LaserDiscs of Last Exit to Brooklyn are your standard, serviceable Columbia video transfer, which does no favors for some of D.P. Stefan Czapsky's darker, murkier images that go in this "dark" film. The sound is exceptional, however.

Directed by Uli Edel / Starring Stephen Lang, Jennifer-Jason Leigh, Burt Young, Jerry Orbach / Neue Constantin Film, Columbia Pictures / 1989 / 1:1.85

It attracted the attention of both Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, who undoubtedly were drawn to the novel’s inflammatory nature. Selby wrote of this harsh environment in a "this is how it is – take it or leave it" tone. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that a production team pulled the resources together to make a film of this tough, notoriously downbeat book.

This team effort was led by German producer Bernd Eichinger. Not a person to shrink from doing unusual projects, Eichenger had produced the 6 hour-plus film Hitler: a Film from Germany (1977) directed by Hans-Jurgen Syberberg, and had worked with director Uli Edel on a film about drug addicts in Berlin, Christine F (1981). Christine F had attracted worldwide distribution and Eichinger was set for bigger things, including producing The NeverEnding Story (1984) and the film version of Umberto Eco’s complex novel The Name of the Rose (1986).

© 1989 Neue Constantin Film Produktion

So here you had a German team, experienced in the production of English language films for the "international" market. Last Exit was financed by the film production arm of Neue Constantin – one of the biggest operators of movie theatres in Germany. All of these people really believed in putting their money where their mouth was. Last Exit to Brooklyn is an impressively mounted film, which was extensively marketed to both the American motion picture industry, and to the American movie-going public as well.

But even though 25 years had passed since the publication of the novel, the world depicted in Last Exit to Brooklyn, proved to be rather challenging to audiences who were lining up at the multiplexes that year to see Tim Burton’s Batman, Steven Spielberg’s Indian Jones and the Last Crusade or Amy Heckerling’s Look Who’s Talking.

After a title telling us that we are in Brooklyn in 1952, the film opens with a long shot looking down a smoky street in an industrial part of the city. It is accompanied by the most sinister low-note "Welcome to Hell" sound possible. I am sure that the German audience was saying, "Ach, JaWol!" Depending on who you are, you either recognize the street as something you are familiar with, or you say to yourself, "This is going to be a long night."

Three Servicemen are walking through the intersection outside a greasy-spoon. They see a man, Vinny (Peter Dobson) and woman, Tralala (Jennifer-Jason Leigh) arguing. One of the more outgoing of the Servicemen starts baiting Vinny and Tralala, who react to his interest with colorful epithets. The Servicemen think it would be a good idea to head to the base, whose entrance we can see in the background, because Vinny has called for the attention of his gang, who all start chasing them down in a car.

This is being watched by a man in the union office, Harry Black (Stephen Lang). He then witnesses the subsequent beating of the Servicemen.

One of the Servicemen was against calling out to Tral and Vinny in the first place. He sees the toughs approach and pleads with them, "I don’t wanna fight." But this is not an option. This is Brooklyn. They stomp all over him. Vinny and his gang are especially vicious to the Servicemen who called out to begin all this. The Police arrive, asking bystanders what happened. Harry steps forward to give a version of evens that we know is not the truth. We know that he is aping this version in order to protect Vinny and his gang. The Police break it up. End of story. The Servicemen retreat by holding the badly beaten man to help him walk. They stop where Harry is standing. Harry takes a good long look at the man’s beaten face. It seems important that Harry be a witness to what is going on.

Harry is the manager of the office where a union is on strike. Harry has invited the gang over for beers, announcing that he is a big shot with the union. He can order all the beer he wants. There is a little bit of business in this ensemble scene, where somebody is considering a pair of brass knuckles. Harry says, "Hey, those are union property!" The fellow takes a swing at Harry’s face. But Harry is does not flinch. What this means is a total mystery.

Harry is locking up the shop. He then participates in a perfectly recognizable human endeavor. Full of beer, he pees against the side of the building. This is the supposed our hero! As long as he has his penis hanging out and he’s urinating, it seems like a good time to introduce a very effeminate young man everybody calls Georgette (Alexis Arquette). Harry is not the least embarrassed by this. Quite the contrary, he finds the way Georgette minces across the street to be kind of fascinating.

