James Caan's only film as a director is a typical late seventies, early eighties, post Watergate, anti government paranoia fest with its villain being the Federal Witness Protection Program. This, of course, is one of the film's main problems. If your big adversary is going to be the anti Mafia forces in society then the mafia figures, as happens here, must be reduced to relative ciphers since if you have two massive villainous entities going against each other then Caan's Everyman will be squeezed out. So scenes with the Wise Guys, instead of being properly menacing, a la Caan's mentor Coppola, tend toward the bland and the flat.
Film's second big problem is that Caan the director lets Caan the actor pretty much hog the screen. With the exception of a couple interesting scenes involving Caan's ex wife and her small time hood husband, well played by Barbara Rae and Robert Viharo, it's all stolid, angry, blue collar Hacklin all the time. A number of fine actors are sacrificed on the altar of Caan's egotism. Jill Eikenberry has nothing to do but look concerned and supportive. Danny Aiello has rarely been this forgettable. Kenneth McMillan and Josef Sommer disappear into the Buffalo ether. And speaking of Buffalo, while I'm glad this film is shot on location in Wing Town rather than Toronto, as would have been the case had it been made ten years later, the look of the thing screams visually undistinguished, Prestigious TV Movie, kind of an anti government companion piece to "Friendly Fire". Of course I was prepared for that look when I saw that the messers Christensen/Rosenberg, veritable progenitors of dull, worthy, small screen entertainment like "Jane Pittman", were the producers.
Bottom line: Prophetic title, since there's not much to see here. C plus.
Film's second big problem is that Caan the director lets Caan the actor pretty much hog the screen. With the exception of a couple interesting scenes involving Caan's ex wife and her small time hood husband, well played by Barbara Rae and Robert Viharo, it's all stolid, angry, blue collar Hacklin all the time. A number of fine actors are sacrificed on the altar of Caan's egotism. Jill Eikenberry has nothing to do but look concerned and supportive. Danny Aiello has rarely been this forgettable. Kenneth McMillan and Josef Sommer disappear into the Buffalo ether. And speaking of Buffalo, while I'm glad this film is shot on location in Wing Town rather than Toronto, as would have been the case had it been made ten years later, the look of the thing screams visually undistinguished, Prestigious TV Movie, kind of an anti government companion piece to "Friendly Fire". Of course I was prepared for that look when I saw that the messers Christensen/Rosenberg, veritable progenitors of dull, worthy, small screen entertainment like "Jane Pittman", were the producers.
Bottom line: Prophetic title, since there's not much to see here. C plus.