MBS and I are back at it with yet another installation of the Family Pictures Podcast. “Mark it six, dude!” This time we discuss At Close Range (1986), the neo-noir that’s a vehicle for a remarkable swath of up-and-coming 80s actors such as Christopher Walken, Sean Penn, Mary Stuart Masterson, Chris Penn, Crispin Glover, Tracey Walter, David Strathairn, and Kiefer Sutherland to name a few. In fact, if nothing else this film is all about amazing performances, greatest of which is Christopher Walken’s portrayal of Brad Sr.—a character based on the real-life rural Pennsylvania gangster Bruce Johnston.
Back in 2008 I blogged about this movie as an homage to brotherly love and one of the many amazing moments wherein Brad Sr. shows his mettle as a dad 🙂 As a young father when I blogged this, I was pre-occupied with father-figures I wanted to avoid. I do think Walken’s character may be one of the most sinister father’s in recent film history. The following scene includes my favorite line of the entire film: “Daddy, daddy give me something.” I included that line in my 2008 post, which I totally forgot I’d written until after this podcast was published. It’s crazy how porous my memory has become—another reason why I really appreciate the blog as outboard memory.
As MBS captured in naming this episode “Escaping Family Destiny,” the theme that looms largest is the question of whether or not you can truly break with your family and avoid repeating all those things you promised yourself you’d never do when you became a parent. Case in point, the real-life Brad Jr. who turned state’s evidence to put his dad behind bars was ultimately unable to escape from the family tradition of crime. In 2013 he was arrested on drug-related charges and put back in prison, just like his father. The dream of Hollywood summed up in the film’s tagline, “Like Father. Like Son. Life Hell.” is a cloud that looms large over this story with the nightmarish realities of familial pre-destination. While the performances are truly amazing, the direction is not up to dealing with the profound questions around legacy that haunt pretty much every family.
I came across this fun take wherein Bill Burr tries to make sense of the coyote monologue that comes towards the end of the film. The strange, yet evocative, metaphor does break down pretty hard, and his WTF reaction is definitely one I shared, but he has a funnier, more succinct way of making that point. If you’re looking for the 4-minute version of our podcast, here it is 🙂
Somehow I had never seen this film until last week, so thanks for bringing it up. I was thinking that Crispin Glover reminds me of Tim Carey in his ability to make an outsized impression with a small part.
Copyright Crispin Glover to Tim Carey is some very high praise, I wonder if he feels the same way Carey did about flatulence. Look it up on YT, Tarantino tells a great story about Carey 🙂