…this reviewer?? Always been a highly devoted and respectably
knowledgeable top-40 pop music lover…a progressive and well-versed fan of the
more familiar, more popular, and often played music hits of countless high
profile artists, stretching as far back as the golden age of ‘50’s pop and rock
‘n’ roll (…wasn’t even yet a twinkle in my parent’s eyes, back then…but
nonetheless, God bless them for instilling a love of that era of music, into my
appreciative listening repertoire). Hardly unusual...that scuffed, scratched and
worn plastic dial on the car radio, or on the shoulder-straining portable ‘boom
box’, was evermore ‘super-glued’ to the lower-band AM dial. Indeed, an almost
religious disciple of the Sunday morning Casey Kasem top-100 countdown, back in
the day when he reigned supreme over the radio airwaves. And those old-school
TV advertised top-40 music collections from the ‘70’s, periodically released by
Ronco and K-Tel (…yes, folks…only $5.99, per album or cassette tape…20 original
hits, 20 original stars, like…)?? Yeah, (I) had ‘em all…
…now, y’all may roll your eyes at the mind-numbing,
umpteenth time that the Lipps, Inc. version of “Funkytown” is toted out on the
airwaves. For myself…hey, my toes, they’ll still be a-tappin’…again, and again,
and again (...as I talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it…doo-doo
doo doo
doo, doo doo dah dee-doo…)…
…at home, the myriad collection of artists’ greatest hits
albums, cassettes, compact discs…yeah, there might even be a dozen and a half
or so of 8-track tapes, still buried in a box somewhere,
too…far outnumbering the singularly themed releases, containing maybe one or
two hits, and the rest of the lot…eh, likable, but for the most part,
negligible and rarely heard. Even the hundreds…nay, even thousands of Frisbee-sized,
black vinyl .45 RPM records…hey, a mere $1.99 each, at the long defunct Tower
Records…with a top-40 hit on one side, and a notable, though slighted ‘other’
song…the lauded ‘B’ side, on the other…each carefully preserved in their own
individual sleeves, and occasionally…the dust blown off those scratchy singles,
and piled up on a turntable spindle, for successive, drop-sequential aural
appreciation (…i.e., ‘hey Buddy!! Wanna come over and play some records??)…
…that been said…eh, every once in a blue moon…well,
change-of-pace curiosity would momentarily take the driver’s seat, and
invariably suggest that…hey, why not flip those dang .45’s over, like thin ebony-shaded flapjacks, and ‘cook up’ those lesser appreciated ‘B’ side
puppies?? And the result of that revelation?? Well, more than often enough, you
retain the artist’s intended heartfelt mood and fervor, but on a much more
personal, ambitious, and meaningful level, though considerably less commercial
and less prolific. The ‘A’ side…well, that’s for the dance-floor, arena rockin' general masses…but
the ‘B’ side?? Perhaps advocated by the more ardent and appreciative of the
artist’s following…something more personal, meaningful and diminutive, than the
‘preferred’ commercial piece…but no less reflective of the artist’s favored
musical form or genre…
…from a cult film enthusiast’s point of view, this comparative
observation might well seem not unlike…yeah, not unlike those well-paired
old-school drive-in double features, of decades past…you know, where the first
movie is a very commercial, higher-profile and higher budgeted film, within a
specific genre…followed by, providing you stick around for it, the
co-feature…usually within the same genre, to keep that momentum of flavor
going, but on a much lesser, though no less ambitious scale & intent,
budget and production–wise…
...(…sigh…OK, so I’ve had better lead-in’s…hey,
doing the best I can, with what I’ve got, focusing on this ‘lil’ film that could’...gimme a break, will ya'??
