At Close Range (1986)
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A struggling teenager seeks to emulate his criminal father's lifestyle, only to be drawn into a violent web of family crime.
The story
Brad Whitewood Sr. is a career criminal and leader of his family's gang of rural backwoods criminals. His son, Brad Whitewood Jr., a floundering, out-of-work teenager living in poverty, comes to stay with his father. Motivated by his father's flashy car and wads of $100 bills, Brad Jr. decides he wants to emulate his father. At first, Jr. starts a gang with his brother Tommy, fencing stolen goods through Brad Sr.'s criminal network. Encouraged by his 16-year-old girlfriend, Terry, Brad Jr. seeks full entry into his father's gang but tries to back out after witnessing a murder.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Brad Whitewood Sr. is a career criminal and leader of his family's gang of rural backwoods criminals. His son, Brad Whitewood Jr., a floundering, out-of-work teenager living in poverty, comes to stay with his father. Motivated by his father's flashy car and wads of $100 bills, Brad Jr. decides he wants to emulate his father. At first, Jr. starts a gang with his brother Tommy, fencing stolen goods through Brad Sr.'s criminal network. Encouraged by his 16-year-old girlfriend, Terry, Brad Jr. seeks full entry into his father's gang but tries to back out after witnessing a murder. Eventually, Brad Jr.'s gang is arrested while stealing tractors, and the FBI and local law enforcement lean on him to get him to turn against his father. During Brad Jr.'s time in jail, Brad Sr. becomes convinced that Terry is a risk to his activities, thinking that Brad Jr. may confide incriminating details to Terry. In an attempt to destroy her relationship with Brad Jr., Brad Sr. gets Terry drunk and stoned and rapes her. After a prison visit in which Terry, accompanied by Julie, has a conversation with Jr., it seems that he begins to cooperate with police. The members of Brad Jr.'s gang are subpoenaed, and Brad Sr. feels he needs to eliminate them. His gang kills Lucas, Aggie and Tommy. Brad Jr. and Terry plan to flee to Montana, but they're ambushed. Terry is killed, and Brad Jr. is seriously wounded. Brad Jr. confronts his father armed with his father's gun, intending to kill him, but decides instead to cooperate with police. Ultimately, he takes the witness stand in his father's trial.
- First release year
- 1986
- Runtime (minutes)
- 115
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- James Foley
- Writers
- Nicholas Kazan · screenplay; Elliott Lewitt · story; Nicholas Kazan · story
- Cast and characters
- Sean Penn · Bradford "Little Brad" Whitewood Jr.; Christopher Walken · Bradford "Big Brad" Whitewood Sr. (based on Bruce Johnston); Mary Stuart Masterson · Terry; Christopher Penn · Thomas "Tommy" Whitewood; Millie Perkins · Julie; Eileen Ryan · Grandma; Tracey Walter · Uncle Patch Whitewood; R. D. Call · Dickie
- Genres
- crime thriller; independent; rural noir; crime drama; neo-noir
- Themes
- dysfunctional family; father-son conflict; crime and poverty; betrayal
- Tone and mood
- bleak; noir
- Premise and plot tags
- based on real life; crime family; rural crime; FBI investigation
- Source material / true-story basis
- The real life rural Pennsylvania crime family led by Bruce Johnston Sr., which occurred during the 1960s and 1970s.
- Reception
- The film was not profitable at the box office, grossing less than its budget. It received generally favorable reviews from critics, with Roger Ebert giving it 3½ out of 4 stars, while audiences gave it a 'C' grade.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 67 · scale: 100
- Awards and nominations
- ASCAP Film & Television Music Award · Most Performed Song from a Motion Picture ("Live to Tell") · Winner; BMI Film & TV Award · Most Performed Song from a Film ("Live to Tell") · Winner; Casting Society of America · Best Casting in Feature Film · Nominated
- Production trivia
- The film's music was composed by Patrick Leonard, who originally wanted to enlist Madonna for vocals for a different project.; Filming took place on location in and around the city of Franklin, Tennessee, during the summer of 1985.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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