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State of Grace (film)
Encyclopedia
State of Grace is an American
neo-noir
crime film
starring Sean Penn
, Ed Harris
and Gary Oldman
, and featuring Robin Wright, John Turturro
and John C. Reilly
. Written by Dennis McIntyre and directed by Phil Joanou
, the film was executive produced by Ned Dowd, Randy Ostrow, and Ron Rotholz, and features a score by Ennio Morricone
. Although not a box office success, the film was generally well received by critics.
Shot on location in New York City
, the film was inspired by the real-life Hell's Kitchen gang The Westies.
Jackie is drinking in a bar one night when three members of a rival Italian gang enter and he ends up killing all three, feeling insulted that they are on his gang's territory. Frank is summoned to a meeting by the Italian mafia boss and is instructed to kill his brother 'who has become a thorn in both their sides.' Frank has told Jackie to lie in wait in case the meeting goes wrong and only manages to avert a war by hugging the Italian leader outside the restaurant, in full view of his gang members.
Frank arranges for Jackie to collect $25,000 that evening, telling him that the Italians are actually supporting them and this is a reward. Jackie takes Terry along as his secret back up, and they wait at Pier 38. Frank arrives with his lieutentant and, while Terry is trying to phone his police sergeant and undercover supervisor, Nick (John Turturro), whom he mistakenly told to wait at another location. Frank fatally shoots Jackie although Terry did not witness him doing this. The police finally arrive and Terry tells Nick that he is quitting as an undercover operative.
At Jackie's funeral, Terry tells Frank he was at Pier 38 and also hands Frank his police badge. It is now St Patrick's Day and Frank has instructed his gang to find and kill Terry. While Kathleen is watching the St Patrick's Day parade on her own, Terry goes to the bar where Frank and his gang are drinking and, after a deadly shoot out ,killing all of Frank's men, he finally kills Frank. Terry himself is shot three times and the viewer is left not knowing if he lives or dies.
, the film holds an overall approval rating of 88%. Janet Maslin
, film critic for The New York Times
, wrote, "Mr. Joanou attempts to capture the sense of place that defines urban crime, and the ethnic and territorial distinctions that give it shape. He is successful much of the time here." Maslin praised Oldman and Harris, writing, "Jackie Flannery is played by the phenomenal Gary Oldman
, who since Sid and Nancy
has taken on a string of new accents and dramatic identities with stunning ease", and "Jackie's icy older brother...is played by Ed Harris
with an eeriness to match Mr. Oldman's."
Critic Vincent Leo praised Penn's performance, noting, "While Oldman gets the accolades for his energetic performance, it is really Penn's inner demons that provides the film with the right amount of conflict, always letting us be aware that fine lines are the difference between life and death, as well as right and wrong, out in the streets of New York. Is Penn doing the noble thing by taking down the criminals, or is he a rat bastard, disowning himself from the way of life and people who helped him along the way? It's the question that makes him sick to the pit of his stomach, and Penn shows it in his face with almost every scene."
Chicago Sun-Times
film critic Roger Ebert
awarded the film 3 stars out of four: "Gary Oldman's performance in the movie is the best thing about it... He acts only on the basis of his instincts and prejudices, or out of vengeance and fear."
According to "The Numbers" web site, the film was in circulation a few weeks and appeared on 335 screens in its widest release. Total receipts were $1,911,542.
Ebert believed the difficulty State of Grace had at the box office was due to another film with the same theme being released the same week, Martin Scorsese
's Goodfellas
.
The original soundtrack was released on October 1, 1990, by MCA
.
The CD
has eighteen tracks, is 53:45 in length, and features a score composed, orchestrated and conducted by Ennio Morricone
.
Other songs in film
In the scene where Jackie introduces his girlfriend to Terry, the song "Trip Through Your Wires" by the band U2
can be heard in the background. Both this song and "Exit" are cuts from the 1987 album The Joshua Tree
and are also played in the film's trailer. Joanou previously directed U2's 1988 live concert documentary U2: Rattle and Hum
and the band's video for the single "One" (1992). Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine
" plays in a bar scene.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
neo-noir
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
crime film
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
starring Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
, Ed Harris
Ed Harris
Edward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Radio, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show. Harris has also narrated commercials for The Home Depot and other companies...
and Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
, and featuring Robin Wright, John Turturro
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
and John C. Reilly
John C. Reilly
John Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...
