Gloria (1980 film)
| Gloria | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | John Cassavetes |
| Produced by | Sam Shaw |
| Written by | John Cassavetes |
| Starring | Gena Rowlands Julie Carmen John Adames |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 1, 1980 |
| Running time | 123 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Gloria is a 1980 film written and directed by John Cassavetes. It tells the story of a gangster's girlfriend who goes on the run with a young boy who is being hunted by the mob for information he may or may not have. It stars Gena Rowlands, Julie Carmen, Buck Henry and John Adames.
Cassavetes did not originally intend to direct his screenplay; he planned merely to sell the story to Columbia Pictures. However, once his wife, Gena Rowlands, was asked to play the title character in the film, she asked Cassavetes to direct it.
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[edit] Plot
In the Bronx borough of New York City, an entire Anglo-Puerto Rican family is marked by the local mob, an unforgiving and brutal crew of mobsters and wise guys. The reason that the family is going to be executed is because the Anglo father, Jack Dawn (a bean counting nerd), has betrayed his employer (said mobsters). Jack is not only skimming hundreds of thousand dollars off the top of his employer's profits (that he has been hired to keep complete track of - or else), but is also keeping the FBI informed as to the mob's second set of books (the first set being for income tax purposes). Simultaneous with the preceding, Jack is also keeping a third set of books for himself, one small book in particular that details the mob's major sources of illegal profits.
The film begins on a very hot day with Jack's young and attractive Puerto Rican wife, Jeri, played by Julie Carmen, returning from the grocery store by bus to their less than desirable apartment building. One of the mob crew's henchmen is in the lobby to monitor her movements, as well as the whereabouts of the rest of her family. The actual hit men have not yet arrived, because they somehow got lost in traffic and took a couple of wrong turns. Otherwise, the deed would have already been done before Jeri arrived home.
Like Jack, Jeri Dawn more or less calmly accepts her marked fate, knowing that the mob will track them down no matter where they might run to. However, they want their two children to escape. And Jack wants his 6-year old son, Phil, to take the aforementioned book with him, hoping that it will be the bargaining chip that might save his life. Phil's older sister, Joan, refuses to leave with him for some reason.
By coincidence, Gloria (who lives down the hall and around the corner) comes knocking and looking for her friend, Jeri, to borrow coffee. Gloria is a still curvy and attractive but late-fortyish/early-fiftyish mobster's onetime mistress. She's in the final stages of retiring from her former life, which she plans to finance with money and jewelry that she keeps in a bank's safety deposit box.
The hit men arrive down in the lobby, discussing the weather and traffic as if what they are about to do is simply routine business for them. And it is, of course. After all, they have no conscience when it comes to conducting their violent behavior on behalf of their mob bosses.
Upstairs in the apartment, Jack and Jeri are frantic to persuade Gloria to take Phil (and the book) with her. She refuses and then relents. Before departing (the hit men now on their way upstairs), Phil is told by his father, Jack, that he is now the head of the family...the man.
While Phil is held in Gloria's apartment, who for the first time copes with the presence of a child, a bunch of gangsters breaks into to the family's apartment and kill them all. Phil tries to escape from the apartment, and when he fails, he lashes out at Gloria with his meager vocabulary, to no avail. Gloria, on the other hand tries to comfort the child facing the impossible situation. Soon she realizes that they cannot stay long in the building and that they need to escape. She packs up her necessary belongings and runs away with Phil to a hotel.
The next morning Phil escapes from the hotel, but soon finds out he has nowhere to go and returns a few short moments before Gloria leaves. He confronts her trying to prove his masculine authority, but soon breaks at Gloria's strictness. Down the stairs they discover that a group of gangsters have found their location, and further more, that they are Gloria's old time friends. She escapes with Phil from the hotel and tries explaining to him about her past and relationship his family's murderers. She adds about her time in jail and that any relation between them could endanger her, but just then the gangsters find them. They give her the choice of turning over Phil with the book, but Gloria starts shooting over them, making the car crash in its escape.
As results of her actions Gloria realizes that the fate of Phil and hers is the same, and that they have to escape from New York. She goes to the bank to withdraw all her savings and plans to catch a train to Pittsburgh. On the bus on the way back she meets one of her former friends from the mafia, who scolds her for her careless behavior. Gloria hurries to get off the bus with Phil and runs away to the outskirts of the city to spend the night in a seedy motel. Entering the bed Phil tries to flirt with Gloria, just like a real man, but she quickly reminds him the position of each one.
