Abel Ferrara:'I made Scarface look like Mary Poppins'
Compared with the grievances between the gangs, the focus of "The King of New York" is actually on the social issues-Jean Valjean and Javert in The Miserable World. Other gangster movies may reflect social changes in a small way and from a point to point of view. The gangsters here are more intended to provide a perspective of observing society. It may be difficult to notice this if you don’t know a little about the history and living conditions of the black people in the United States, and the current "Minnesota incident" just provides an intuitive footnote.
The main characters in the film are almost in a desperate predicament. The line of the Chinese gang boss is very interesting, "If l was into socialized medicine, l would have stayed in the Peking province". Other minorities can choose, and there is always a "home" to go back to; American blacks have been wiped out of history, language, and ethnicity in the slave trade for hundreds of years, and the mighty black people's movement in the middle of the last century was finally destroyed. Disintegration. Walken commented in a magazine interview in 1992 that "He (the protagonist of the title from prison) comes out like Lenin. He has an idea to change the world. He will do anything. Now he's going to do it." It hardly reminds me of the international situation in 1990 when the film was released. The idea of "the end of history" is gaining momentum-but history is over, what is the situation for black Americans?
On the other hand, the film’s use of whites as the protagonist highlights the predicament of blacks, and the actors are quite clever (the impromptu hip-hop dance at the beginning is a magical stroke), reasonable and sensible, and seems to have won considerable fans among black audiences. . However, (forgot where to watch it) In recent years, both the director and the lead actor have expressed some regrets, thinking that the grief of the protagonist should be strengthened. I think it may be because the movie is really too subtle, too cool and too romantic, and it is easy to misunderstand the audience. This is not a movie of bliss and enmity.
It should have been my best work, but I fucked up. I've only seen the film twice and I felt that I didn't give Frank enough complexity and perspective. You don't see enough anguish in his face and the things that drive him to do what he does. I wish I had another chance to play him because I would have completely altered my performance. I'm flattered that you and other people enjoy the film and my character, but I'm not satisfied that I did justice to him. Both myself and the director, Abel Ferrara, worked hard at creating a mysterious edge to Frank's personality but we lost his motivation and a sense of where he was coming from. So I'm disappointed by what comes off on the screen. (Walken, 2004)
View more about King of New York reviews
