The Patrick Leonard score to At Close Range (1986), and the “teasing” (as director James Foley described in the interview accompanying the new blu-ray release) of the Madonna single, ‘Live To Tell’ (written for the movie) is so great. Just a haunting synth ambience that works as an overture to the oncoming tragedy ahead of Sean Penn’s character, Brad Whitewood Jr, and everyone he cares about, on account of his attraction to his absent father’s criminal lifestyle, Brad Whitewood Snr (Christopher Walken).
Set in the farmlands of Chester County, Pennsylvania, and loosely based on actual events surrounding the Johnson gang in the 1960s and 1970s, Brad Jr is a working class kid who lives with his brother Tommy (Chris Penn), and their mother (Millie Perkins) and grandmother (Eileen Ryan). Stepping into their lives after a long absence with a wad of cash is Brad Sr. Behind his dark shades, cold blank eyes. The smile of a devil cracks open. Brad Sr runs a gang that breaks into factories, houses, rips off anything they can turn into coin. To Brad Sr’s eyes, the farms, the houses, the factories, all of that just means money. His gang is collected of great character actors including Tracey Walter, RD Call, JC Quinn and David Strathairn. As Brad Jr falls further in love with his girlfriend (Mary Stuart Masteron), he’s drawn like a moth to a flame to Brad Sr’s criminal lifestyle and the chance to earn big money as part of the gang.
Foley really provides an affecting neo-noir, MTV-tinted style to this true crime story; the poetic fade-ins of Penn in bed, for example, as Masterson describes life away from their farmland existence, a beautiful example of this aesthetic. This is truly one of Walken’s great performances and most evil characters, evil on account of his flat banality and grim reaction to the possibility of being cornered, even by his own “blood”. Even his callous treatment of Chris Penn’s character, fathered by another man, and continually referred to as a “bastard” by Walken. I remember Brad Pitt on the Se7en DVD commentary talking about how much Penn’s acting at the end influenced him – the expression of complete loss, that you can never go back. Despite Penn’s tough guy exterior, there’s a vulnerability that explodes by the time of the volatile showdown between father and son. An affecting, dark family drama with great performances and absorbing direction. Watched the [imprint] blu-ray release. Recommended.
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