Cody Hamman has Film Appreciation for the 1989 film Next of Kin.
On May 19, 1989, the cult classic action movie Road House reached theatres. Five months and one day later, Road House star Patrick Swayze could be seen on the big screen in another action movie that didn't get nearly as popular as Road House, but it is a movie that had an impact on my childhood. Swayze's second action movie of 1989 was called Next of Kin.
Directed by John Irvin from a screenplay by Michael Jenning, Next of Kin puts Swayze in the role of Truman Gates, a Kentucky mountain boy who now lives in the heart of Chicago, working as a police officer and starting a family with his wife Jessie (Helen Hunt), who gives violin lessons. Where Truman comes from, that instrument is called a fiddle. Truman's younger brother Gerald (Bill Paxton) has also come to Chicago to find a job, and Gerald has found himself in the middle of an argument between his older brothers: Truman wants him to stay in Chicago, while their brother Briar (Liam Neeson) believes he needs to come back home to Kentucky.
Yes, this movie features a trio of backwoods brothers played by Patrick Swayze, Bill Paxton, and Liam Neeson. Sadly, the three don't all get to be on screen at the same time, but the casting alone is enough to make Next of Kin a notable film as far as I'm concerned.
Briar is winning the argument; Gerald does intend to go back to Kentucky once he has saved up enough money. But he never gets the chance. A mob family headed up by Papa John Isabella (Andreas Katsulas) starts a takeover of the vending company Gerald works for by hijacking one of their trucks. The truck Gerald happens to be driving at the time. When Gerald puts up a fight, enforcer Joey Rosellini (Adam Baldwin) decides to murder him in cold blood right in front of Papa John's inexperienced son Lawrence (Ben Stiller).
Truman is dedicated to making sure that he and the Chicago police will find out who killed Gerald and bring them to justice, but that's not enough for Briar. He packs some guns and heads to the big city to do some investigating of his own. While doing this investigating, he causes a lot of trouble for Rosellini and the Isabellas. So they strike back against him, Truman, and Jessie.
Next of Kin is a really good, emotionally engaging film. I love how the "big city crime organization" and "redneck revenge" elements clash with each other, and the performances of the actors get me very involved in the story. The interactions between the Gates brothers makes me care for all three of them, while the performance Baldwin gives as Joey Rosellini makes him one of the most easy-to-hate villains you could ever see. This guy is a slimy, racist, homicidal sociopath who can feign humanity so convincingly that he's even able to manipulate mob boss John Isabella; who, unlike the criminal kingpins in a lot of movies, is actually a reasonable, compassionate person. Rosellini is the bad apple in the organization who makes everybody else look bad. He is so evil that he'll kill anyone around him, no matter who they are, and then later he'll brag and laugh about them pleading for their lives while he stuffs his face with dinner.
The brother aspect of this movie has always touched my heart. This is a very sad story at the end of the day, so that's probably one reason why it didn't catch on like Road House did. But getting the viewer emotionally wrapped up in what's going on is a great thing for a movie to do, so I have to give Next of Kin credit for accomplishing that. Of course, it helps that my earliest viewings occurred when I was a sensitive little kid.
The movie has some nice moments of action, including a chase involving Briar, some shootouts, and a very cool sequence that takes place in a cemetery and has armed members of the mob and the extended Gates family running around among the tombstones. This is also a good one to watch if you're a fan of character actors; in addition to the cast members already mentioned, the movie features the likes of Ted Levine, Del Close, Michael J. Pollard, Vincent Guastaferro, and Paul Greco.
I remember watching Next of Kin for the first time with my family when I was six, my father commenting on the characters as it went. I don't know if we rented it on VHS or if we watched it on cable that first time, but I know for sure that we recorded it off of cable at some point, because I had that recording on tape for many years and would rewatch the film from time to time. I always enjoyed it, even though parts of it would make me sad.
Next of Kin doesn't seem to have gotten a lot of attention or respect over the years, but it's a special one to me. I'm going to continue watching it every now and then, and hope to see it gain in popularity. This is an essential film on the résumés of everyone involved as far as I'm concerned; so essential that whenever I think of Liam Neeson, Briar will always be the first character who comes to my mind.
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