The next day Gloria takes Phil to a cemetery to say a proper prayer in memory of his family and sends him to choose a marble to stand in front of. Upon facing his family's death, Phil breaks, says a few short words and returns to Gloria. Back in the city they go to the train station to purchase tickets to Pittsburgh. They sit in a diner to eat breakfast, but few minutes later a bunch of gangsters take a seat next to them and Gloria goes armed to their table with the book to close a deal. The gangsters refuse, saying that the only authority to decide on is by a mob Tenzini and Gloria discharge their pistols, running back to her apartment to spend the night.
The next day Gloria includes Phil with her plans to send him away to a boarding school. Offended of her intentions Phil claims that he is an independent grown man who can manage alone and Gloria decides to play by his rules. She leaves him alone but soon filled with guilt and rush back to the streets of the Bronx looking for him. When he's found eventually a group of gangsters takes him into a decrepit prostitutes apartment, but after a short guns fight Gloria extract him out of there and runs away to Newark NEw Jersey.
The two settle in a hotel room and Gloria comes to the conclusion that the mafia is too strong and there is no telling how far they will pursue them as long as they have book. She includes Phil with her plan to go to the mafia headquarters by herself, trying to deal with them. So she says that in her past she was a girlfriend of one of them, Tony Tenzini, and perhaps their former relations are their last chance. She requires Phil to leave the hotel three hours after she leaves, when if she does not return, it means she's dead.
After the meeting is set, Gloria arrives at the prestigious tenement of the mafia. At the elite apartment a group of armed gangsters are waiting for her arrival, but leave her alone when Tony, her former lover arrives. Gloria tries to protect Phil, explaining to Tony about his special nature and calls him the man in her life. Toward the end of the meeting Gloria realizes that her life is in jeopardy, one way or another. She leaves the book fleeing for her life, covering herself by shooting at the armed gangsters.
Once he's out of time, Phil escapes with the money Gloria left him and goes to the train station, where he buys a ticket to Pittsburgh. He arrives by himself to the strange city, hires a taxi and asks to go to a nearby cemetery, where he would like to speak with Gloria. In the cemetery, a car suddenly arrives and out comes Gloria covered with blacks and a wig. Phil excited when it turns out that Gloria was able to escape from New York City and the two reunite.
[edit] Supporting cast
Buck Henry plays Jack Dawn, an accountant for the mob. His murder leaves both his ledger and his son in the care of Gloria.
Julie Carmen plays Jeri Dawn
Tom Noonan, J.C. Quinn, and Sonny Landham appear in the film as various mob henchmen.
Lawrence Tierney makes a cameo as a bartender. He is never seen in close-up and only briefly appears in profile.
Bill Avery is an extra in this movie
[edit] Awards
Gena Rowlands was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the picture, and the film won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, tying with Atlantic City. The young boy Gloria was protecting, played by John Adames, tied with Sir Laurence Olivier for the Worst Supporting Actor Razzie award of 1980.
[edit] Remakes and Influences
The film was remade in 1999 under the same title with a screenplay by Steve Antin and directed by Sidney Lumet. It starred Sharon Stone and Jean-Luke Figueroa.
Other films inspired by Gloria include Ultraviolet (2006), which uses the premise of a woman on the run with a little boy and transposes the story to a dystopian futuristic setting,[citation needed] and Erick Zonca's 2008 film Julia, starring Tilda Swinton.[1] Luc Besson's film Léon also was inspired by Gloria, with actor Jean Reno playing the accidental guardian of a young girl (Natalie Portman) whose family was murdered by corrupt DEA agents.[citation needed]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Cockrell, Eddie (February 9, 2008). "Berlin review of Julia". Variety. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&id=2478&reviewid=VE1117936143&cs=1. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
[edit] References
- Cassavetes, John and Raymond Carney (2001). "Chpt 10: Gloria (1978-1980)" in Cassavetes on Cassavetes. Macmillan. ISBN 0571201571.
- Morris, George (1980). "Lady on the Lam," Texas Monthly. Vol. 8, No. 10. ISSN 0148-7736.
[edit] External links
- Gloria at the Internet Movie Database
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