Hey folks, Harry here... Every now and again there are perfect moments on AICN, where the perfect spy performs the perfect mission. Capone busting the test screening of ROAD TO PERDITION is about as perfect a spy/film match as I can imagine. It'd be like Moriarty busting LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN or Quint busting THE INDIANAPOLIS STORY or Patch busting KILL BILL or me being cast as The Blob in an X-MEN film. From time to time as editor of AICN I dream of these unlikely scenarios... And fate makes them be. Here is Capone commenting on the 1930's Chicago Gangland Epic... ROAD TO PERDITION!!!
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago. In the three years or so I’ve been writing for Ain’t It Cool, I’ve waited for this day. The day that a movie was made featuring me. Sure I’ve been portrayed in plenty of other films over the years, but this is the first representation of me I’ve had a chance to talk about with you lovely people. What makes this moment even sweeter is that ROAD TO PERDITION is a powerful film and will absolutely make it on by Best of 2002 list. AMERICAN BEAUTY director Sam Mendes has created an epic (the feeling of the film is epic, not the length) gangster masterpiece that does not rely on tired mafia cliches in its plot or character development. The film has a look, an atmosphere, and an approach to violence that is unflinching and completely original. But best of all, Al Capone is a majorforce in the story. I’m so proud.
“Capone is unseen?” you ask. I know, I couldn’t believe it. I’d read somewhere that scenes featuring Anthony LaPaglia as me had been filmed, but Al Capone is nowhere on screen. But as in real-life early 1930s Chicago (some of the movie was filmed here), his influence is everywhere. We’ll get to that in a second.
I don’t know if the guy who submitted the most recent ROAD TO PERDITION review was at my test screening or not, but he did a pretty good job of summarizing the plot. Sam Mendes did make a brief appearance just before the film started, telling us that the film was not 100 percent finished. He could have fooled me: the print was clean, the edits were smooth, the very few effects shots in the film were done, I think even the music was complete.
The story of ROAD TO PERDITION (based on Max Allan Collins graphic novel; screenplay by David Self) is deceptively simple. Tom Hanks plays Michael Sullivan, the most feared mob hitman working in the Midwest. I’ve never read the graphic novel, but apparently he’d referred to frequently as the Angel of Death. But Sullivan is also a family man with a wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh, who in on screen for about three minutes total) and two sons, the 12-year-old Michael Jr. (Tyler Hoechlin) and the younger Peter (Liam Aiken). These two kid actors are exceptional, especially Hoechlin, who is asked to endure quite a lot during the course of this film. Sullivan Sr. is a button man for John Looney (a scary and very old looking Paul Newman). His name is Looney in the book, but if my ears were working, I believe they changed the character’s name to Mooney. Looney/Mooney’s son, Connor (TOMB RAIDER’s Daniel Craig), is the heir apparent to the Looney/Mooney criminal empire and he’s a royal fuck up. It’s clear early on that Mooney Sr. has much more affection for Sullivan than his own son and that doesn’t sit well with Connor. Connor arranges to have Michael and his family killed, but is only partly successful: Michael’s wife and youngest son are slaughtered while Michaels Sr. and Jr. survive and run out of town (the town being somewhere in Illinois outside of Chicago).
Michael, whose reputation extends to the Chicago gangs, drives to the Windy City seeking work with Capone’s gang and a promise that no harm will come to him as he seeks to revenge his family’s murders. Although Al Capone is never shown on screen, his second in command, Frank Nitti, is. Stanley Tucci is brilliant as the snakey, smooth-talking Nitti. Michael Sullivan and his son are truly on their own to carry out this vengeance. Nitti calls on the services of a master assassin played by Jude Law, who likes to take photos of his victims (the cops think he’s with the press). Much of the film centers on Sullivan and his son trying to find a place to hide and plot their strategy for revenge while the assassin tracks them down. Part of Sullivan’s plot to get Capone’s attention and possibly rethink his decision to not help him involves Sullivan and son robbing various banks across Illinois where Capone stashes the money he’d made from booze. Dylan Baker (most recently seen as the Fix It man in CHANGING LANES) is Capone’s accountant, whom Sullivan eventually targets as a good person to help him find out about the places Capone hides his money.
ROAD TO PERDITION is as dark a movie as I’ve ever seen, both in mood and visually. Half of the film looks like it was filmed to only capture the silhouettes of the actors. Most of the characters wear hats, so their faces are deliberately obscured in shadow. Those who don’t wear hats are too easy to read and this usually means they’ll be dead soon. The violence in this film is substantial, and Mendes has found a remarkable way to film spraying gun play, detailed head shots, and bloody wounds that is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Gun shots are as loud as cannon fire, flying brains are often a result of these killings. At one point Jude Law gets an explosion of glass across his face during a gun battle with Hanks (this is not a spoiler) that hurts just thinking about it a day later. And let’s not forget the rain. I will never recollect ROAD TO PERDITION without remembering the rain. We’re talking Kurosawa amounts of rain. Nature does not make this much rain in one storm. And it looks amazing on film.
But ROAD TO PERDITION is about things other than violence and rain. It’s about a man, who isn’t the greatest father, trying to protect the son that has the most potential to turn out like him. Sullivan isn’t just trying to keep Michael Jr. from being killed, he’s wants to make certain that he doesn’t turn out like him in the long run. Knowing what you do about Tom Hanks and the characters you’ve seen him play in the past, you may think you have an idea how he talks and relates to his son. You have no idea. Michael Sullivan is a man who may be called upon to kill men his truly likes. He has learned to be emotionally distant from everyone, even members of his family, for fear they may be dead soon, whether by his hand or not. Hanks have never played a character this withdrawn from life. I don’t even think he smiles. He doesn’t know how to talk to his son; he barely knows how to talk at all. In one of the early scenes in the film, Michael Jr. hides in the back of his dad’s car when he’d driving to “have a talk” with a possibly troublesome associate. Michael Jr. looks through a whole in the wall of a warehouse as his father unloads him Tommy gun into a group of men. Finding out what your father does for a living can be tough sometimes. Michael Jr. is barely given time to grieve over his mother and brother’s death. The scene of him quietly crying alone in a crowded train station is heart breaking. Jude Law is also good in his role. The character’s eccentricities might get on some people’s nerves, but it’s so different for Law that I liked it. He walks around with slumped shoulders, pigeon-toed, and sporting a foul looking set of teeth. He’s great. I should also mention how Paul Newman manages to make his character both terrifying and pathetic. You’ll never hear the words “Try again” again without thinking of him in this film.
My instant reaction to ROAD TO PERDITION was, That’s the one to beat. There are plenty of contenders this year to be sure, but among the non-sequel, non-special-effects-heavy films of 2002, I doubt any of them will be as bold, original, chance-taking, and effective as this one.
Capone
If you have the missing Capone scenes from Road To Perdition, click here to negotiate!
