The Funeral

Looking around for something to watch, I chose:

The Funeral (1996).

This gangster movie, directed by Abel Ferrara is about a trio of brothers who run a gangster crew. There is the oldest, Ray (Christopher Walken), the middle brother, Chez (Chris Penn) and the youngest, Johnny (Vincent Gallo).

The movie, set in the 30's, opens with Johnny's casket being delivered to Ray's house. Someone put three bullets in Johnny's chest, and the body is being delivered for the wake. The question everyone wonders is who shot Johnny? There is no shortage of enemies, as we get to see in multiple flashbacks. Johnny was a communist, a loudmouth and a ladies man who had no scruples about bedding married women, and that is on top of being a gangster.

A great part of the film is told in these flashbacks, mostly as memories from his older brothers who are struggling with guilt and grief in equal measure. There are also the long suffering wives, as no one in this movie is even remotely happy. In fact, this is one of the darkest, most gloomy movies I have ever seen. Most of the scenes are set in dark rooms, but even the few scenes we get in sunlight are so bereft of joy that the sunlight becomes wan and depressing.

Mechanically the movie is good. The set pieces, the actors and the music are really good and hammers home how bleak the movie is. The song in the opening shot is Gloomy Sunday, aka the Hungarian Suicide Song. This should tell you how things are going to be.

Overall, I can't say I really liked the The Funeral. It's just so unflinchingly miserable, but I also think it is worth watching just once. I think it is essentially a “reverse gangster movie”, as in there is no glamour, no style, nothing that would make the lifestyle worth having. Other movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas show some positives even as they demonstrate all the negatives. The Funeral have no positives, it is all unrelenting misery.

So, do I recommend this movie? Weird as it may sound, yes I do. Despite all the pain on display, The Funeral is a compelling movie. You get the feeling that something is going to happen, and you want to be there when it does. If you're in the mood for a gangster movie, maybe choose something else, but if you are a fan of crime cinema you should watch it at some point.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!