At Close Range [Blu-ray]

Overview

Amazingly, At Close Range was based on a true story. Bored teenager Sean Penn meets his prodigal father (Christopher Walken) for the first time in years. Though Penn is vaguely aware that his father is a criminal, he is nonetheless impressed by his dad's high life style and creature comforts. But Walken's veneer of charm is fragile indeed, and it becomes clear that he is willing to kill anyone--even his family--if they get in his way. When Walken rapes Penn's girl friend (Mary Stuart Masterson) to keep the boy from cooperating with the DA, it is only a warm-up for the horrors to come. The screenplay for At Close Range was written by Nicholas Kazan, the son of prominent film director Elia Kazan.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/01/2022
UPC:	0760137856283
Original Release:	1986
Source:	Mvd Rewind
Language:	English
Time:	1:55:00
Sales rank:	16,026

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Sean Penn	Brad Whitewood Jr.,Tommy Whitewood,Tommy Whitewood
Christopher Walken	Brad Whitewood Sr.
Mary Stuart Masterson	Terry
Millie Perkins	Julie Whitewood
Eileen Ryan	Grandmother
Alan Autry	Ernie
Candy Clark	Mary Sue
R.D. Call	Dickie Whitewood
Tracey Walter	Patch
J.C. Quinn	Boyd
David Strathairn	Tony Pine
Jake Dengel	Lester
Crispin Glover	Lucas
Kiefer Sutherland	Tim
Noelle Parker	Jill
Stephen Geoffreys	Aggie
Paul Herman	Salesman
Gary Gober	District Attorney
Marshall Fallwell Jr.	Bartender
Doug Anderson	Marshall
Nancy Sherburne	Waitress
Terry Baker	Customer
Michael Edwards	Car Salesman
Myke Mueller	Car Salesman
Bob McDivitt	Farmer with Shotgun
Bonita Hall	Buxom Woman
Terri Coulter	Barroom Dancer
Anna Levine	Barroom Dancer
Janie Draper	Stripper
Charles 'Tatoo' Jensen	Older Guy
E.R. Davies	Detective Mosker
James Foley	Assistant District Attorney
Myke R. Mueller	2nd Car Salesman
Patrick Leonard	Composer

Technical Credits

Nicholas Kazan

James Foley	Director
Nicholas Kazan	Screenwriter
Adams Calvert	Special Effects
Burt Dalton	Special Effects
John Daly	Executive Producer
Derek Gibson	Executive Producer
Don Guest	Producer
Elliott Lewitt	Producer
Chuck Waters	Stunts
Risa Bramon	Casting
Billy Hopkins	Casting

Editorial Reviews

A superbly written and acted film based loosely on real-life events, this intense crime drama is a major artistic success for all concerned, especially stars Christopher Walken and Sean Penn in two of their best roles, as well as screenwriter Nicholas Kazan and director James Foley. The latter's style might strike some viewers as too cool, remote, or austere, but this nearly documentary-like approach allows the cast room to stretch and improvise while slyly emphasizing the picture's similarity to the classic In Cold Blood (1967). However, the film is definitely not a docudrama, the director reminding viewers of the emotionally potent subtext with subtle, symbolic transitions in which such incongruous, attention-getting images as bound chicken talons or singing lips suddenly appear. His is the art of transcending the establishing shot by going for something a little more penetrating. Walken and Penn are marvels of nuance employed in the arts of linguistic inflection and the physicality of inhabiting a character with one's entire body, from the way they laugh to how they walk. (Just watch Penn as he shifts from a cocky swagger that emanates down from his shoulders, moving like nothing so much as a suit buoyed by a massive hanger, to a defeated, slump-shouldered shuffle by the finale). Kazan goes light on dialogue but what's there is charged with unspoken meaning, while visual cues and arresting images tell the story. All of this shows the mark of a great screenwriter enjoying a meeting of the minds with a director who gets it. At Close Range (1986) is one of the best examples of its genre from the 1980s.

All Movie Guide - Karl Williams