isn't a romp, nor is it light hearted. It is, however, a pretty rad, albeit art house version of 80's New York. Think somewhere between Taxi Driver (1976), Eraserhead (1977) and the obvious precursor to Van Bebber's urban nightmare epic Deadbeat at Dawn (1988). The greatness of the flick is it's ending, there is nothing "shocking" until the ending. It just drags you through a day in the life of this dude, and then bam it smacks you in the face. You can kind of see it coming but it's such a good way to end the movie. Perhaps the saddest part of Frankie's existence is after he is rejected from the unemployment office. He stumbles back out in his ghetto to a phone booth to try and reconcile with his dying father whom he had a falling out with some years prior. Needless to say his father isn't going to loan him any money, so Frankie turns to crime. He's too much of a nice guy to be well suited for the gig, but goes through with it anyway. Again, that doesn't end well. He hits bottom pretty hard. Get through the first 90 minutes, you'll watch his grasp on reality slip every step of the way. It's tight.
The real gem here is the new 2-Disc Tromasterpiece DVD that Troma just put out. There is the theatrical cut of the movie that you may have seen before (with commentary by the director and Jorg Buttgereit the director of Nekromantik this was the audio track on the old Troma DVD release), and there is the 9 minute longer director's cut that was shown at film festivals in the late 80's under it's original tittle American Nightmares. I watched the Director's cut, it's good, it drags a bit but that's the point. The second disc has great, great bonus features including a new documentary on the influence, outrage, and impact the movie had. Watch as dudes like William Lustig, Jim Van Bebber, and John McNaughton gush on how much they love the movie. It's cool, it's cool to hear Van Bebber talk about how people called Deadbeat... a rip-off of this and acknowledged how different they really are. 8 short films and music videos find their way onto the disc, a new interview with Buddy Giovinazzo, Lloyd Kaufman and Buddy talk about the flick in another feature from a film festival. Another cool interview is with Rick Giovinazzo (star and brother of the director) about the movie. Some fun stuff like classic locations are shown what they look like today. Nerd stuff basically.
The 2-Disc is worth picking up for the great bonus features. If you liked the Dark Sky Films Van Bebber box set then this is just like that and you'll dig it. I really dug the movie, I'm glad we got it in at the store. I threw it up on the new release wall and some people have rented it already. One dude was really bummed on it. Oh well.
7/10
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