Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)

Director:

Uli Edel

Writers (WGA):

Hubert Selby Jr. (book)
Desmond Nakano (screenplay)

Release Date:

4 May 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The Novel That Shocked The World Is Now A Movie.

Plot:

Set in Brooklyn during the 1950s against a backdrop of union corruption and violence. A prostitute falls in love with one of her customers...

Plot Keywords:

1950s | Prostitute | Union | Strike | Topless

Awards:

6 wins

Cast

Stephen Lang	...	Harry Black
Jennifer Jason Leigh	...	Tralala
Burt Young	...	Big Joe
Peter Dobson	...	Vinnie
Jerry Orbach	...	Boyce
Stephen Baldwin	...	Sal
Jason Andrews	...	Tony
James Lorinz	...	Freddy
Sam Rockwell	...	Al
Maia Danziger	...	Mary Black
Camille Saviola	...	Ella
Ricki Lake	...	Donna
Cameron Johann	...	Spook
John Costelloe	...	Tommy
Christopher Murney	...	Paulie

Also Known As:

Letzte Ausfahrt Brooklyn (West Germany)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA | UK | West Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

New Zealand:R18 | Germany:16 | Iceland:16 | Sweden:15 | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:R | South Korea:18 (cut) | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Filmstudios, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Allied Filmmakers

Trivia:

Ralph Bakshi had made a previous attempt to direct the film, a production he was to co-produce with Steve Krantz and author Hubert Selby Jr. Actor Robert De Niro accepted a major role in the film. However, the project fell apart when Bakshi and Krantz had a falling out. Bakshi and Selby became friends, and, according to Bakshi, they "tried a few other screenplays after that on other subjects, but I could not shake Last Exit from my mind."

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow (2005)

Soundtrack:

There Ain't No Flies on Me

The Opposite of Pleasantville

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.