Danny Stewart's The Greatest Gangster Movie You've Never Seen: Abel Ferrara's The Funeral

Cody reads about a movie he hasn't seen... yet.

Author Danny Stewart has earned a reputation for being a champion of the underappreciated and the overlooked, having written books on relatively obscure films like Soldier, Silent Trigger, and The Blood of Heroes, as well as one of the less highly regarded entries (but certainly not the least popular) in the Hellraiser franchise, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. I was familiar with most of those movies before a copy of Stewart’s books on them made their way to me, although I did have to have my first viewing of The Blood of Heroes in anticipation of reading his book on it. Now, he has written a book about a movie that was not on my radar at all before I found out he had written a book about it: director Abel Ferrara’s 1996 crime drama The Funeral. The title of this book, The Greatest Gangster Movie You’ve Never Seen, was very fitting in my case. Not only had I never seen it, I had never even heard or seen anyone say anything about it. So as soon as I saw the title, Stewart’s book was already giving me information I didn’t have before.

I intended to take in a viewing of The Funeral before reading the book, but didn’t have the time to do so, so reading this was an educational experience every step of the way. It might have been beneficial to really know the scenes, imagery, and characters Stewart and the people he interviewed for the book are talking about – but it didn’t hurt to not have that information. In fact, given the title, it’s probably safe to assume that Stewart didn’t expect most of the book’s readers to be established The Funeral fans. This may be why, even though the book digs into the situations the characters are dealing with, it doesn’t fully spoil the film. I was given the impression that things don’t go well for the people in this movie, but the book didn’t tell me what happens. Which I appreciated, because I still intend to watch The Funeral, especially after reading how much Stewart and others hype it up.

The book begins by looking over the careers of Ferrara and cinematographer Ken Kelsch, a duo that worked together on several films, paving the way for interviews with both of the men. Kelsch – who, sadly, passed away at the end of 2023 – proves to be a particularly fascinating interview subject, as his answers not only cover his experiences working with Ferrara, but also notable events and losses he experienced during his 76 years, including fighting in the Vietnam War. Since Kelsch passed away before the book was published, Stewart was also kind enough to include a tribute to him that was written by his son, Chris Kelsch.

Also interviewed in the book are production designer Charlie M. Lagola, costume designer Mindy Eshelman, producer Mary Kane, and actress Isabella Rossellini.

With The Blood of Heroes book, I felt that Stewart too often strayed from the topic of The Blood of Heroes; the book was really an overview of the apocalyptic film genre with occasional talk about The Blood of Heroes. I prefer when his books are more focused – and The Funeral is very focused for the most part. There’s an examination of the collaborations between Ferrara and actor Christopher Walken, which is relevant because Walken is one of the leads in The Funeral. A look at the Rossellini Family is a bit further out of Funeral land, but  it’s worth noting that Isabella Rossellini is the daughter of Italian director Roberto Rossellini and Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman. The furthest the book gets away from The Funeral is a 37 page section where Stewart goes over the history of the gangster and crime genre – but the book returns to The Funeral in a major way after that, with chapters that examine why the film is a gem of the gangster genre, the visual style, the characters, and the dilemmas faced by the characters.

I haven’t seen The Funeral, but I was left intrigued to watch it after reading this book, which also told me a lot about the production of the film and the people who worked on it. I had a good time reading about the film, so here’s hoping that I’ll have a good time watching it when the time comes.