ROAD TO PERDITION Review

ROAD TO PERDITION isn’t THE GODFATHER or MILLER’S CROSSING. From time to time you’ll see a critic, myself included, draw a comparison between a new film to a film of old. Sometimes, you’ll see these critics get caught up in hyperbole and you’ll hear them declare the modern film in question as being the pinnacle of its genre by elevating it above the ‘established’ classics of the genre.

Looking at ROAD TO PERDITION and bringing up MILLER’S CROSSING or GODFATHER is doing a disservice to all three films. All three features are exceptionally well made. All three captivate through sheer use of cinema. All three have to do with crime.

Last night I walked into that South Austin movie megaplex having not slept in 32 hours. Let’s just say that my damn telephone just would not stop ringing. That work kept me up all night, and circumstances never let me get to sleep. Everyone in the AICN group was telling me that I would probably not make it through ROAD TO PERDITION, because I looked exhausted and they had heard this film was a bit slow. My retort was, “If it is a classic film, then no matter how tired I am right now, I’ll be more awake at the end of the film if it is great.”

Captivating works of cinema work upon me like a pair of jumper cables to a low-charged battery, transferring the energy and vitality of its work straight into me. After ROAD TO PERDITION, I stayed up for another 4 hours yapping my head off about the film. I didn’t write my review then, because I didn’t want a sleep deprived brain writing about that movie, so I was saving it for this morning.

The movie that ROAD TO PERDITION most reminded me of, is a feature that it has very little in common with… THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. Both are films by filmmakers in love with old school Hollywood filmmaking. Like Darabont, Sam Mendes’ film work seems to throw away most of the modern toys, in favor of making movies the way the filmmakers they adore made films. The cinema of those films were not about the rapid fire editing that we see so often today. You get the idea that the invention of the AVID was of little importance to either film, that they could have been edited exactly the same way that Leni Riefenstahl or Sergei Eisenstein or Robert Wise or William Ziegler or any of the other great editors of vintage film history did it.

There are no tell tale signs that this movie was made for release in 2002. This isn’t a flick made for the tough financial footrace of Summer 2002. This is a movie made to last for a very long time. It isn’t preoccupied with all the whiz-bang that the films of this summer are. In fact, it is almost exactly the anti-MEN IN BLACK 2. This is consummate cinema being given to us when some will appreciate it most and others will simply disregard it as being not what they were in the mood for.

The most glaring ‘flaws’ that one could find in ROAD TO PERDITION is that the movie is very much indebted to the genre in which it plays. The same way that SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION was a prison film based upon a book written by an author that grew up watching prison movies for the brunt of his stylings, ROAD TO PERDITION is a film based upon material by an author that loves those gangster movies of old.

If you know your gangster movie conventions, then you’ll be able to see some of the things that are coming in this film. That isn’t a flaw, that’s simply the story that is being told. I mean… the first shot of the film is of Michael Jr standing upon a beach watching the waves roll in as the sound is nothing but the sound of those waves. We hear his voice telling us about his father, and instantly… What does that tell you? The boy is alone, on the beach, just the sound of the waves, talking about his father in the past tense. What is this film about?

This isn’t a movie about twists and turns, this is a movie about getting that boy back to that beach, back to those waves and contemplating the life of his father and the path he is to take to live his life the way his father wanted him to.

This is a story about Fathers and Sons, exactly as the marketing of the film has led you to believe. This is a film about looking at your parents, seeing them as the flawed human beings that they are, loving them for it, but not repeating their mistakes. It is a film about redemption and revenge. A story about mistakes and corrections. But most of all it is a story a little boy that dreamt his father was the Lone Ranger only to find out he’s the son of Butch Cavandish and that he shouldn’t follow down that path.

This is a morality tale. This isn’t a film for those that want to be enveloped in darkness and cruelty and ironic twists. This isn’t a film about cynicism and being ‘clever’. This is a story about an evil man wanting something better for his son. A man knowing that he can’t ever be redeemed. Hell… take a look at the title, ya can’t get much more obvious. ROAD TO PERDITION. Sure Perdition is the name of the town that Michael Jr’s aunt lives, but the word Perdition means “Loss of the soul; eternal damnation.”

For a long time I was looking at ROAD TO PERDITION as a simple gangster re-telling of the LONE WOLF & CUB story, but in Mendes’ hands this became something a bit more than just a story about an assassin seeking revenge for the death of his loved ones with his son in hand. This film has that, but it is also about what happens after that revenge is served and where that son goes. David Self did an excellent job of adapting Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner’s Graphic Novel to the screen.

This is the first feature I’ve seen this year that I would deem as being truly significant film work. I’ve been quite pleased with the entertainment of the flicks given to us this year, but that’s pretty much all that they were. They were entertaining. I love to be entertained. Often times I get criticized for being soft on movies, and I completely acknowledge that. The reason I do this site is to set my expectations for the movie that I’m going to be seeing. So that I know about where to set those expectations. For example, I knew going into REIGN OF FIRE that I wasn’t going to be seeing a grand man versus dragons battle with an army taking on hundreds of the beasts. I knew that. So when it wasn’t in the film, I wasn’t disappointed.