Harry returns home to his dreary flat and wife Mary (Maia Danzinger). He grabs a beer, then sits down to watch TV. Mary wants to make love, but Harry says no. As she undresses for bed in the background, Harry messages the neck of the beer bottle while staring at the TV. It’s as though the director is saying to the audience, "It’s important for you to see how this man watches TV."

Later, they are saying, "It’s important for you to see how this man screws." Harry burrows into his covers with the obvious intent of hoping to be left alone. But Mary’s hands appear from behind him; she begins to caress him. For some reason, Harry finds this extremely disquieting. Does this feel too good for Brooklyn?

Eventually, Harry can stand it no longer. He subjects Mary to the most violent (and shortest) coitus ever suggested in a movie. This is usually enough to send most viewers over the edge, one way or the other, in their opinion of this film. Either they find it embarrassing and just laugh it off, or they find the whole thing deep and significant.

We now switch scenes to the apartment of another group of characters. Big Joe (Burt Young) is standing in his underwear pounding on the door of the bathroom. He yells to one and all that he has to go to the bathroom. The atmosphere in the apartment with Joe’s wife Ella (Camille Saviola), Donna (Rickie Lake), and his son Spook (Cameron Johann) is crazy. Joe has just relieved himself by urinating out the window! What they do to make all this a bit different is that they begin to tell Big Joe that his daughter, Donna, is pregnant. Joe insists that this is not possible, "She’s a virgin!" Joe is so stupid that Ella has to explain it to him, "Not no more she ain’t! What did you think – that she’s just fat?"

Joe becomes frantic to find the father. Spook suggests that it might be "Tommy with the Bike." We cut to Tommy (John Costelloe in one of the film’s most grounding performances), getting off of his motorcycle at the picket line. Seems like they are all involved in this strike somehow.

There is a general meeting where we get the idea that the strike against an unnamed metals company has been going on for some time. The men are angry. Up on the dais, is the union leader Boyce (Jerry Orbach in an outstanding portrayal), who tells them that Management can’t hold out very much longer. They have a shipment that they want to ship out but can’t because of the firmness of the picket line. It’s a great scene, fascinating in the way it depicts the way men desperate for good news in a situation like this, will listen to someone who talks a good line up on the microphone.

Boyce tells them what they are collectively going to say to the latest offer from Management: "Fuck you!" The men all love to hear that. There are groceries to be gotten, Boyce tells the men. He sits down with a "I did my best" kind of shrug. But we know that he is perhaps the toughest man in the room.

When we cut away, the completely hopeless material shifts into a different gear. Spook works at the greasy spoon. He has ambitions to own a motorcycle. He wears a leather headgear to prove it. Spook and his routine of taking out the garbage and trying to talk to Tralala is accompanied on the soundtrack by the sweetest, most winsome melody for violin – the whole thing almost approaches the level of the folkloric.

Then, we are back at the union meeting place waiting for groceries. Big Joe and his brother Paulie (Christopher Murney) are in line when somebody says that "Tommy with the Bike" is in the area. Joe is in a rage to find the man who impregnated his daughter.

When Tommy is found and introduced to Joe, Tommy sticks his hand out, "Hey, nice to meet you." Joe goes berserk on Tommy, who ends up hitting Joe over the head with a chair. Paulie gets Tommy into a clinch and enacts a slice of 50s that must have been uttered by the thousands during that time. "So whaddaya going to do, Tommy? Donna isn’t some slut you know, she’s a nice girl."

Tralala wanders into a bar where all the patrons are watching a fight on TV. Her aim is to pick up a serviceman, which she does. As they are walking across the street to a junked out lot, Spook sees them, and this makes him miserable. Tralala leads the "Trick" to an empty lot next to the docks. While she is telling him how much he’s going to like the blowjob she is about to perform on him, Vinny and his core group, Sal (Stephan Baldwin) and Tony (Jason Andrews), smash a bottle against the guy’s head. They split the man’s money.

Vinny, Sal and Tony retire to the greasy spoon. When Georgette enters, he walks over and has some dialogue with Vinny that is probably the frankest rendering of a gay pickup that has ever been put on the screen. Why Georgette would be doing this in this obviously dangerous situation isn’t really made clear – maybe it turns Georgette on.

Sal flippantly asks Georgette why it is that he doesn’t want to "do" him. Georgette answers back that Sal is a freak. "I am not about to have sex with you." That Georgette is discriminating in the choice of sex partners only pisses Sal off. This leads to one of the most wrenching scenes in the film, where Georgette must aviod being hit by a switchblade knife the "boys" throw at his legs.

