KING OF NEW YORK

Abel Ferrara's masterpiece is in the same genre and the same class as DePalma's "Scarface". Christopher Walken, (superb, as always), is the titular "King of New York", a major drug dealer who wants to use his ill-gotten gains for more altruistic purposes, as in building a children's hospital. but the police and most of his associates don't see things his way.

This was as close to a mainstream movie as Ferrara ever made though the somewhat unusual storyline and treatment may not be quite what you would expect. This is a gangster movie that sits somewhere between the art-house and the multiplex. It's also the most visually intoxicating of Ferrara's films; it's got a sheen to it that you don't usually associate with this director and it has one hell of a car chase and gun battle in the rain. It's also got the starriest of his casts; apart from Walken there's David Caruso, Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito and a terrific Victor Argo. Mainstream or not, the film has settled into major cult sta
tus and as such is regularly revived.