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Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)

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42 Nutzerkommentare insgesamt

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21 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
A GEM OF A MOVIE!, 29. März 2000
Author: (fandangonoir)

Last Exit to Brooklyn is a great flick. It's brutal, dark, funny as heck at times, and in the end uplifting. Watching this movie it was hard to imagine this was based on a book from the 50's. A book which explores homosexuality, prostitution, sexual confusion would seem to be almost unheard of subjects in the uptight, Leave It To Beaver 1950's. People who put down this film don't know what they're talking about. The author of the book this movie was based on said himself he thought this was one great adaptation of his novel. And he was sure right. Folks who can handle the dark, brutal films of David Lynch, the Coen Brothers and Tarantino, Scorsese, Kubrick, Hartley and Fosse will dig this movie. But if "You've Got Mail" is your idea fo a great rental, you won't like it a bit. It's just as well, a lot of great, cool films aren't for everyone.

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14 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
The Opposite of Pleasantville, 25. Oktober 2005

Author: bill-987 von United States

Did you ever notice that if you were to show a film to after dinner friends, all too often what you bring out is a work that might not make a list of your personal top ten favorite movies? This is one of those films. Very postwar early 50's, but a 1950's Donna Reed would have been lost in. It truly is the opposite of Pleasantville.

Hubert Selby's dark vision of the common man is woven around several characters in a Brooklyn neighborhood. A factory worker called Big Joe is played by Burt Young. Instinctively brutal yet pathetically naive, he wanders through his Brooklyn neighborhood functioning at the most elemental level reinforced only by an inherited value system to which he is single-mindedly loyal. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a whore whose timeline for thoughts of her future stretches out only several hours. She gets by in life rolling drunks whose tolerance for liquor is less than hers, or giving sex to those who outlast her. A soldier soon to be shipped out takes her to Manhattan for his last few stateside days and falls in love with her. Tralala (Leigh's character) recognizes the attendant lust but has no clue about the implications of his love. As she sees him off, the Lieutenant hands her an envelope. Tra's face lights up as her vision of the order in life (she gives him sex, he has a good time, he gives her money) seems to have been reaffirmed. When the envelope turns out to contain a lengthy love letter she doesn't become angry or disappointed, just confused.

In addition to Leigh and Young, powerful performances are turned in by Jerry Orbach (the corrupt union boss), Stephen Lang (the closet homosexual strike-line foreman), Stephen Baldwin (a street punk), Ricki Lake (Big Joe's very pregnant daughter), and Alexis Arquette (the teen-age transvestite).

The soundtrack is excellent and unobtrusive and Uli Edel's direction insightful. You need a strong stomach to watch it and quite a bit of dedication to find it, but it's well worth the effort.

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11 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
A Dark and Impressive View of the Other Side of North America in the 50's, 27. Juli 2004

Author: Claudio Carvalho von Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In 1952, a panoramic view of the other side of North America is presented through the life of different characters and their dramatic stories, having Brooklyn in common. Tralala (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a prostitute, connected with a violent street gang composed of small time crooks. They swindle most of Tralala clients, stealing their money. She meets a young lieutenant from Idaho, who falls in love with her. The labor union is on strike against the employers, placing picket against the trucks and protesting in front of the factory. American soldiers are again fighting in another war, this time against Korea. Maybe the only missing point in this film is the declared racism of those times. This sad, depressive and violent movie is another great work of Uli Edel, mainly known by `Christiane F'. The cast has amazingly performances, and the scene when Tralala is raped by dozens of men in an abandoned car is one of the most strong I have ever seen in a movie. I agree with the words of IMDB User Comments: `Great film, but not a piece of entertainment'. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Noites Violentas no Brooklin' (`Violent Nights in the Brooklyn')

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Inspired, epic vision of a dark world is an unacknowledged classic, 29. Mai 2001
Author: Mattydee74 von Sydney, Australia

I remember my intense eagerness to see this film. I wasn't entirely sure why at the time but when I finally saw it in 1990 I was devastated and soon addicted to this sad tale of city life spiralling out of control. Its a film with an epic quality and a grand, sweeping style that turns the city scape into a character in itself. This was Uli Edel's (as he was then known) classic and it remains a remarkably strong film. Its not pretty and doesn't hold back in revealing the light and dark of its characters. Brutal it may be, but there is something vital and alive seething in this movie with anger and pain. Its source is Hubert Selby Jr's novel. I believe its a superior adaptation.

The film is based around a union strike which threatens to cripple the city of Brooklyn in the 1950s. The film focuses several characters; Harry, the troubled union leader struggling to come to terms with his desires for other men and his gender-bending lover against the anger, aggression and hypocrisy of the era; a woman, TraLaLa, who sells her body for money but finds herself committing the ultimate crime of her profession by falling for a client - an army man destined to hurt her; a family with a daughter pregnant out of wedlock; a gang of aimless young men hungry for trouble; and a young teen looking for love in TraLaLa.

Its a film full of fascinating performances which reinforce the greatness of this film. Jennifer Jason Leigh burst into the spotlight with her startling performance as TraLaLa. She embodies the role with unceasing honesty and vigour. It is her late scenes in the film which rip at the heart, especially when she finds compassion in an unlikely source at the worst of moments. Her portrayal doesn't seek sympathy - on the contrary Jennifer Jason Leigh gets deep inside the cruel and manipulative character to reveal the hope beneath without a false note. Peter Dobson, Stephen Baldwin are a brilliant combination as the thugs and Alexis Arquette is remarkable as their taunted worshipper, Georgette. Ricki Lake, Sam Rockwell and Stephen lang also excel in a great ensemble film.

