I’ve been a fan of the films of director / producer Walter Hill for as long as I can remember, with titles like 48 Hrs. (1982), Extreme Prejudice (1987), Red Heat (1988), Another 48 Hrs. (1990), Trespass (1992), Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) and Last Man Standing (1996) effortlessly coming to mind. The man has a distinct visual style that I naturally seem to gravitate toward (*see also Tony / Ridley Scott, see also Adrian Lyne, see also Alan Parker etc) and having just taken a peek at his filmography again (you know, for research n shit), I’m reminded that there are still several intriguing titles of his out there that I have not yet feasted my looking balls upon. One day, dear Reader…one day.
In among those notable entries is this title, a movie that I’ve seen only once, most likely around May of 1990, when my folks would’ve rented it fresh on release for one of our many Family Movie and Pizza Nights (just ignore the solid ‘R’ rating…they did, awesome 80’s parents that they were). I remember thinking Johnny Handsome was cool, but being barely 13 at the time, not a lot stuck with me, save one key scene that helps kick the story into gear. Beyond that, I could remember VERY little, aside from the fact that I recall having a video store cast-off poster in among the collage of movie one-sheets that adorned one full wall of my bedroom at the time.
So, in the spirit of nostalgia, I decided that it was time, 36 years later, to give Johnny Handsome another day in court.
As I’ve noted in several a previous review, my ‘new’ living situation does me no favours, where Wifi is concerned, so I’ve had to moon-walk away from streaming content (not a bad thing, trust me) and continue embracing my life-long love affair with physical media. To be honest, as I write this, I don’t recall exactly what prompted me to search out this title for purchase, but after a few keystrokes, I found the Blu-ray version for a decent price from the evil gods of Amazon…and hit BUY.
Within a week, it was in my grubby lil mitts, ready for a revisit.
Johnny Handsome tells the story of a small-time criminal named ‘John Sedley, aka Johnny Handsome’, who was cursed by severe facial deformities and speech problems at birth. When an old friend approaches him to join a robbery crew to take down a prestigious coin dealer in New Orleans, he agrees, using his planning skills to organize the job. During the violent heist, ‘Johnny’ and his buddy are betrayed by fellow criminals ‘Rafe’ (Lance Henriksen) and ‘Sunny’ (Ellen Barkin); shot and left for dead / incarceration. The friend dies…and grief-stricken ‘Johnny’ ends up in the clink. While inside and after a brutal attempt is made on his life by associates of ‘Rafe’, he’s approached by a compassionate surgeon named ‘Dr. Resher’ (Forest Whitaker), who offers him the chance at a new life if he agrees to accept an experimental surgical procedure to give him a new face. The operation is a resounding success and eventually ‘Johnny’ is granted parole, much to the chagrin of investigating detective ‘Drones’ (Morgan Freeman), who is determined that ‘Johnny’ will fall back into criminality in rather short order. He’s not wrong, as ‘Johnny’ immediately sets out to exact his retribution on the low-life assholes who destroyed his life, such as it was. Into the fray comes ‘Donna’ (Elizabeth McGovern), a desk jockey at the ship yard where ‘Johnny’ is employed who quickly develops a ‘thing’ for the quiet ex-con, thus unwittingly putting herself in mortal danger as ‘Johnny’ works his way through the machinations of his revenge.
So, on a rare Saturday morning when I wasn’t bogged down with dog duties (the K9 girls are with my ex this weekend), I brewed up my usual strong cup o’ Joe at 7am as the ocean winds battered my humble abode, grabbed my trusty pen and paper…and hit PLAY.
Scribbles were then scribbled…
-*Insert Mickey Rourke plastic surgery joke here. For a huge part of the 80’s / 90’s, Mickey Rourke was a formidable Leading Man presence on the Big Screen, due in large part to his bad-boy good-looks and his smouldering intensity, coupled with an almost boyish undercurrent of charisma. However, when his ego got the better of him (and his finances) in the early 90’s, at a time when leading man roles for him were becoming scarce, he dipped his toe (and face) back into the boxing arena on a professional basis (1991-1994), a passion that pre-dated his acting days. Well, that was a costly decision, as through a number of brutal fights and the resulting plastic surgeries, that Sexy Guy Money-Maker visage of his was rearranged like something out of Dr. Seuss, resulting in the hulking, battered Rourke we all know today. So, it’s cynically amusing that ‘Johnny’ starts off looking like Mickey Rourke-of-today…before morphing through the story into that classic 80’s Rourke look. The Cosmos DOES have a cruel sense of humour, doesn’t it.
-Good cast. As you can see from my synopsis above, we get some solid names in the cast and they all pull their weight, seemingly aware of exactly what kind of sordid grindhousey flick they were crafting.
-Henriksen + Barkin = scum. Lance Henriksen (Near Dark) had a run of memorable villain roles in the late ‘80’s and this is most certainly one of those, with him all twitchy and ruthless, growling every other line. Ellen Barkin (The Fan) makes me wonder about what kind of person she is in real life, because during this period in her career she excelled at playing slutty, unhinged psychopaths, and here was no different.
-As usual, loving Hill’s cinematography. I do, in fact, love Walter Hill’s cinematography…so this scribble was not a pack of lies.
