Fargo, Fargo, Fargo, where have I heard that name before? Ah, yes, 'Fargo'... And didn't Steve Buscemi wear a brownish jacket with a burgundy red type of sweater underneath it in that one, too, just like Tony Fargo does here? I must be seeing things...
Anyhoo, back to 'The Don Is Dead', a film that has quite a few interesting plot angles: the death of a Don (in a city of three families) to begin with, which puts the status quo under considerable pressure and causes a consigliere to think it's his time to seize power in a most cunning way, a female singer/songwriter perfectly willing and able to sleep her way to stardom (a role that could have been exploited much more), a Don who does not get hurt by the usual violence but suffers several heart attacks, and, finally, a high rank hit-man who wants to get out of the business but gets caught up in the mob's hubbub... I didn't see it coming that Tony would be the one taking over in the end, though; Robert Forster clearly has more charisma than Frederic Forrest, but in all fairness, when he beats up on the girl, his character is logically done for in every sense.
For the rest of it, I expected more dramatically than just a long series of more or less mildly 'entertaining' back-and-forth trickeries and retaliations (I would think that Quentin Tarantino could have played wonderfully with time and thus the element of surprise). The actors try their best (lots of a familiar faces in early roles, except for Anthony Quinn, who plays a daring part ending up in a wheelchair and may at that point only nod or blink), but mostly do not have enough to work with, the scene wherein Fargo brother Vince gets killed being the absolute worst: imagine three piles of empty crates placed diagonally and a few meters away from each other in an alley, and while acting out that you are dying, you have to hit them áll! I can't help but wonder what Fleischer was thinking when he thought out that scene...
All in all it wás worth seeing (nice and neat locations, costuming, camera work and such), but that doesn't make it a good film, unfortunately;
5 out of 10.
Anyhoo, back to 'The Don Is Dead', a film that has quite a few interesting plot angles: the death of a Don (in a city of three families) to begin with, which puts the status quo under considerable pressure and causes a consigliere to think it's his time to seize power in a most cunning way, a female singer/songwriter perfectly willing and able to sleep her way to stardom (a role that could have been exploited much more), a Don who does not get hurt by the usual violence but suffers several heart attacks, and, finally, a high rank hit-man who wants to get out of the business but gets caught up in the mob's hubbub... I didn't see it coming that Tony would be the one taking over in the end, though; Robert Forster clearly has more charisma than Frederic Forrest, but in all fairness, when he beats up on the girl, his character is logically done for in every sense.
For the rest of it, I expected more dramatically than just a long series of more or less mildly 'entertaining' back-and-forth trickeries and retaliations (I would think that Quentin Tarantino could have played wonderfully with time and thus the element of surprise). The actors try their best (lots of a familiar faces in early roles, except for Anthony Quinn, who plays a daring part ending up in a wheelchair and may at that point only nod or blink), but mostly do not have enough to work with, the scene wherein Fargo brother Vince gets killed being the absolute worst: imagine three piles of empty crates placed diagonally and a few meters away from each other in an alley, and while acting out that you are dying, you have to hit them áll! I can't help but wonder what Fleischer was thinking when he thought out that scene...
All in all it wás worth seeing (nice and neat locations, costuming, camera work and such), but that doesn't make it a good film, unfortunately;
5 out of 10.