The Falcon And The Snowman, directed by John Schlesinger and starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn, is a film which has not been treated particularly well by the passage of time. I'm sure that I saw it in a theater back then and I recently watched it again at a revival screening.
Sean Penn's standout performance as the privileged ex-choir boy who has gone astray remains a highlight. There is a truly disturbing scene of his character having his head dunked in a toilet in a Mexican jail. It took a while to realize what it reminded me of, and then it came to me. "Rupert Pupkin", Robert De Niro's character in the film The King Of Comedy from his false bravado right down to the weasely mustache.
John Schlesinger never matched the peaks of Midnight Cowboy but this movie, like Day Of The Locust and Marathon Man, comes admirably close.
Sean Penn's standout performance as the privileged ex-choir boy who has gone astray remains a highlight. There is a truly disturbing scene of his character having his head dunked in a toilet in a Mexican jail. It took a while to realize what it reminded me of, and then it came to me. "Rupert Pupkin", Robert De Niro's character in the film The King Of Comedy from his false bravado right down to the weasely mustache.
John Schlesinger never matched the peaks of Midnight Cowboy but this movie, like Day Of The Locust and Marathon Man, comes admirably close.