Johnny Handsome (1989)

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nTitle: Johnny Handsome (1989)

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nDirector: Walter Hill

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nCast: Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth McGovern,nMorgan Freeman, Forest Whitaker, Lance Henriksen  

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nReview:

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nI did an article a while back called 16 of the Top ‘Revengiest’Revenge Movies; in it I included these films where something awful happens tonthe main character, but then things turn around and eventually the mainncharacter gets his or her revenge, usually in pretty gruesome ways. I didn’tninclude the film I’ll be reviewing today because I had not seen it in such anlong time. When I first saw Johnny Handsome I must’ve been about 13; all Inremembered about Johnny Handsome was its basic premise and the fact that I likednthe story a lot. There’s something gratifying about revenge tales, they alwaysnstart out with something awful happening to the good guy of the film, then innthe end whamo! That sweet, sweet revenge. The bad guys get what they deserved andnthe good guy gets his revenge. Though in this sense, Walter Hill’s JohnnynHandsome is a bit different than most revenge films, Johnny isn’t your typicalngood guy, he’s actually a crook.

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nIn Johnny Handsome we meet John Sedley, moments before henpulls off a diamond heist. John is not just any crook though, he is anmastermind in pulling off robberies. Also, his face is severely disfigured duento an anomaly in his genes. His deformity doesn’t stop him from doing what henhas to do. Johnny is pulling off this diamond heist with the help of twonindividuals. One is a tomboyish lady called Sunny Boyd (Ellen Barkin) and thenother a low life called Rafe Garrett (Lance Henriksen).  The three stick up the diamond store, and asnwe might expect in this kind of movie, things get ugly. The cops are callednupon and at the last minute Rafe and Sunny decide to double cross Johnny andnshoot him and the owner of the store, their idea is to keep the loot tonthemselves. Rafe and Sunny leave John for dead, unfortunately for them, John doesn’tndie. Instead, he is rescued by the police and taken to a hospital where he isngiven the opportunity to jumpstart his life. You see, the doctors want tonperform a surgery on him that could give him a normal face again. Will he takenthis opportunity to begin again? Or will he go back to his old ways?

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nIt occurred to me that Johnny Handsome plays out a lot likena ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ story where the main character has a duality aboutnhim. He has his good natured/kind side, and he’s got his evil side, which he isnat battle with. Johnny used to be a crook, because his looks led him to becomenan outcast, ridiculed and made fun of all his life. But what happens when he getsnhis face back and he no longer looks like a monster?  What kind of battle will be waged with the demonsninside of him? This is what is at the center of this story. Johnny is evenngiven a chance to fall in love with a beautiful woman, and lead a normal life,nunfortunately, his former life calls him. Revenge calls him. Should he heed itsncall?

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nThis is a Walter Hill film, so it’s not just any director we’rentalking about here. This is the guy behind such action packed 80’s classics asn48 Hours (1982), Extreme Prejudice (1987) and Red Heat (1988). Hill’s andirector whose films are very male oriented, he makes films for guys to hollernand cheer at, they are about tough dudes, shoot outs, guns and explosions; toughndudes and sexy ladies. This time around things are a bit different though; notnthat Johnny Handsome doesn’t have its fare share of action and shoot outs, butnthe story is told in a more film noir style. It’s darker, grittier, morencharacter driven. The film starts with a shootout and ends with a shootout, thenmiddle of the film is the whole process of Johnny going from looking like anmonster, to looking like Mickey Rourke before he turned to boxing. Funny how innreal life, Rourke know looks like Johnny before the operation, oh the irony ofnlife!

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nHill invests a good amount of time getting you to knownJohnny, getting you to feel for him. Rourke does a good job here, he plays thentormented soul, you feel like he’s the Frankenstein monster or something; anmisunderstood creature who’s just looking for some love. At first, when wenfirst meet Johnny he looks like a deformed monster, similar to the characternthat Eric Stoltz played in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Mask (1985), someonendeformed because of genetic defects.  Thencharacter of Johnny also reminded me of Marv, another beat up character thatnRourke played in Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City (2005). During the first half ofnthe film, Rourke plays his character through heavy amounts of makeup. But halfnway through the film, after the operation, he transforms, and then we get thenreal Mickey Rourke, the mind boggles at how much Rourke has changed through thenyears! The rest of the film is populated by an excellent cast of supportingncharacters. Ellen Barkin has always been great at playing these rough, tomnboyish ladies, on this show she plays a woman with no moral values whatsoever,nshe hangs out in bars, being a whore, stealing, killing and double crossing.nShe hangs out with low lives like Henriksen’s Rafe Garrett. Henriksen hasnalways been great at playing villains, here he plays the main baddy, not muchnof a stretch acting wise, but he gets the job done. Rounding things up arenMorgan Freeman as a cop who knows Johnny’s true nature, and Forest Whitaker asnthe doctor who operates on Johnny. Whitaker plays the guy who wants to givenJohnny that second chance to improve himself, the guy with hopes that we cannall change.

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nJohnny Handsome is a very underrated Walter Hill film. Thenfilm didn’t hit it big in theaters, in fact, it was a downright flop. It costn20 million to make but only raked in 7.2 at the box office. I guess the filmnreally didn’t connect with audiences for some reason. A pity because the filmnis a good revenge tale, and it has an excellent cast, this is the kind of filmnthat makes you wonder why exactly did it slip through the cracks? Maybe it wasndue to the fact that it had some hefty competition at the box office. Upon it’snrelease it went up against Ridley Scott’s Black Rain (1989), which by the waynwas the #1 film that week, and it also went up against Sea of Love (1989) whichnstarred Al Pacino. Also a bunch of successful family comedies like Uncle Buck (1989)nand Parenthood (1989), so I guess a dark, brooding film about a deformed dudenwasn’t at the top of anybodies list that weekend. But whatever, those thatnknow, know; and on my book, this is a solid revenge tale with good performancesnand a dark, grimy look. If you’re ever in the mood for something like that,nthen this is the film for you.

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nRating: 4 out of 5

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