I can still picture vividly the majesty and intensity of the strike riot and the water spraying at the wire fence as strikers confront the police.

There are many great scenes such as this which combined with striking performances and an unflinching script and score make Last Exit to Brooklyn a modern masterpiece. This is a highly underrated film, mainly because of the view that the subject matter is too seamy, grotesque and extreme. And there is no doubt this is a confronting, violent and provocative film experience. Unfortunately, because of this widely heralded view, many people are missing out on an unacknowledged classic. Don't miss out.

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11 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
A shattering slice of life, 30. Juni 2000

Author: ewa-3 von United States

One of Leigh's best performances in a role that seemed to be written for her. You are rooting for her or ANYONE among the denizens of the strikebound Brooklyn docks to find a way to a better life but at the same time know that no one will make it. The Pieta like still-life after the climatic was a wonderful comment on both the content of the movie itself and the searing quality that some art can have.

It is on my list of most depressing movies, which includes "The Damned", "The Pawnbroker", "The Night Porter".

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Violent slice-of-life that lingers in the memory, 17. April 2003

Author: Peter Hayes von United Kingdom

Working class life in 1950's Brooklyn is disrupted by a strike.

One of these films that seems about nothing in the explaining (the ups and downs of the roughhouse working-class), but is a very powerful piece in the watching and highly recommended.

The film reminded me of an X rated version of American Graffiti where people go about their ordinary lives, but somehow, we become fascinated. While actually shot in West German (when there was one) there are too many real NY character actors for us to notice.

There is fair amount of stupidity and leaching. The male hustler and the whore stick in your mind longer, but the working class morals of all the characters are well observed. Certain scenes actually play no real role in the plot, but add to the feel of time and place.

A lot of people will be shocked by this movie. It is brutally frank and at times violent, but it is never just put there for entertainment. This is an adult picture dealing with adult themes and adult lives. I found it quite hard to watch at times myself, but I think it is an important film and no insult to the classic Selby book which inspired it.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Emotionally draining... in a really good way, 24. Mai 2004

Author: Flatliner82 von Boston, MA

The way "the golden era" really was. The statement on the state of the 1950s presented in Last Exit is shocking, enlightening, and well supported by beautiful performances of an ensemble cast. Jennifer Jason Leigh as Tralala, a hooker WITHOUT a heart of gold (for a change) and Burt Young as a union hard hitter coming to terms with his sexuality are most notably inspiring. Excellent direction and a powerful script make Last Exit emotionally draining, and compelling.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A masterpiece from Uli Edel, 10. September 2003
Author: (tetsuyo@japan.com) von Los Angeles, CA

This is a great film and one that I was not expecting to like. The dark subject matter may not be appealing to some but movie lovers will have to give props to the storytelling, the visually haunting look and the magnificently transparent performances. Watching this movie gave me the feeling like I was in Brooklyn in the 50's watching the other side of Leave It to Beaver. Classic films like Last Exit To Brooklyn stay in ones mind forever. That is the best complement that I can give to this movie. I wonder why the director has not done more feature film work cause this film is on the level of the greats.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
a more violent time, 16. Juli 2004
Author: priscilla vanlaarhoven von queens, new york

Having been born in NYC during the late fifties it was important for me to read, see and finally own Last Exit To Brooklyn. Our household was always a violent and unhappy one. None of us lived in the streets like the characters in the film but the violence from there was definitely reflected in our day to day life. Heartwrenchingly faithful to the mood and sentiment of Hubert Selby's important novel I am continuously surprised at how films like this are overlooked in a larger, classic sense. This is not a pleasant film. The German direction and influence put me in mind of Fassbiner's Berlin Alexanderplatz. There was a similar grotesque as well as aesthetic beauty that I found to be very compelling. Most of all, however, I was remarkably impressed by Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance. She gave us the flip side of Marylin Monroe, the antithesis if you will. I'm pretty sure that she has not, as yet, received Oscar recognition and am puzzled how her performance in Last Exit did not get her a nod. This film come highly recommended.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Absolutely brilliant, 2. Januar 2002
Author: H. D. Frazier von Orlando, Florida

This is one of the best scripts EVER written...pure and simple. The idea of a story, where it operates completely on a subtextural level, forming an overall landscape of sin and redemption without the characters themselves even realizing it, is off the scale. People who say this film is meaningless probably wear tee-shirts with Meg Ryan's picture on the front. I'm not knocking Meg Ryan or the person wearing the shirt...it's just a connection. I also don't agree that the story has no ending. It has a wonderful ending. Seeing Tralala, after what she just put herself through, finally respond to someone's genuine compassion, is a remarkable thing. The story operates on the same level as many Selby stories do, of characters so devoid of faith or hope that they don't recognize how close they are to having what they want or just appreciating the potential in what they have, and that mistake causes their undoing (in Stephen Lang's case) or their uncovered possibilities of grace (Jennifer Jason Leigh). In the end a new life (Burt Young's grandson) is brought into the world, and a new family formed by people who did recognize and do the right thing moves forward in the world. It's majestic.

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