Amazon.com: One of the overlooked films of the 1980s, perhaps because it is such a downbeat tale of an amoral family. Sean Penn plays a kid whose small-time criminal impulses are stoked to a new level when he falls in with his father (Christopher Walken), a vicious career criminal for whom no problem is so large that it can't be solved by a murder. At first exhilarated by the attention from his father (and the jobs he gives him to do), he gradually catches on to just what a bad guy Dad really is. But when he tries to extricate himself, he discovers that Dad now has him squarely in his sights. Penn is terrific in a role of emotional complexity, while Walken, king of the creeps, is positively frightening as this soft-spoken but highly lethal patriarch. --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Excellent drama based on true story
This movie is a great one and of course the acting is superb. Sean Penn never lets you down! The fact that it is based on a true story makes it all the more gripping.
Rating: - "Hands Down, A Winner"
"At Close Range" is a classic example of a movie in which all aspects of the filmmaker's art shine; if it isn't already, it should be required viewing for students in film schools. First of all, the Kazan ... Read More
Rating: - "Is this the family gun, dad?" Hidden '80's Genre Gem
Somehow this movie vanished without a trace when in came out c.'86, but in my years as a video store clerk in that bygone epoch, whenever i recommended it to customers, they thanked me profusely. This slice ... Read More
Rating: - dvd
was not to happy whit this item it as a copy and was all choped up alot of the seans were missing
Rating: - The Family Business of Crime
This movie is based on the true events of a crime family from Pennsylvania. Sean Penn and Christopher Walken are both outstanding in this film. If I remember correctly, Sean Penn was married to Madonna during ... Read More
- Excellent drama based on true story
- dvd
- The Family Business of Crime