Road To Perdition
Gangster movies over the years have meditated on all sorts of different angles when it comes to that violent, sordid lifestyle, from the coping with tragedy of The Godfather, to the joy of the day to day criminal life of Goodfellas, to being overcome by the excesses of said lifestyle as with Scarface. But very few, if any, of these films have ever done quite the job of how one deals with oneās conscience in a ācareerā such as this, or to go to church and say your prayers and still look within your own soul and know with all your heart that you are still damned for the lives you have taken and destroyed. But this 2002 release managed to do just that, and do it well, in the capable Oscar winning hands of Sam (American Beauty) Mendes, based on a graphic novel by Max Allen Collins. In the lead role, we have Tom Hanks, long since renowned at the time as one of American Cinemaās leading āgood guysā, cast in the role of Mike Sullivan, a long time veteran hitman whose name is well known throughout the Midwest organized crime scene and can strike fear into the hearts of most men (witness the way the owner of a small time juke joint and his bodyguard react when he shows up to collect a debt) who nonetheless lives with the regret of his chosen life save for the fact that it allowed him to take care of his family. The fact is, the criminal faction he works for (an extension of the Capone-Nitti empire in Chicago) is almost like a family to him, with even the old boss (Paul Newman) treating his sons like they were his own adopted grandkids. But when conflicts involving business get in the way after Newmanās spoiled, obviously scumbag son (Daniel Craig in a turn that made many think he would never be suitable for Bond) murders somebody in cold blood with Hanksā reluctant help and the whole mess is witnessed by Hanksā oldest son, despite reassurances from the old man that everything will be fine and swept under the carpet, the impetuous Craig takes matters into his own hands and brutally murders Hanksā wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and younger son, thus missing his two main targets completely, but nonetheless incurring Newmanās wrath because he now KNOWS the most dangerous man he has ever known will be coming after his only son and yet agonizingly knows that he still has to protect his son even though he knows that he is a piece of shit. Thus the main part of the story begins, as Hanks and his surviving son go on the road, with both factions appealing to Caponeās right hand man Frank Nitti (a guy portrayed incorrectly in The Untouchables as a lowly hitman and actually said to be the real brains behind the hotheaded Caponeās operations, played here by Stanley Tucci), with the decision made to take out Hanks because itās better for business. In so doing, Nitti calls upon the services of an independent gun for hire played by Jude Law (a character not in the graphic novel and made up mostly on set by the actor), a sick puppy if there ever was one with a strange fetish for setting up his camera and photographing the people he has just murdered. When it comes to Hanks, it certainly took years for him to build up his credibility as a top dramatic actor in order to bring the massive amount of gravitas that he brings to this performance, successfully conveying the human, family man side of his character as well as the imposing, angel of death from the shadows aspect also, pulling it off beautifully with arguably the best serious role of his career, one that should have at least brought him another of his many Oscar nominations. Matching him step for step is Newman (Oscar Nominated for Supporting Actor in his last major role), playing the old Irish crime boss as someone possibly even more tormented than Hanks himself, having always thought of Hanks as his adopted son and fully in agreement that his own boy is a complete bastard, but still refusing to hand him over regardless of the massive amount of bloodshed that it brings. As for Law, his bizarre, so far out of left field that heās in the parking lot character maneuvers around seamlessly within the filmās structure, with his rodent like appearance and obvious weirdo tendencies as he tracks Hanks and his son to get his payday and also get the exclusive rights to the crime scene photographs. And then thereās Craig, so detestable and cowardly as to be completely and totally repugnant, committing an unspeakable crime against a woman and her child and thinking that the system his father is a part of will protect him simply because he thinks that he is entitled to it. And Tyler Hoechlin as Hanksā son delivers a good, if a bit passive performance, interacting mostly with Hanks very well and not falling into any of the known traps a young actor can fall into in these types of roles. As Conrad Hall does his cinematography magic one last time and collected one more posthumous Oscar as a result, and Thomas Newman gives us a grand, sweeping score suitable for an epic tale such as this, the themes and magnitude really kick in during the magnificent last 20 minutes, where most of the damned characters get whatās coming to them and Hanks manages to have his ultimate wishes fulfilled in the stunning final scene, telling us that we all get to choose the path we have in life, regardless of our circumstances, and must learn to spend the rest of our lives dealing with it, right or wrong. Not just as a gangster flick, but on the level of thought provoking cinema, this is pure excellence bar none.
10/10