. Written by Dennis McIntyre and directed by Phil Joanou
Phil Joanou
Phil Joanou is an American film director. He is also well known for his work with Irish rock band U2, having directed their rockumentary/live tape Rattle and Hum, one of three videos filmed for "One", and the video for "All Because of You"...
, the film was executive produced by Ned Dowd, Randy Ostrow, and Ron Rotholz, and features a score by Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
. Although not a box office success, the film was generally well received by critics.
Shot on location in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the film was inspired by the real-life Hell's Kitchen gang The Westies.
Plot Summary
Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) returns home to New York's Hells Kitchen after a ten year absence. He soon hooks up with childhood pal, Jackie Flannery (Gary Oldman) who is involved in the Irish mob run by his brother, Frankie (Ed Harris). Terry also rekindles an old flame with Jackie's sister, Kathleen (Robin Wright). Soon, however, Terry is torn between his loyalty to his friends and his loyalties to others. He is actually working as an undercover cop in order to help the police break up the gang. However, he is under great pressure and finally reveals his true identity to Kathleen but she wants to have nothing more to do with him after being told by her brother, Frank, that he is an up and coming member in his gang and has already killed two people.Jackie is drinking in a bar one night when three members of a rival Italian gang enter and he ends up killing all three, feeling insulted that they are on his gang's territory. Frank is summoned to a meeting by the Italian mafia boss and is instructed to kill his brother 'who has become a thorn in both their sides.' Frank has told Jackie to lie in wait in case the meeting goes wrong and only manages to avert a war by hugging the Italian leader outside the restaurant, in full view of his gang members.
Frank arranges for Jackie to collect $25,000 that evening, telling him that the Italians are actually supporting them and this is a reward. Jackie takes Terry along as his secret back up, and they wait at Pier 38. Frank arrives with his lieutentant and, while Terry is trying to phone his police sergeant and undercover supervisor, Nick (John Turturro), whom he mistakenly told to wait at another location. Frank fatally shoots Jackie although Terry did not witness him doing this. The police finally arrive and Terry tells Nick that he is quitting as an undercover operative.
At Jackie's funeral, Terry tells Frank he was at Pier 38 and also hands Frank his police badge. It is now St Patrick's Day and Frank has instructed his gang to find and kill Terry. While Kathleen is watching the St Patrick's Day parade on her own, Terry goes to the bar where Frank and his gang are drinking and, after a deadly shoot out ,killing all of Frank's men, he finally kills Frank. Terry himself is shot three times and the viewer is left not knowing if he lives or dies.
Cast
- Sean PennSean PennSean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
as Terry Noonan - Ed HarrisEd HarrisEdward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Radio, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show. Harris has also narrated commercials for The Home Depot and other companies...
as Frankie Flannery - Gary OldmanGary OldmanGary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
as Jackie Flannery - Robin Wright as Kathleen Flannery
- John TurturroJohn TurturroJohn Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
as Nick - John C. ReillyJohn C. ReillyJohn Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...
as Stevie McGuire - R. D. CallR. D. CallR. D. Call is an American film and television actor.-Biography:R. D. Call was raised in Utah. He began his acting career in college while attending Utah State University and Weber State University....
as Pat Nicholson - Joe ViterelliJoe ViterelliJoseph "Joe" Viterelli was an Italian American actor known for his mafioso-orientated personality endorsements....
as Borelli - Burgess MeredithBurgess MeredithOliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
as Finn - Marco St. JohnMarco St. JohnMarco St. John is an American actor who has starred in many films and on television. He is best known for his role as the perverted truck driver in the 1991 hit film Thelma & Louise. St. John is also well known in the horror fan community for playing Sheriff Tucker in the 1985 horror film Friday...
as Jimmy Cavello - Mo GaffneyMo GaffneyMaureen E. "Mo" Gaffney is an American actress, comedian, writer and activist.-Biography:She hosted two of her own television talk shows: Women Aloud! and The Mo Show...