But, then again...sheesh!! Talk about a shortcut, by way of Albuquerque…LOL!!!)…
…Scruffy and shaggy New York police officer and Army veteran
Joey Fortunato is in the throes of dilemma and conflict. You see, some seven
years previous, his father…a well-respected and seasoned cop, himself…was reportedly
set up, ambushed and brutally killed in the streets, in cold blood by the local
mafia. Since his father’s well-mourned passing, Joey’s mother and his
uncle…both devoted Catholics, and both direct descendants of Italian
immigrants…have relentlessly scolded, ranted at, and pressured him, insisting
that he seek out ‘eye for an eye’ justice, and outright kill his father’s
murderers, if at the very least, for the sake of the family’s honor (…uh, roll
credits). Unfortunately, given a police officer’s morality and limitations, Joey
finds himself hard pressed to act according to his mother’s wishes, as although
everyone on the streets seems to know who killed Joey’s father, there appears
to be no definitive proof that Carlo Regatti, the local mobster high-lord, was
responsible for the contracted hit…
…in hopes of appeasing his mother and uncle to some degree,
Joey reluctantly instigates his own covert investigation of his
father’s murder; unfortunately, in the midst of having heavily roughed up and
hammered one of Carlo’s loyal cronies for information, Joey is suspended, and forced
to surrender his badge and gun, in response to his unorthodox and unauthorized
actions. And to make matters worse, in pursuing and stalking Carlo from the
shadows…seen just enough to let a progressively angered and enraged Carlo know
that he is being pursued and stalked…not to mention, rousting and
scaring one of Carlo’s business gatherings, with the blast of a sawed-off
shotgun…Joey finds himself propelled to the number one spot, on Carlo’s hit
list…
…keeping himself covert and in the shadows, Joey finds
momentary solace, and a sense of personal progress in taking in and helping out
a destitute, young and sickly waif of a drug addict, whom he is surprised to
find out, he once went to school with. However, the well-intentioned headway
efforts in getting the girl clean are short lived, when Joey returns home from
his continued investigation, and finds that the girl has died…or rather, has
been killed
via overdose, by the ordered hit-man sent to his apartment to kill him. And to
make matters even worse, the mob boss Carlo is also inexplicably found brutally
killed, with the murder having been set up to suggested that Joey had
perpetrated the killing. Despite all of this, as well as the fatal possibility
of now getting killed by either his misdirected fellow police officers, or the
now-vengeful quite mobsters…Joey nonetheless carries forward with his
'investigation'...sawed off shotgun in hand...realizing all too well at this point, that there is clearly
more than meets the eye, with regards to his father’s death, and any
involvement with or by the mob…
…thinking back and recalling those bygone classic times of
drive-in cinema…say, back in the late ‘60’s to early seventies (…at the time,
as a snot-nosed kid, seated on the backseat car window ledge, folded over the
car roof, and getting a slight crick in the neck…my view, nonetheless
unswervingly transfixed on the towering movie screen before me, reflecting back
onto the car windshield), there was no mistaking those great, high-profile, big
studio crime dramas, released at the time. Coppola’s “The Godfather” & “The
Godfather, Part II”…Sidney Lumet’s “Serpico”…Scorsese’s “Mean Streets”…among
countless others. The unnerving, albeit transfixing viciousness and grit of
inner city intrigue and crime…a grim, grating and chilling city street borough ‘brrr’
to the mind, like being ‘forced’ to bite the concrete curb. The ruthless &
ambitious criminal agendas and attitudes portrayed…outwardly, one can’t help
but entrust that these ‘goodfellas’ would invariably be squelched by the local John
Q. Law; however, in the alternate interim, one cannot help but feel an
underlining measure of precarious glee and satisfaction, in seeing the bad guys
do their thing…
…and after having let loose an exasperating breath of
relief, once the final credits begin rolling on the screen…unclenching from a
mentally, even a bit physically exhausting cinematic experience…hey folks, it’s
intermission time. Time to get that last little walk and stretch, before the
next movie…not to mention, gotta drain the ol’ lizard…maybe get one of those
greasy ratburgers, or some of that cardboard crusted pizza…and quickly saunter
back to the car, with hopes that the next feature film will continue the
engaging momentum, having been instilled by the first movie…
…more than often enough, that second feature…given an ideal
exhibitor’s pairing…does that very thing, albeit on a lesser
budget, lesser profile and lesser production fervor. Trouble is…although they
may well perform in that intent…well, who actually remembers by name, those
ideally paired, lower-tiered, under-the-radar flicks, which often play for the
mere moment, then disappear into obscurity, leaving perhaps a faint whiff of ‘…say,
I remember seeing this great little movie, way back when, when it played with
(fill in the blank)…but I be damned if I don’t remember the
title”??...