Georgette is yelling for the guys to stop, which brings Harry to the window. Like the bump on a log he truly seems to be now, he just stands there. Yeah, that has to be the explanation: Harry is stupid. The knife inevitably finds its way into Georgette’s lower leg. You would think that these toughs would just split and leave Georgette to deal with the wound on his own. But they curiously stand around and make jokes about who is going to drive the bleeding victim home. Harry is enlisted to supply some bandages.

It is decided to send Georgette home in a taxi. The shot looking down from Georgette’s POV at Vinny, Sal and Tony as they pull away in the taxi just kills me. They have knifed him, and yet they drive him home and flippantly blow kisses at him. Weird.

There is only more trouble for Georgette upstairs. In one of the most forcefully performed scenes in the film, Georgette crawls into bed while his Mother (Rutanya Alda) attempts to deal with the bleeding. Then Georgette’s burly older brother comes in and confronts the Mother with Georgette’s tastes in undergarments and erotica, "Look at them, Mother! Filth!" To the brother, Georgette isn’t worth the trouble of a Mother’s affection. The Brother yells at him, "Why don’t you just DIE, George?" The anguish Georgette experiences, the uncomprehending misery of it, is captured so spectacularly by Arquette, and yet I have heard people laugh at this ultra-poignant scene.

Back to Tralala. She has a Sailor out in the empty lot. Vinny, Sal and Tony are waiting for the right time to roll him, but on this occasion, they decide to wait. This forces Tral to begin the promised fellating. They think that this is hilarious. As the Sailor drunkenly slogs across the street, Tralala emerges from the crack in the fence. She is counting the money the Sailor gave her. Vin, Sal and Tony overtake her and split up the money. "But I did all the work!" she insists. Vinny obviously shortchanges her, saying, "Christ, you work cheap."

So, to retaliate, she manages to pick up an Army Officer who takes her into Manhattan. As their cab drives by and Vinny and the crew realize that Tral isn’t going to the empty lot with the guy, she flips them the finger.

Having no where else to go, Vinny and crew visit Harry, who proceeds to invite them all to a party at "Miss Goldie’s" (Robi Martin). This place is a vision in pink and chintz. It’s like some weird den of iniquity. Here’s the handsome and manly Harry, and the boosting, boisterous Vinny and Sal entering into this delicate environment suitable for transvestites only. In the palace of strangeness, there is Rosie (Sarah Rose), a female scullery maid straight out of "Kate’s" in East of Eden.

While Sal acts like a complete jerk in this setting, pulling at his groin and threatening Rosie with sexual assault, Harry is introduced to the sophisticated Regina (Zetti), who shows him how to smoke a joint, and pops pills into his drink. Fun!

Meanwhile at a bar in Manhattan, Tralala’s date has drunkenly fallen asleep. In the process of rolling him, she steps over to the bar and encounters another Officer, Steve (Frank Military), who tells her that he is from Idaho, and that he has just "Gotten his orders." Fine.

Back at "Miss Goldie’s" Sal has slapped or punched or kicked Rosie, and Goldie comes to her rescue, which is totally unfair as far as fights go. Regina suggests to Harry that they should split, which really bums Georgette out. What to do? Go into the bathroom and shoot some snack. I have always liked the line Georgette mutters to no one in particular while counting the inventory of vials on the bathroom counter: "One for Vinny, one for me . . ."

In the middle of the night in a hotel room, Tralala is going through Steve’s pockets. He snaps on the lights. Tral is able to convince him that she was only going out for cigarettes. He makes her a proposition: that they remain together for the few days before he must leave. "This may be the last time I will be able to like this with a woman for a long time – maybe ever." Tralala goes along with this.

Georgette wakes up from the drug slumber and searches the apartment asking frantically where Vinny is. How frantic? Very. He runs out into the street to find Vinny and is struck by a car. Many people find it highly significant that the car is driven by the author of the book, Hubert Selby Jr. The driver looks down at the lifeless body of Georgette and says, "Oh my God." then makes the sign of the cross. Some think it appropriate that the only kind action in the picture ought to go to the man who wrote the book.