When I went into MINORITY REPORT I expected something more than just ‘entertainment’. The reviews I had read told me this was a film with a lot on its mind. In talking to Moriarty about the screenplay, I knew that Scott Frank was allegedly texturing the film with significant themes and depth of character, and when I saw the film, and tonally it was everything from Kubrick to Chuck Jones in style… That wildly inconsistent breadth of tone made me cough. MINORITY REPORT was an ok piece of entertainment, but that wasn’t what I thought I was getting into. I thought it was supposed to be a classic work of cinema by a filmmaker at the peak of his prowess. I found it a bit lacking.

Now with ROAD TO PERDITION, here we have a film that is from start to finish a complete work. Every shot of the film carries your eye around the frame only to fix your eye on the subject of the shot. The details of production design, lighting… the little things.

Take a look at the scene between Jude Law’s Maguire and Hanks’ Sullivan. Now in Michael Mann’s HEAT, there is that scene between DeNiro and Pacino. I love their dialogue, but I always felt the scene felt forced. That it was a moment about putting these two guys in a scene together, as opposed to the scene being completely real. In ROAD TO PERDITION, watching Jude and Tom sitting there talking about what it is like to be in the presence of the dead, both playing it cool. Both trying not to let on to the other that the other is who the other is, but Hanks realizing that Law knows exactly who he is… Well, this is masterfully played. And watch for a cameo by ‘the best bead of sweat in film history’ in this scene. It is that detail, that amazing excretion that adds so much… so much to the scene.

Watch the scene where Tyler Hoechlin’s Michael Jr arrives home late at night on his bike as his world is changing in his house. Listen to Thomas Newman’s exquisite score here. Watch Conrad Hall’s breathtaking cinematography. Feel the rhythm of Jill Bilcock’s editing. Notice Dennis Gassner’s Production Design and Richard Johnson’s Art Direction in tandem with Nancy Haigh’s Set Decoration and Albert Wolsky’s Costume Design. Oh and notice how you are blown away by all of that, but still focused on the work Hoechlin and Daniel Craig. How even though I was stunned how affected I was by the cumulative accomplishment of all of these artists working together to bring about such a powerfully poignant moment. This isn’t a scene you’ll see most critics highlight. However, this is the lynchpin of the movie. If this scene hadn’t been pulled off correctly, the film could have unraveled.

The scene that most will talk about is Hanks’ powerful Tommy-Gun scene towards the latter part of the film. I imagine you’ll see people compare it to Albert Finney’s show-stopping sequence from MILLER’S CROSSING. The two scenes are indeed both about characters with Tommy Guns that know how to use them, but the two couldn’t be further apart. Albert Finney’s scene is about tour de force filmmaking that makes you want to stand up and applaud when it is over. Hanks’ scene… well my jaw and lips were trembling and tears poured out of my eyes. Doesn’t mean either is better than the other, only that amazing filmmakers both shot their TOMMY GUN scenes mutually exclusive of one another and to different ends. The cinema of both moments is riveting. Which do I prefer? I have the luxury of saying I love them both, isn’t that a nice thing to be able to say?

The acting in this film is as laudatory as the rest of the film.

Tyler Hoechlin is exceptional as Sullivan Jr. From the moment he is smoking his pipe filled with stolen tobacco and is pummeled with his brother’s snowball to the end of the film, I found myself captured by this young understated performance. He plays the film as a witness. To some levels reminding me of Lukas Haas’ part in Peter Weir’s WITNESS, except with more character.

Daniel Craig’s Connor Rooney is absolutely wonderful. He’s a weak petty self-absorbed man. This isn’t a grandstanding spoilt brat of a performance, instead it is about a man that knows he isn’t his father and it tears him up inside that he can never be his father. HOWEVER, he knows that he’s supposed to, so he does the things he assumes his father would do, but just constantly drops the ball. Craig plays failure to the ‘T’.

Stanley Tucci’s Frank Nitti is really something to smile about. As the Right Hand of Capone, Tucci plays Nitti as a man that gets things done. He makes the hard decisions, deals with the crap that Capone doesn’t want to deal with and does whatever it takes to keep things going smoothly and profitably. Watch Stanley in the scene between him and Daniel Craig where Craig is informing Nitti of the respect that is due to him. Watch the restraint in his character. Watch what isn’t said here. The scene reminded me of the omelet scene in THE BIG NIGHT. Tucci is an actor that knows how to make the most out of scenes with no dialogue. Again, in a movie about details, his is a detailed performance.

