| At Close Range | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | James Foley |
| Screenplay by | Nicholas Kazan |
| Story by | Elliott Lewitt Nicholas Kazan |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Juan Ruiz Anchía |
| Edited by | Howard E. Smith |
| Music by | Patrick Leonard |
Production companies | Hemdale Film Corporation Cinema '85 |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$6.5 million[citation needed] |
| Box office | US$2.3 million[1] |
At Close Range is a 1986 Americanneo-noir[2]crimedrama film directed byJames Foley from a screenplay written byNicholas Kazan, based on thereal life ruralPennsylvaniacrime family led byBruce Johnston Sr., which occurred during the 1960s and '70s. It starsSean Penn andChristopher Walken, withMary Stuart Masterson,Crispin Glover,Tracey Walter,Christopher Penn,Eileen Ryan,David Strathairn andKiefer Sutherland insupporting roles.
At Close Range was theatrically released byOrion Pictures on April 18, 1986, in the United States. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with Penn's and Walken's performances receiving particular praise and the film's music receiving appreciation. The film was not a box office success, grossing a total of $2.3 million at the North American box office, earning less than its production budget of $6.5 million.
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 with his mother, grandmother, brother and mother's boyfriend, comes to stay with him. Brad Jr. decides he wants to emulate his father, motivated by his flashy car and wads of $100 bills. At first, Jr. starts a gang with his brother, Tommy, fencing their 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 Brad Jr's mother, 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 on killing him, but decides instead to cooperate with police. Ultimately, he takes the witness stand in his father's trial.
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The film, while depicting incidents inChester County andLancaster County, Pennsylvania, was actuallyshot inFranklin andSpring Hill, Tennessee.[citation needed]
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Music for the film was composed byPatrick Leonard, who had been working on an instrumental theme forParamount's 1986 filmFire with Fire, and wanted to enlistMadonna for the vocals. Leonard was turned down by Paramount for that project, but Madonna, who was at the time married to Sean Penn, decided that the theme would work well forAt Close Range. She wrote the lyrics and presented a democassette to directorJames Foley, and suggested Leonard compose the film's soundtrack. The theme with Madonna's lyrics became the single "Live to Tell". A slower instrumental version opened the film's maintitle sequence, a harbinger of theend credit sequence, which was accompanied by the version from Madonna's thirdstudio album,True Blue (1986). Versions of the instrumental show up throughout. The instrumentalfilm score by Leonard remained unreleased until a version of the main titles appeared on the Internet in 2014, although the 7" single of "Live to Tell" included aB-side incomplete instrumental version of the score.
The music featuring in the film included a number of popular songs from the late 1970s, including "Miss You" byThe Rolling Stones, "Boogie Oogie Oogie" byA Taste of Honey, as well as a number of arrangements featuringLeRoux.
The film was not profitable at the box office during its theatrical run. It grossed a total of $2,347,000 at the North American box office during its theatrical run in 83 theaters, earning less than its budget of $6.5 million.[1]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 87% of 23 critics' reviews are positive.[3]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 67 out of 100, based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[4] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.[5]
Roger Ebert gave it 3½ out of 4 stars, noting that "few recent films have painted such a bleak picture of human nature". He described Sean Penn as "probably the best of the younger actors", while laudingChristopher Walken's "hateful" performance.[6]