It’s morning in Brooklyn, and the focus shifts to the picket line outside Brickman Metals. The sleepy picketers are surprised by the appearance of trucks heading toward the picket line. The trucks are being driven by scabs. At this critical breech in the strike strategy, where is Harry? He is revealed as being in bed with a sleepy Regina. The fact that a human being like Harry can rise from this situation and take a cab to the picket line, find that trucks have crossed the line, wonder at his own stupidity, then climb the fence and hurl insults at the managers inside – it is one of the high points of the picture. What a series of events, and the way the whole thing is handled and performed by Lang is very high level stuff.

Tralala makes an appearance on the picket line smartly outfitted in new togs. She tells all her old pals that she is spending her time with an Officer. She believes that when he ships out of town at the end of the week, "He’s gonna drop a bundle on me." Can this really be her sole motivation for being with Steve?

Meanwhile, the strikers are milling about. Tommy tells Big Joe that Donna has had their baby. Tommy and Donna have gotten married. I love the numb delivery of Joe’s lines at this point, "First thing, I want the baby baptized . . ." Burt Young – you gotta love him. But this quiet domestic scene is the moment that Management decides to run the trucks back out. The sequence that follows is another decent into hell. It’s dark, blurry. Confusing. Men are attempting to prevent the gates from opening. The plant security people slug at them with baseball bats. Blood is flying all over.

Strikers climb the fence and are blasted off with fire hoses, their figures silhouetted against the brightness of the backlit water. Like souls being cast down into some awful fate. Mark Knopfler’s music is especially noticeable here, because it goes along with the ugly but fascinating images so perfectly. It’s kind of mechanical sounding, there are a good number of hammers tapping away on metal, some brutal tones on timpani, while the whole has a winding inevitability to it – you know that the trucks are going to come out.

The strike is by far the longest and most interesting section of Selby’s book, and the filmmakers certainly do not spare the rod here. You read about these strikes in the history books, but until you see it as it is presented here. . . Thank God somebody was a witness to these events. Harry climbs on the running board of the truck cabs in one last effort to keep them inoperative. He brutally breaks the glass and wrenches the driver’s head, cutting his hand badly in the process. But the truck driver is able to shake him off. The shot of Harry looking after the truck is certainly worthy, and you are given enough time to look at it.

© 1989 Neue Constantin Film Produktion

Boyce arrives at Harry’s union office to assess the damage. Vin, Sal and Tony are hanging about. Harry introduces them as "Guys from the neighborhood." The "Guys" want to know if Boyce will pay them to destroy the trucks that were driven by the scabs. I love the scene out on the street where Boyce tells the "Guys" that he doesn’t want to know anything. He is willing to pay these slimeballs, but he will not allow one of them to sit on his car.

Harry is so excited by all this. He arrives at Regina’s in a swell suit, tie and champagne. "What happened to your hand?" Almost before Harry is allowed to answer, we cut to an exciting sequence where the "Guys" pour gasoline all over the fleet of trucks. As they all scramble over the fence, Sal throws a match down. They sit across the street to watch as the huge gasoline explosions erupt in the night. Nothing like a huge gasoline explosion in the night to liven a picture up, huh? Harry tells Regina that he was responsible for the destruction. It was an act of revenge against his person. "That’s teaching people not to fuck with Harry Black."

But fuck with Harry Black they will. In another wonderfully performed scene, Harry is busted by Boyce for missing the morning the trucks got into the factory. Harry has also been purchasing personal stuff with the petty cash. Boyce tells him not to slam the door on his way out.

After the dizzy heights Harry has seen this is just the most terrible disaster that could befall him. He tries to find some comfort in the arms of Regina, who tells him to forget it. It’s just the most pathetic, sad scene. And even though Harry has been a complete idiot, one can readily understand. When flat broke, who among us has not asked, "How come we can’t stay in tonight?" But Regina is not interested, which shows us how thin their relationship is, and how much Harry saw in it as a refuge from his life. False hopes, Harry! What goes around, comes around.

Harry seems to wander for a long time. He is going straight down the drain. He enters into his apartment and considers his wife and child. What is he thinking? What is it that he cannot accept from his own wife? He has to go out and be pals with the neighborhood trash?

