At Close Range (1986)

DIRECTOR: James Foley

CAST: Sean Penn, Christopher Walken, Mary Stuart Masterson, Christopher Penn, Crispin Glover, Millie Perkins, Eileen Ryan, Kiefer Sutherland, David Strathairn, Tracey Walter, R.D. Call, J.C. Quinn

REVIEW:

At Close Range is a spare, no-frills crime drama that eschews overdramatic embellishments and portrays a dark true story in unvarnished docudrama fashion.  Set in 1978 and based on the story of the Bruce Johnston gang (with names changed), it centers on Brad Whitewood Jr. (Sean Penn), an aimless juvenile delinquent who gets drawn into the orbit of his sociopathic father Brad Sr. (Christopher Walken), who runs a local gang stealing tractors and mechanical parts.  At first, Senior dazzles the impressionable youth, showing up in flashy cars, throwing money around, giving Brad a sniff of a life that seems a lot more exciting and glamorous than his.  It’s not too long before Senior shows a dark side, but it might be just long enough for Brad to be in too deep. 

At Close Range remains low-key and sedate by crime drama standards, but its down-to-earth, undramatized approach makes the violence feel more jarring and disturbing when it comes.  Murder is not treated lightly, except by the ones committing it.  The movie also puts effort into establishing in early scenes how vacant and aimless Brad Jr’s life is—his mother (Millie Perkins) and grandmother (Eileen Ryan) sit blankly on the couch staring listlessly at the television—and makes it understandable how he gets drawn in by slick-talking Dad.  The only chance for a break out of this life is Brad’s budding love affair with Terri (Mary Stuart Masterson), but that’s on a collision course with Brad Sr.

In a role that calls for it, Christopher Walken can be a deliciously campy scenery-chewing villain.  As demonstrated here, he can also be a chilling one.  Brad Sr is one of the memorably vile movie characters, a man who initially seems to be a mere petty thief, but is something much worse, a dead-eyed sociopath who can flip from easy charm to cold-blooded ruthlessness with disturbing ease.  His sons want his love, but he has none to give, and when his back is to the wall, he will turn on them as he would on anyone else.  Sean Penn is fine as Brad Jr, but—at least until an explosive climactic confrontation—he doesn’t command the screen with Walken’s intensity, probably because Brad Jr is a less juicy role.  The supporting cast—Mary Stuart Masterson, Millie Perkins—is adequate, though the always off-kilter Crispin Glover is a little distractingly strange.  Penn’s brother is played by his real-life brother Christopher Penn, and the Penn boys’ real-life mother Eileen Ryan plays their grandmother (something seems vaguely insulting about that casting).  Director James Foley gives himself a bit part as the Assistant DA.

At Close Range is not a pleasant or “feel good” movie, nor is it an action-packed, “exciting” crime drama.  What it is is a spare, down-to-earth portrait of a disturbing true story that neither gratuitously revels in violence nor shies away from it, and shines a docudrama light on a dark underbelly of rural American life.

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