Young Americans, The
They're hip. They're tough. And they're methodically annihilating the city's most powerful crime bosses.
They're The Young Americans, a new and deadly order of gangsters.
Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, The Piano) is John Harris, a Drug Enforcement Agent on the trail of Carl Frazer (Viggo Mortenson, Boiling Point, The Indian Summer). Frazer will stop at nothing to seize the mob's drug trade, recruiting violent street punks to do his killing. Harris' only hope is to enter Chris, a confused dead-end kid whose only allegiance is to his friends.
But when Frazer's murderous ways hit too close to home, Chris crosses the line between honor and deceit to infiltrate the gang. Ultimately, both he and Harris must face Frazer's wrath in a deadly confrontation at point-blank range...
Member Reviews
An unusually low-intensity role for Keitel - BIKO
Is this even a movie? It comes in that compacted format, and the characters, situations, and pacing are more like a pilot for a 70's TV show. Always a pleasure to watch Harvey, but here he's so buttoned-down- with a tidy hair-cut- as to be almost unrecognizable- very Steve McQueen...Also a surprise, the subtexted homoerotic element in the relationship between Harvey and the young blue-eyed protagonist- their eye contact as the young man was getting "wired" was almost too much to watch. Viggo Mortensen was just ordinary- this is '93- a long way from his brilliance in "Eastern Promises".On the other hand,London looks remarkable, all aglow in golden light- stills could be paintings- it never looked better. The sound track always seemed wrong. An unusual movie.Both Mortensen's and Keitel's fill their roles quite well, but that's all - Porkchop
THE YOUNG AMERICANS, released 1993, is a picture whose script
appears to have been written by a 14 year old, considering the
social circle of the protagonists, the title of the movie itself,
and the simplicity of the story. Unfortunately, those facts didn't
turn out to be trumps for the picture.
The strong point, is Harvey Keitel, who brings natural charisma and
realism to the filming, playing a police detective on loan to
Interpol (international enforcement) tracking down a weapons
trafficker, played amusingly by the sometimes enigmatic star Viggo
Mortensen.
The lesson of this movie, is difficult to surmise, considering the
confused, fatuous plot. Perhaps it is to bring patience to the
segment of the population who is over 21, with regards to those
younger than that age bracket, with a secondary goal bring to have
the juvenile element reflect on the serious consequences of taking
the message contained in music, pop culture, and TV at face value,
and agreeing to be corrupted by criminal elements in society.
The 3 major annoyances of this work, was first, the soundtrack. The
audio level needlessly and relentlessly ranged from deafeningly loud
(in the sequences filmed in the night club, and for the football
match), to the inaudibel whispered lines uttered by the actors.
Clearly, no effort was done to bring a consistent sound level
throughout the movie.
The next weakness, is the fact that the plot perhaps is so thin,
empty, and the morality of the movie so hollow, that many sequences
go on and on, for many minutes. Often, it appears the cameras are
rolling to fill up movie frames, with the audience watching the time
pass by, in expectation of actiont that often is never there.
Lastly, the soundtrack wasn't ideal. The choice of the songs, the
musical accompaniment showed effort and thought, but consistently
missed the mark, and seemed inappropriate or distractin
Member Reviews
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An unusually low-intensity role for Keitel - BIKO
Is this even a movie? It comes in that compacted format, and the characters, situations, and pacing are more like a pilot for a 70's TV show. Always a pleasure to watch Harvey, but here he's so buttoned-down- with a tidy hair-cut- as to be almost unrecognizable- ...Both Mortensen's and Keitel's fill their roles quite well, but that's all - Porkchop
THE YOUNG AMERICANS, released 1993, is a picture whose script
appears to have been written by a 14 year old, considering the
social circle of the protagonists, the title of the movie itself,
and the simplicity of the story. Unfortunately, those facts ...