William Reilly – 1990 – USA
Shakespeare’s oft-filmed Scottish play gets the gangster
adaptation for at least the second time – following 1955’s Joe Macbeth – in Men of
Respect, directed by one-time-only director William Reilly. It’s not very subtle, either as a mob film or
as Shakespeare, especially compared to so many superior mafia movies that also
came out in 1990; GoodFellas, The Godfather III, King of New York, Miller’s
Crossing, etc., the latter of which also starred John Turturro. Here, Turturro is a crime family hit man who
rises in power thanks to a few bold and bloody deeds that are all validated by
a fortune-teller’s prophecy. Suspense is
difficult to maintain when we all know the plot so well, and the main point of
interest throughout is simply recognizing how various characters and situations
correlate to the original Macbeth. One advantage the film has is being peopled
top to bottom with perfectly typecast actors; including Rod Steiger, Peter
Boyle, Dennis Farina and many other familiar faces you’ll recognize from tons
of mob movies and cop shows.
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