So now we must have the disillusionment of Tralala. Steve ships out, and Tral’s hopes are dashed in that he does not "drop a bundle" on her. Instead, she reads a message that says, in effect, "You’re wonderful, I will think of you constantly when I am away in Korea, and I can’t wait until we are reunited." Tral thinks this is the cruelest thing that could befall her. She didn’t get her money. But with the whacked-out anger of the jilted lover, she heads to the nearest bar, and allows the denizens a glimpse of her naked breasts. She no longer cares. Steve has left, another chance at romance and happiness wrecked – story of my life. She is passed like a side of beef through the bar, where she is doused with beer.

In a phone booth, Harry tries one last time to re-connect with Regina. Harry, Harry, Harry. You ought to know by now that you are in the wrong place. The thought occurred to me, "He ought to hitchhike to San Francisco," but Harry doesn’t know that. He’s trapped in this world, and he will have to allow this world to have its way with him. He has the bad luck to happen across a young boy from the neighborhood, Bobby (Brent Katz). He walks with the boy to the back of a large dilapidated billboard, where he attempts to have sex with him.

Bobby runs away (in order to tell Vinny and the rest of the Death Squad). Harry is left in a poignant poise saying "please" as the first of many kicks to the face are administered. This is perhaps the most depressing scene in a very depressing picture, and many people have taken exception to it. Harry is having the crap beaten out of him. The gang tells Bobby to "have a coupla kicks." This insane violence is taught.

They hang the beaten and lifeless Harry up among the struts of the billboard. He is the sacrificial Jesus hung up on the cross. There will be no resurrection, however. I find that this scene is the final Last Exit litmus test. If you are in tune with the picture, you make this realization as the profundity that the filmmakers are obviously expecting you to experience. If you are not in tune with the picture however, you are apt to say, "Not very subtle!"

Tralala must now descend into the pit. She is carried across the street to the empty lot, thrown into the back of a rusting car and gang raped. All the while she is thinking of the words of Steve’s letter: "I count the days until we are reunited." What chance is there if that? In this place? I think that this is the source of Tralala’s degradation. She knows that it is never going to happen.

There is a scene of the christening party for Tommy and Donna’s baby. Boyce makes an appearance to tell those assembled that the strike has been settled – everybody can go back to work on Monday. Spook is out on the street. He has managed to by an old clunker motorcycle. It’s so pitiful when he has everyone from the party come out to see him start it, but it won’t start.

Eventually, he gets it to rev up. He always promised that he would take Tralala out for a ride, so he finds her in the empty lot. There are still men lining up to have a go at Tral. Spook chases them all away. He attempts to comfort Tralala, but you can sense that he is crying not only for her and himself, but for the limited life of anything beautiful in this horrible world.

Tralala awakens from her stupor to find that somebody does give a shit. She then tries to comfort Spook. And incredible scene.

The strike is now over. The men gather at the gates of the factory in the morning to go to work. There is another "live action painting" composition as the men go into work.

Last Exit to Brooklyn was a book I found very difficult to read. After the strike section, I lost interest. It was a long time ago that I read it, but I do know that the creators of this picture have taken some liberties with Selby’s book. The creation of Spook and his fixation on both motorcycles and Tralala is one of them. It’s a puppy love kind of thing, and it’s a genuinely recognizable human trait that seems out of place given the rest of the picture. Almost all of the scenes with Big Joe and Tommy and Donna were created for the film. But without these scenes, where would we be, I wonder.

Selby and others have commented that the world depicted in Brooklyn is a "world without love." One wonders what it is that this world does consist of. Strife? An eternal struggle? What?

I think that the film and the events depicted are open enough for you to make your own interpretation. A motif that strikes you during one viewing might not explain it at all the next time you see it. I think that this is why I like this film on the whole. It seems to shift its meaning to coincide with your own philosophy – whatever that might be at the moment.

Conversations after a movie like this can either be spirited and go on for hours, or they can be dismissive. People have a right to say what they have on their minds. If what all these talented people who worked on it have created looks like a big, boring, depressing hunk of junk, then so be it.

But I know people who say, "That movie is exactly like what my life used to be like." These people are usually recovering alcoholics – people who have made a realization about themselves and done something about it, like sobering up and moving to California! They have obtained a perspective that people who still live in this kind of environment don’t have.

I like Last Exit to Brooklyn because it shows me something that is outside the realm of my experience in a very artful and truthful way. This truthfulness is verified by people who have survived some of these experiences and who love this film for telling like it was/is. I am glad that Selby wrote it all down.

4.12.01