-Morgan Freeman is pure Morgan Freeman. Even this early in the man’s excellent career, he carried that certain ‘Morgan Freeman’ gravitas that we’ve all come to embrace over the last couple decades. The writing was on the wall.
-Rourke does a good job with the speech impediment. Part of ‘Johnny’s handicap is a deformity of the sinuses, resulting in a very slurred and laboured manner of speaking. I thought Rourke did a credible job with it.
-Face reveal = solid performance. This one surprised me, as I found Rourke’s performance during his final face reveal oddly touching, with tears spilling as he stares in the mirror, seemingly unsure of whether to laugh or cry at what he sees and feels. Further proof that the man, for all his flaws, has always had the chops as a genuine actor.
-Good picture restoration. Just an observation of the picture quality of the Blu-ray, which I thought looked great, with enough grain remaining to keep that classic filmic look and nice clarity in the details. Strangely, in literally the last few shots of the movie, the quality abruptly dips, and we get all sorts of little scratches and blemishes suddenly showing up, plus a strangely soft focus that hadn’t been there previously. It almost felt like the restoration budget ran out just as the Finishing Line was in sight and they had no choice but to release what they had, which was a 95% fully cleaned and restored movie. But overall, a nice and deserving presentation.
-Love that Walter Hill grit. I probably don’t need to elaborate on this one too much. If you know…you know.
-Oh snap! He fucked Barkin! This caught me off guard, as it really seemed like ‘Johnny’s blossoming relationship with ‘Donna’ was leading him somewhere good. At first, I was ready to excuse his dicking of ‘Sunny’ as a means to a vengeful end (which it is), but then he immediately gets frosty and almost downright abusive with ‘Donna’, who genuinely cares and doesn’t understand the sudden shift. So…that was a little ill-defined, for me.
-Glock? Surprising. I first became aware of the now classic Glock series of handguns through their prominent usage in personal favourite Die Hard 2 (1990), having never recalled ever seeing the boxy Austrian workhorse prior to that awesome sequel. However, it would appear that I had also encountered that particular pistol around the same time-period, in this flick, with ‘Johnny’ picking up a Glock 17 (the first model ever widely released, we see the stencil on the barrel) and a Beretta 92F, both 9mm, as his revenge tools. At very least, when the Glock is being described by the shady dealer dude, the script correctly identifies the country of origin as Austria, and the material as ‘plastic’ (actually a polymer composite), unlike DH2’s hilariously misinformed description of the “Glock 7, a porcelain gun made in Germany that can beat airport metal detectors.”, which equates three lies in one short sentence. Die Hard 2, I love ya with all of my heart…but damn, that’s embarrassing.
-“Well, bless my ass.” – as said by Morgan Freeman. ‘Det. Drones’ says this one often enough that it basically becomes his catch-phrase.
-Pump action sound? Double barrel? This was a Whoops on the part of the sound department, as during the climactic show-down, one of ‘Rafe’s goons brandishes a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun and when he raises it threateningly, we get the unmistakeable *shek-clack* of a PUMP ACTION being racked. There should’ve been the simple *click* of a hammer being cocked, nothing else. But it would seem that someone in the sound studio was either new that day or just plain lazy.
-Quick and brutal…the way a gunfight should be. Though I thought the final, inevitable show-down could’ve had a bit more ‘cat n mouse’ to it, the sudden explosion of thunderous gunfire and spraying blood worked for me just fine. Long, drawn-out gun battles are great and have their place but here, the short and sweet approach got the job done.
-Kinda tragic. This flick does NOT have a happy ending (*SPOILERS*, maybe?), which I wasn’t expecting (given that I’d completely forgotten how it ends). But, in hindsight, it DOES have an appropriate ending. I had high hopes for certain characters but as is the occasional lesson in flicks like this – violence only begets more violence.
-Overall, nice and simple. Kinda sums it up.
All in all, Johnny Handsome was a cool title to check out again, especially after so long, when I remembered so little, rendering it ALMOST a genuine kneejerkreaction. One of the flick’s Pluses was touched upon with that last scribble up there…the simplicity of the story. While I wouldn’t have been mad had a few more twists and turns, and added character development, found their way into the 1 hour and 34 minute run-time, there is something to be said about not muddying the waters too much. KISS – Keep IT Simple, Stupid, and by and large, that’s exactly what Hill and Co. did with this one.
As noted previously, the cast is surprisingly stacked, with Rourke capably handling both the action and internal torment of ‘Johnny’ in equal measure, roughly guiding us through the sordid world he inhabits, while also making the character sympathetic and vaguely relatable, elements that are aided greatly when put up against the effectively toxic (and borderline over-the-top) performances of Henriksen and Barkin as the so-worthy-of-violent-death antagonists. Everyone else does what the neo-noir story needs them to do to get us, and keep us, invested in ‘Johnny’s plight and plans.
So, if you’re a fan of the films of Walter Hill, or of Mickey Rourke (especially 80’s / 90’s era Rourke, before he had those smouldering good-looks of his literally boxed right off his head), or you love you a good crime / revenge tale boasting a surprisingly impressive cast, I think you’d be well served to dust off this underappreciated 1989 box office failure ($7 million box office vs $20 million budget – ouch) and give it a look.
It’s a grimy and violent good time!
“Well, bless my ass!”
– as only Morgan Freeman can deliver.
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