…”Family Honor”…coined herein on this reviewed blu-ray
release as merely “Honor”…much like one of those quirky character actors, whom one
recognizes by sight, despite being unable to place an immediate name with the
face…is definitely one of those films…
…interestingly enough…and most likely, the resourceful,
well-scribed credit to the writer & director team of Clark Worswick and
Louis Pastore (…who would tag-team their well-matched efforts again, some 13
years later, for the equally under-appreciated, extreme balls-to-the-wall
espionage crime thriller, “Agent on Ice”)…’Family Honor’s sometimes claustrophobically
photographed (…uh, you can’t tell me that ol’ Quentin Tarantino wasn’t influenced
by this film, to some degree…that closed-in, circling 'round-the-table dialogue scene between
gangster goons and mob accountants, or that DIY 'shooting up the junk' snippet, is a dead giveaway), wonderfully thick and
atmospheric, albeit economical 17-grit grating (…hey, don’t knock the ol’
17-grit sandpaper, now; it’ll deftly put a deep, slivered texture in the wood
grain…as well as un-obstructively take off the top six layers of skin, with one
swipe…Yikes!!), hard-nosed city street attitude is rendered in not so much the
rough and deteriorated locales and visuals, but in the damn realistic exposition
of the film’s no-holds-barred characters…
…really…the film’s main ‘setting’ is outwardly and liberally
flavored the cold and ruthless inner-city asphalt streets of New York, as one
might suggest...the outskirts city structures, the ratty and decrepit suburban slums,
apartments, et al…and indeed, that may well be where they filmed the
movie’s various scene proceedings. However, with the clearly economical,
minimally budgeted photography and production values herein…hey, “Family Honor”
might
have been generically, albeit suitably filmed in just about any
big-city Anywhere, USA…and rather, it’s the emotionally driven, hard-nosed,
slightly over-the-top characterizations, which convincingly sell the film as a
born & bred New Yorker, in as far as to say that when one watches the film,
one doesn’t so much see actors playing the characters on the screen, than more
so one might genuinely believe that these were real people we are seeing.
Even the setting’s early ‘70’s wardrobe attire is picture perfect timely, in
that respect, if you consider the clunky-bulky police uniforms, as well as the
swag rock star-like gangster suits and hairstyles (...hey, them thugs gotta be hip wit' da' times, right??). Uh, yeah…it’s that
thickly, deliciously realistic, and New York-style gritty…
…with stand-out performances from, for the most part, a surprisingly
untried cast, heavily mustachioed actor Anthony Page…who would go on to
portray further gritty, inner-city characters, including a powerhouse
performance in 1981’s “Prince in the City”) leads the proceedings, as the
staunchly charismatic Joey Fortunato…our disgraced, though no less
determined police detective…torn between the law-abiding values of justice, and
the insistent demands of family honor (…uh, roll credits), which would see
justice swiftly stricken, no matter the cost (…I can’t help but quote Sean
Connery, in his role as Malone, from 1987’s “The Untouchables”, who poignantly said,
“…what are you prepared to do??”). Despite being virtually the only
films to their credit…Vera Visconti, William Paxton and James Reyes nonetheless
make their film roles herein, unique unto themselves, as…respectively…Joey’s
mother, his uncle Tony, and the enraged & vengeful mafia boss, Carlo
Regatti. And kicking her early acting chops into gear…a young and spunky Toni
Calem, playing Carlo’s overly sheltered school-age daughter; she would continue
taking on roles in gritty urban settings, with her television and cable work on
shows like “Baretta”, “Kojak”, “Starsky & Hutch”, and much later, a prominent
role in the acclaimed HBO series, “The Sopranos”…
…the spotty, synthesizer score ideally accents the rough,
tough and grimy events that unfold…but of a much more ironic note, music-wise…why,
we have famed rock guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Leslie West, of the ‘70’s
hard rock group, Mountain (…oh, c’mon folks!! Surely, you remember the
hard-geared, heavy rock smash, “Mississippi Queen”…hey, ‘more cowbell’,
right??), strangely cast (…yet not so strangely, considering the rockin’ big
hair of the mafia goons, in this flick) as a ‘blink, and you’ll miss ‘em’
walk-on part, as a background mob gangster…
…Code Red’s salvaged print of “Family Honor” is as
deliciously gritty, grimy and bottom -of-the-barrel scuzzy as the film itself;
but then, to clean up and remaster this particular film, might well instill
some wrongful injustice in the overall drive-in flavor and experience of the
film. Surprisingly enough, the promotion and distribution of this film (…by famed
independent Cinerama Releasing, who that year, was also representing classic
cult hits like “The Harrad Experiment”, “Walking Tall”, “The Mack”, and the
equally obscure, under-appreciated & almost forgotten horror/comedy, “Arnold”) was measurably
faltered, commercially…which might well explain the film having been slipped through the cracks, discarded and unjustly buried…
…nonetheless, “Family Honor” is that rare-occasioned second
tiered flick…that forlorn, negligible and seemingly disowned .45 ‘B’ side, at
it were…which in it’s own right, proudly and shamelessly stands out, even in
the spotlight snatching light of higher-showcased, bloated budgeted films of it’s
like…
…a cool, late summer evening’s bumper-to-bumper drive-in double feature of Scorsese’s
“Mean Streets”, followed by Clark Worswick’s “Family Honor”?? Oh hell, yes…I’d buy that for a dollar…or maybe even $5.50, a carload.....
. Use the code CHC at checkout for 15% off your purchase!
