The Funeral (1996)

Giovanni "Johnny" Tempio (Vincent Gallo) is murder in front of a movie theater, since he is the youngest of the three brothers. His older brother Raimundo "Ray" Tempio (Oscar-Winner:Christopher Walken) and his second brother Cesarino "Chez" Tempio (The late Chris Penn) are powerful gangsters. While the funeral is done at Ray's home. Both Ray and Chez are having flashbacks of their late brother and their troubled past. While Ray is trying to find Johnny's killer and finding an reason, why he was murder. While Chez is going through his own personal hell.Directed by Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, Body Snatchers "1994", King of New York) made an fascinating, moody, gangster drama with fascinating performances by Walken, Gallo, Annabella Sciorra as Ray's Wife, Isabella Rossellini as Chez's wife, Oscar-Winner:Bencino Del Toro as Gaspare Spoglia and especially Penn as a deeply troubled and ill-tempered Chez. Although "The Funeral" is flawed in places. I hate to admit this but Gallo certainly has an tough time playing the corpse at the funeral. Especially when Ferrara uses close-up of the actor... his eye-lids moves! Also towards the ending, there's another actor, who has an tough time playing an corpse as well! DVD has an decent Pan & Scan (1.33:1) transfer but the DVD has some digital images problems. DVD has an good Dolby Stereo 2.0 Surround Sound. The DVD is from "Three Films Gangster Collector's Set". "Abel Farrara's The Funeral" is with two another movies on the DVD. Which they are "The Last Days of Frankie the Fly" with the late Dennis Hopper, Daryl Hannah, Kiefer Sutherland and Michael Madson. The other film is "The Immortals" with Eric Roberts, Tia Carrere and the late Tony Curtis."Abel Farrara's The Funeral" is close to being an great movie but i will admit it, it's a very good movie, despite some flaws keeping this picture from being an masterpiece. The late Penn gives the strongest impression on the film with his impressive performance, it is certainly the best i seen from him. Other cast members like Walken, Sciorra, Rossellini, Gallo and Del Toro have their moments. If you haven't seen "Abel Farrara's The Funeral", don't miss it. Written by Nicolas St. John (The Addiction, China Girl, Ms. 45). Which St. John has written some of Farrara's best work as a filmmaker. Sciorra is one of the associate producers of the feature. (****/*****).

Pointless. Abysmal in every respect in my view. Looking at the cast I was really excited to see this film. What I saw was a story so pointless, acting so intense yet superficial, disjointed continuity, extremely poor, choppy editing, over-crowded effects, pointless and gratuitous violence. A truck filled with radios explodes? From what? This film assassinates the character of Italians. While Chris Penn has center stage, his character in now way had the depth of soul to be the character he depicted with excessive boredom. Aside from "Artificial Intelligence" which I view as the worst film ever, this one almost ties it. The director and the editors as well failed. Darkness for the sake of darkness,murder for film dollars. Just a terrible film.

I am of the opinion that Abel Ferrara's movies have been steadily declining since "Ms45". Way too much symbolism, religious guilt, and boredom have invaded efforts like "The Funeral". Might as well add a good dose of confusion on top of everything else. This one drifts back and forth in time almost as randomly as a doodlebug puddles about on a pond. The cast is excellent, Walken, Del Toro, Penn, give it their all, but the script is so muddled the whole thing just sort of collapses into a void of smoke and mirrors. The ending especially is less than satisfying. I mean an innocent Del Toro is killed, only to end with a crazed Penn lighting up the family and then blowing his brains out? Who cares? I certainly didn't. - MERK

In depression-era New York, when one of three gangster brothers is killed, his family gather at the wake to ponder their lives together and their revenge, with tragic consequences.Despite its low budget, this manages to be quite an impressive period piece of mafia melodrama, but primarily it is designed as a showcase for the first-rate cast to explore their characters. All acquit themselves well, but all are familiar types from the genre - Walken and Penn as the bereaved brothers and Sciorra (who also co-produced) and Rossellini (who looks just as amazing without makeup) as the long-suffering Mob wives. The best roles are Del Toro's as a sharp-suited cognac-drinking player modelling himself on movie tough-guys and Kelly's scene as a zealous communist agitator. It's an impressive piece (though the photography is ludicrously dark), but the script is too thin and only Ferrara's trademark forays into religious philosophy and an extremely grim finale spark a little energy into the picture. Well made and well acted, but a movie must have a great script to begin with to be a great movie.