At Close Range

“At Close Range” is based (reasonably closely, too) on the Johnston gang that raised holy heck in the 1960’s and ‘70’s in Pennsylvania. And the movie doesn’t include some of their worst exploits. These were bad, bad men. Bruce Johnston was not as charismatic as Christopher Walken, of course. Who is?When I drive out of the city and across the Great Plains, I’m sometimes surprised that farmers will let a gigantic 4WD John Deere or Case IH tractor sit unattended in the corner of a field. These huge sophisticated machines cost upwards of $500,000. Each. And yet the owners will park them next to a highway and head back to the farmstead. Anyone with a flatbed truck and ramps could spirit one of these expensive machines away in the night.I guess gangs of rural robbers don’t follow in the crooked tracks of “At Close Range” anymore. But the real life Johnston gang boosted tractors, cars, trucks, vaults, pretty much whatever came along. As do Walken and Sean Penn and Sean Penn’s brother. Walken is, needless to say, good; he’s intense, scary, calculating evil here. He doesn’t, thank goodness, try to do a hillbilly accent, sticking with his distinctive New York delivery, putting just the right amount of menace into even seemingly cheerful dialog. Even as young as he looks in “At Close Range” and even with a pretty dire haircut and ‘stache, he’s a pro’s pro. Unlike, say, De Niro, you can’t ever really call a Walken job overacting or hacky or in it strictly for a paycheck. He’s just Christopher Walken and as always, doing Walken. Really young smooth Walken, in this case.Maybe he looks a little too young and smooth faced, mustache or not; although seventeen years separate Walken and Sean Penn, Walken doesn’t really look enough older to make the whole father/son thing convincing. He comes across more like a dangerous twisted older brother than a jailbird father. Sean Penn’s surfer dude blonde perm contributes his James Dean-wannabe effect here. Maturity did a lot for Sean Penn (and rather less for his overlooked brother Chris). By the time Penn made “Mystic River” seventeen more years later, he’d developed a lot more gravitas. Here, he’s convincingly callow and dim.Mary Stuart Masterson is good enough as Penn’s supposed to be underage girlfriend. But at no point does she look jailbait young. Nothing against her acting chops, though, she does fine with the material she gets. That said, neither Sean Penn nor Masterson stand much of a chance against Christopher Walken’s malevolent presence. The picture slows down appreciably whenever Walken isn’t on screen. The villain, as always, gets all the good bits.Kiefer Sutherland and David Straitharn in in the mix too, but I barely recognized them. This was long ago when they (and we) were really young. And henchmen don’t get many lines anyway, they mostly do a lot of glowering. That’s Candy Clark too, but again, I wouldn’t have made the connection.There’s a mix of cool old cars on display, too. Walken drives a nice old Camaro and an even nicer Olds Cutlass convertible, there’s a decent Chevelle SS for Penn to tool about in. And a selection of beater pickup trucks, too! Good vehicle choices all around, especially the C3 Corvettes. Apparently the Johnston crew had a thing for Corvettes.I can’t point to any bad performances, and only one really bad scene. The final kitchen confrontation between Walken and Penn is way, way over-the-top talky. Especially given that Penn’s been shot four or five times, and still has to deliver a fairly lengthy indictment of his father and how he has not been the world’s best dad. It’s more than a little silly.And although Christopher Walken is the undisputed master of the weird unhinged monolog, even he can’t keep the coyote speech from sounding ridiculous, especially with all the dropped verb tenses.If the eighties have taught us anything, it should have been that no matter what the temptation, you should never, ever have a Madonna song over the credits. Talk about dating yourself. Or dating each other? Did this movie have anything to do with the Sean Penn/Madonna dating/crash-and-burn? Anyway, Madonna's soundtrack sure does nail down the era "At Close Range" was made. The rest of the ST is generic.“At Close Range” is an entertaining vintage film that should help to disperse any lingering sentiments you might have about basic human goodness. Everyone involved is awful at some level, some are just more awful than others. Without Walken, it’s be two stars, three tops. But for the pleasure of watching one of the world’s two best creepy guys, I’ll throw in the extra star.The other world’s best creepy guy? Malkovich, of course!

One of the great suspense movies of all time. Penn and Walken are spectacular as estranged father and son. The most shocking thing is it's based on real life. Mary Stuart Masterson is great too. Although there area few chuckles this is not a light hearted movie. It is deep, dark and frightening. A must watch for film enthusiasts.

I'm being sarcastic , considering someone thought this wasn't brilliant and said so.There were parts in this film that I could have done without, but overall this wasan incredible little adventure, Penn and Walkin are over the top , great, and believable.I regret being subjected to some of the abject evil in this film, but it is what it is , as islife.Funny to see the young Keifer Southerland as a supporting or almost in the 'extra' category,I'd never seen him at this age.

Read the top rated reviews by those who are intimately familiar with the real-life individuals and settings that were the basis for this true story made into a movie.No matter what you may think of Sean Penn and Christopher Walken as human beings, if you appreciate good acting, and an especially captivating story, you owe it to yourself to see this movie. Although it was made 30 years ago, it does not feel dated at all (unless you allow yourself to be distracted by the several "unknown" cast members who are well known actors today).Title track, "Live To Tell" co-written, and sung by Madonna.

The last time I saw this was when it came out, when I was in high school. At the time I really loved it, and I understand why. Sean Penn was young and cute, there was a teen love story, and there was some good action. But now, as an adult, I find that my tastes have changed. The love story is boring and takes up way too much screen time. The story is weak, and the soundtrack, which appears to be just four different version of a song by Madonna, is achingly bad.Giving this three stars because Walken and Penn are pretty good, and I forgot that Crispin Glover is in it. His performance is fun.

I had never heard of this movie before it was offered for Prime viewing. Strangely, the year 2014 was listed next to the title, so I thought that it was fairly recent movie.The movie started with a close up of a very young Sean Penn so I immediately checked IMDB to find that it was made in 1986. Watching this excellent cast when they were 30 years younger was fascinating. The acting and directing were first rate and the fact that this was based on a true story made it even more interesting.The story itself is violent and heartbreaking. It is a depressing but very watchable depiction of how an evil person can destroy so many lives.

Christopher Walken steals the show as a psychopathic leader of a rural crime family. Sean Penn plays his son whom Walken had essentially abandoned but then comes back into his life. Penn does a fine job playing the small town, rural punk who has no ambition in life other than to drink beer, not work and raise hell. He decides to follow in his old man's footsteps but finds that the life of a criminal begins to have drawbacks. Penn has to decide whether to continue following his father or betray him. It's worth watching, particularly Walken who is riveting in every scene. The movie's based on a true story.

I've been wanting to see this movie for years and always heard how good it was. Well, it didn't live up to the hype for me. Although the ending was strong and the acting good, the overall plot was rather predictable. It was boring and nothing interesting happened until about midway...so for the first half of the movie I was tempted to turn it off. I only recommend it if you're super bored.

This film had me on the edge of my seat. Chris Walken was incredible as the evil stop at nothing criminal father to a very young Sean Penn. I love Walken's monologues and the 'Coyote' speech was both chilling and thrilling to watch. Won't go into too much detail about the film as that would spoil it for anyone thinking of watching it for the first time. But I thoroughly recommend it. A fantastic movie.

This is a great 80s film but don't expect action as it's a slow burn thriller

Perfect item, delivered fast. Recommend.

Fantastic movie great acting by great cast chemistry between them all is electric and the story of family honour is awesome it blows you away great 80s movie.

great 80s film to own x