The Young Americans (1993)

Experienced New York Police Detective John Harris is sent to London to help a local task force investigate a series of gangster killings organized by a new player in town, an American. Harris uses a teen wronged by gangsters to get to him.

Director:

Danny Cannon

Writers:

Danny Cannon, David Hilton

Stars:

Harvey Keitel, Iain Glen, John Wood

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Harvey Keitel	...	John Harris
Iain Glen	...	Edward Foster
John Wood	...	Richard Donnelly
Terence Rigby	...	Sidney Callow
Keith Allen	...	Jack Doyle
Craig Kelly	...	Christian O'Neill
Thandie Newton	...	Rachael Stevens
Viggo Mortensen	...	Carl Frazer
Dave Duffy	...	Louis Carnegie
Geoffrey McGivern	...	Brian Carver
Nigel Clauzel	...	Lionel Stevens
Huggy Leaver	...	Mark Byrne
Dig Wayne	...	Gary Washington
Christopher Adamson	...	Billy Cohen (as Chris Adamson)
James Duggan	...	Dermot O'Neill

Storyline

The London police is having trouble with organized crime commited by juvenile delinquents. Their leader is an American who is an expert at turning young men into ruthless gangsters. American cop John Harris is asked to help the London police to break up the organization.

---

Plot Keywords:

male with earring | police | gangster | killing | police siren | 

---

Taglines:

No Honor. No Respect. No Remorse.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama

---

Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

During one of the club scenes, a remix of Nine Inch Nails' "Gave Up" is playing. This version has never been released officially or unofficially, and the only known fragments can be heard in this movie. It appears to be an alteration of the remix found on Nine Inch Nails' EP "Fixed".

---

Goofs

When the Molotov cocktail is thrown through the windshield of the vehicle with the two cops inside, you can easily see, by the way it breaks, that the windshield is not made of safety glass. All vehicle windshields have been made of safety glass for decades.

---

Connections

Referenced in Kicking and Screaming (1995)

---

Soundtracks

Uberman
Written by Sheep On Drugs

User Reviews

A fine debut for Danny Cannon - but what happened . . . ?

There's a couple of stories (possibly apocryphal) about how Cannon's career was launched, one story is that respected film Director Alan Parker, saw a short film he made on a BBC amateur film-making programme and, impressed with what he saw, immediately phoned the BBC so he could get in touch with Cannon - which he apparently did, Parker then supposedly recommended him to a prestigious film school...

The other story is that Danny Cannon's father is a top studio executive and that nepotism was the way he started.

Either way, Cannon's debut film was an interesting little movie with big aspirations - at the time British films tended to be almost always socio-political, so-called worthy films, usually about the social underclass - remember this was 1993 and just before Richard Curtis invented the Britsh Rom-Com...

What the film lacks in terms of story (Cannon was Co-Writer) it makes up for in sheer film-making skill - The Young Americans is a beautiful-looking movie.

It's a film that belies it's VERY low-budget, and looks like a much more expensive piece.

Danny Cannon displays an almost Ridley Scott like style in the care he takes with the look of the film, and the careful, unhurried pacing, he is aided in his efforts by excellent Anamorphic 2.35:1 photography from D.P. Vernon Layton - giving The Young Americans a rich, almost sumptuous look, for what, on the surface, is a gritty urban crime thriller.

A special mention should be made for Composer David Arnold and his beautiful, almost tragic Music Score - of course he went on to bigger things: Stargate, Independence Day, the Bond movies - Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, plus Zoolander, Changing Lanes, The Stepford Wives and the upcoming Ghost Rider, and another Bond - Casino Royale.

Personally, I thought Danny Cannon's career might have amounted to something more substantial that just 3 feature films.

These films include the badly mis-judged(!) Stallone vehicle Judge Dredd and the horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer - not sure how the latter film fared at the box-office (though I suspect not good!)

I DO know that Judge Dredd was a BIG financial and critical failure - Cannon got the film right after The Young Americans, tiny budget to mega budget - could this be a case of Cannon running before he could walk?

Of course Danny Cannon has found considerable success as an Executive/Supervising Producer, occasional Writer and sometimes Director on the 3 hit CSI TV series from Jerry Bruckhiemer - this in itself is no mean feat, but I do feel Cannon's potential as a Director of Feature Films has gone largely untapped and that he could have made a more substantial career if he'd stayed in Movies.

Hear he's got a Soccer movie in the works, let's hopes that this is a return to features for an underrated and talented Director.

Lata.

Details

Country:

UK France

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 October 1993 (UK)

Also Known As:

Young Americans

Filming Locations:

Jacob Street Studios, Jacob Street, Bermondsey, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Live Entertainment, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, StudioCanal

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1