as Maureen - Deirdre O'ConnellDeirdre O'Connell (actress)Deirdre O'Connell is an American character actress who has worked extensively on stage, screen, and television.O'Connell began her career at Stage One, an experimental theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts...
as Irene - Thomas G. WaitesThomas G. WaitesThomas G. Waites is an American actor and acting instructor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Waites runs an acting studio in New York City which is named for him. He has been a member of the Actor's Studio since 1984....
as Frankie's Man - Brian BurkeBrian BurkeBrian Thomas Burke was Labor premier of Western Australia from 25 February 1983 until his resignation on 25 February 1988...
as Frankie's Man - Michael CumpstyMichael CumpstyMichael Cumpsty is a British actor. He has been acting since childhood. He has worked extensively performing Shakespeare, as well as both musicals and dramas on Broadway...
as Frankie's Man - Michael CunninghamMichael CunninghamMichael Cunningham is an American writer, best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999.-Early life and education:...
as Frankie's Man - Paul-Felix Montez as Pool Hall Manager
Critical reception
State of Grace was generally well received by critics. Of the reviews collected from notable publications by popular review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, the film holds an overall approval rating of 88%. Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
, film critic for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, wrote, "Mr. Joanou attempts to capture the sense of place that defines urban crime, and the ethnic and territorial distinctions that give it shape. He is successful much of the time here." Maslin praised Oldman and Harris, writing, "Jackie Flannery is played by the phenomenal Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
, who since Sid and Nancy
Sid and Nancy
Sid and Nancy is a 1986 British biopic directed by Alex Cox. The film portrays the life of Sid Vicious , bassist of the seminal punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and his relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen .-Plot:The film opens with several police officers dragging Sid Vicious out of the Hotel...
has taken on a string of new accents and dramatic identities with stunning ease", and "Jackie's icy older brother...is played by Ed Harris
Ed Harris
Edward Allen "Ed" Harris is an American actor, writer, and director, known for his performances in Appaloosa, Radio, The Rock, The Abyss, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, A History of Violence, and The Truman Show. Harris has also narrated commercials for The Home Depot and other companies...
with an eeriness to match Mr. Oldman's."
Critic Vincent Leo praised Penn's performance, noting, "While Oldman gets the accolades for his energetic performance, it is really Penn's inner demons that provides the film with the right amount of conflict, always letting us be aware that fine lines are the difference between life and death, as well as right and wrong, out in the streets of New York. Is Penn doing the noble thing by taking down the criminals, or is he a rat bastard, disowning himself from the way of life and people who helped him along the way? It's the question that makes him sick to the pit of his stomach, and Penn shows it in his face with almost every scene."
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
awarded the film 3 stars out of four: "Gary Oldman's performance in the movie is the best thing about it... He acts only on the basis of his instincts and prejudices, or out of vengeance and fear."
Box Office
The film was released on a limited basis on September 14, 1990. First-week box office totaled $179,927 (14 screens).According to "The Numbers" web site, the film was in circulation a few weeks and appeared on 335 screens in its widest release. Total receipts were $1,911,542.
Ebert believed the difficulty State of Grace had at the box office was due to another film with the same theme being released the same week, Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's Goodfellas
Goodfellas
Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese...
.
Soundtrack
Music Corporation of America
MCA, Inc. was an American talent agency. Initially starting in the music business, they would next become a dominant force in the film business, and later expanded into the television business...
.
The CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
has eighteen tracks, is 53:45 in length, and features a score composed, orchestrated and conducted by Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
.
Other songs in film
In the scene where Jackie introduces his girlfriend to Terry, the song "Trip Through Your Wires" by the band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
can be heard in the background. Both this song and "Exit" are cuts from the 1987 album The Joshua Tree
The Joshua Tree
The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release The Unforgettable Fire, U2 aimed for a harder-hitting sound on The Joshua...
and are also played in the film's trailer. Joanou previously directed U2's 1988 live concert documentary U2: Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum
Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs...
and the band's video for the single "One" (1992). Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine
Sweet Child O' Mine
"Sweet Child o' Mine" is the third single by American rock band Guns N' Roses, and the third from their 1987 debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction. Released on August 17, 1988, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the band's first and only number-one single in the U.S...
" plays in a bar scene.
External links
- State of Grace film trailer