Jude Law. Well, Jude Law is just a marvel. How a person gets to be this talented, handsome and self-sacrificingly humble as a performer… I’ll never know. His Maguire is a masterpiece of performance. From the gait of his walk to the way he holds his face at a slight angle with a disjointed pained smile. Suzi Ostos’ make-up and Albert Wolsky’s costuming of Jude are both to be applauded in special regards to Jude’s character. Words fail me to do his work here justice. There is a moment in the film where Jude asks a character to smile for his picture. For me, this was one of THOSE shots. You know the scene in CLOCKWORK ORANGE where Alex looks up sardonically? You know that shot where Harrison Ford is contemplating the appropriate weight of the bag of sand for the idol of gold? William Holden screaming out to kill them all in THE WILD BUNCH? Gene Kelly’s Lamp Post? Gloria Swanson’s close-up? Well, Jude Law, Conrad Hall, Sam Mendes and Suzi Ostos were the key contributors to a scene that instantly burned its impact into my memory in a jaw-dropping… THAT’S UNBELIEVABLY GREAT sort of way. Fantastic. It is rare that you see a frame of film that is just perfect. Thanks to everyone that made that shot possible.

Paul Newman’s John Rooney… Well, Paul Newman is just so good it hurts. It does. Watching Newman and knowing that he’s just not gonna be around forever is painful. From his smiling grandfatherly hugs, to his brutally forceful hauling over the burning coals of his anger that he gives his son in that board meeting, to that church basement scene, to the paying of his debt to Michael Jr., to his final scene in the film… Newman is just magic. It isn’t necessarily about being big in these scenes. He’s just got a presence that is utterly commanding. In his and Hanks’ scenes you see the respect register on Tom’s face that he’s in the room with Paul Newman. That works for this film, because his Michael Sullivan is in awe… filled with respect for John Rooney. I’m hoping to see one last film with Newman and Redford, but if this were to be the film that Newman retired on, I’d completely understand. This is one helluva performance in a film that actually deserves to have it.

Lastly… There’s Tom Hanks. Sunday night, I went to a screening of THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH where Jimmy Stewart plays a clown in Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey’s Circus that is hiding from his murderous past. Jimmy Stewart wasn’t known for being a bad guy. He was a man that desperately wanted to do the right thing. This isn’t Hanks’ GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, it is closer in a way to being his THE NAKED SPUR. Hanks is a cold blooded killer here. He does what he has to do, what he thinks he has to do, because he isn’t the man that can break out of who he is. He’s a killer. He knows what that means, what the price of being that person means to his eternal soul, but he’s made his peace with that. He has chosen the path he is on. His son isn’t his redemption, per se, but he is the one bit of good that came out of his life that will carry his name and hopefully live a good life in spite of his family’s legacy. Hanks again shows why he is one of the best actors working today. His character doesn’t scream or leap through the air as he shoots and kills, in a way… I get the idea that Hanks watched Eastwood’s William Munny or Josey Wales before pulling on the trench coat. Whatever the case, he studied the right behavior to infuse into this character, it is one of his best performances and best films.

So that brings me to discuss the final placement of ROAD TO PERDITION. This is the best film screened on general screens in the United States thus far this year. There are many films coming that I am looking forward to challenging ROAD TO PERDITION’s place… most notable of these being Polanski’s THE PIANIST. However, given that I can’t judge ROAD TO PERDITION’s final place amongst the films this year, I will discuss its place in the history of Gangster films. This isn’t the larger genre of Crime Films nor is it the sub-sub-genre of Mafia films, but the sub-genre… GANGSTER MOVIES, meaning those tommy-gun styled films about 1930’s and 1940’s crime.

My top fifteen all time Gangster films are:

1. John Huston’s KEY LARGO

2. Howard Hawks’ SCARFACE

3. Stuart Heisler’s THE GLASS KEY

4. Sergio Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA

5. Mervyn LeRoy’s LITTLE CAESAR

6. Michael Curtiz’s ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES

7. Stanley Kubrick’s KILLER’S KISS

8. Josef von Sternberg’s UNDERWORLD

9. Coen Brothers’ MILLER’S CROSSING

10. William Wellman’s PUBLIC ENEMY

11. Roman Polanski’s CHINATOWN

12. Raoul Walsh’s ROARING TWENTIES

12.5. Brian DePalma's THE UNTOUCHABLES (forgot about it, Sorry)

13. Sam Mendes’ ROAD TO PERDITION

14. William Witney’s THE BONNIE PARKER STORY

15. Walter Hill’s LAST MAN STANDING

The order of this list will shift from time to time given my mood, but for my money, these are the very best Gangster movies ever made. If ya notice, no two films have the same director, they each brought their own signature style and flair to their individual films. This list and the order is very much me being very ‘Rob Gordon’. Oh, and if any of you have a copy of the old Charles Bronson MACHINE GUN KELLY, I'd love to see it, as I've been aware of it forever, just never had a chance to see it. Mendes has definitely made one of the best Gangster films of all time, but don’t just see it, see the others on that list as well. You’ll be better for it. I guarantee you. Oh… And one last thing… remember, “Everything’s fucking hysterical!”