This Forgotten Gangster Movie Is One of Quentin Tarantino's Favorites
- King of New York set the stage for Quentin Tarantino’s filmography and inspired the director to push the boundaries of his storytelling.
- As evidenced by recent interviews, King of New York still holds significance for Tarantino.
- King of New York challenged the heroism and simplified storytelling of crime movies in the 1980s, setting standards for future films.
If there’s one genre that Quentin Tarantino is synonymous with, it’s the crime movie. Even decades after he released movies like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, Tarantino is still deeply tied to criminal fiction. It’s no surprise, then, that some of Tarantino’s favorite movies are also crime movies. Some noteworthy examples include Blow Out, Memories of Murder and Taxi Driver. However, the crime movie Tarantino enjoys the most personal connection to is King of New York.
Released in 1990, King of New York stars Christopher Walken as Frank White: an aging drug lord who immediately restarts his empire after being released from prison. Aiding Frank is his gang, led by the dangerously unpredictable Jimmy “Jump” Colt (played by Laurence Fishburne), and opposing him is the NYPD, led by Lieutenant Roy Bishop (played by Victor Argo). Despite Frank’s genuine desire to improve New York with his own ruthless methods, the law slowly closes in on him and his gang, leading to bloody fights and countless dead people. During his guest appearance on an episode of the podcast The Rewatchables with Bill Simmons and Sean Fennessey, Tarantino reaffirmed his love for King of New York and explained why he feels like he owes his career to the underrated movie.
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As far as Tarantino is concerned, King of New York is an “absolute cinematic masterpiece.” He thought the movie was so good that he was sure that Ferrara was the next Martin Scorsese. Although the director’s career didn’t follow this trajectory, Tarantino’s love for King of New York never diminished. His personal ties to the movie stem from the fact that he saw it as a sign of the fortunes that awaited his career. Tarantino watched King of New York just after he sold the script for True Romance and right before he began filming Reservoir Dogs. Whatever reservations, doubts and fears he had about breaking into Hollywood with his unique creative voice quickly evaporated while he watched the movie.
“Right before I did [Reservoir Dogs], two movies came out that broke that mold and actually pointed the way that we were gonna go in the 90s. One was King of New York, and the other was La Femme Nikita. And when they came out it was just like, ‘Yes, this is where it’s at.'” Quentin Tarantino, The Rewatchables podcast
In addition to being inspired by King of New York’s unabashed darkness and violence, Tarantino was also certain that the movie would one day be regarded as a classic. The problem was that Tarantino knew that King of New York wasn’t going to be an instant classic in 1990. He correctly predicted that it would be the kind of cult classic that needed years of reevaluation before it could get such high praise. Worse, he knew that most audiences and critics wouldn’t “get it,” meaning he had to fight for it. Looking at King of New York today, and it’s not difficult to see why Tarantino found it so appealing and empowering. The movie shared the kind of stylized writing and directing that Tarantino is now known for. Specifically, it was a violent exploitation film that just so happened to boast classy visuals, directing and actors.
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Tarantino gave himself credit for pioneering “gentrified art house movies,” but he acknowledged that King of New York beat him to the punch. Another personal tie that Tarantino had with the movie was its cast. Tarantino initially sought three of King of New York’s actors for Pulp Fiction. The first was Walken, whom Tarantino has nothing but praise for. Tarantino thought that Walken’s very odd and sublime line readings and body language in King of New York proved that he was one of the best rising actors of the 90s. As such, Tarantino wrote Captain Koons’ infamous three-page monologue about the gold watch in Pulp Fiction specifically for Walken.
The next two were Laurence Fishburne and Paul Caldéron (who played Frank’s traitorous crewmember, Joey Dalesio), who Tarantino offered the role of Jules Winnfield to. Fishburne, who Tarantino believed stole King of New York with his iconic performance as Jump, loved Jules’ part but turned it down since he wanted to focus on leading roles, not supporting ones. Tarantino didn’t hold this against Fishburne, and conceded that the actor’s decision to back out of Pulp Fiction was a smart career move. To Tarantino, Fishburne’s choice paid off in The Matrix. Tarantino then moved on to Samuel L. Jackson, who “walks through” his audition in such a disappointing way that the director chose Caldéron instead. After a second round of auditions, Jackson was cast as Jules, and Pulp Fiction went on to become one of the most culturally significant movies ever made. Caldéron was then forever-remembered as the actor who almost beat Jackson for Jules. As consolation, he was given the role of Paul, Marcellus Wallace’s bartender, in the movie.
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It may be hard to remember or even believe now, but King of New York was a controversial and reviled movie in 1990. Although almost every critic at the time praised the cast’s performances, they accused the movie of glorifying crime and violence. This shouldn’t be too surprising since, as Tarantino said, King of New York came out at the tail end of the 80s, which was a morally and socially conservative period in American history. For comparison’s sake, the 80s were dominated by crime fiction that always took the side of the law. Cops were unquestionably heroic, while criminals were monsters who had to be put down. Conversely, King of New York depicted the police and Frank’s gang on even moral grounds. The police were just as underhanded and vicious as the criminals they hated so much. Meanwhile, Frank and his gang were sympathetic (but still violent) rogues who genuinely wanted to do something good for the community, but in their own rebellious ways.
What set apart King of New York from the rest was that it was one of that time’s few crime movies that went against the norm by showing the police in as bad a light as the criminals. Additionally, it was one of the most violent crime movies of its era. These morally ambiguous depictions of cops and criminals became the genre’s norm from the 90s onwards. King of New York was just unlucky that it was the movie that arguably started this paradigm shift, and it was pilloried for doing so. Ironically, movies that followed King of New York’s footsteps were praised for doing the exact same things that their predecessor was vilified for. Tarantino and The Rewatchables’ hosts pointed to the successes of the equally grimy and subversive New Jack City (which Tarantino said was The Hunger Games to King of New York’s Battle Royale) and Tarantino’s own Reservoir Dogs — which were released just months after King of New York — as proof that King of New York was on the right side of cinematic history.
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Tarantino went a step further and positively compared King of New York to HBO’s hit crime series The Wire. As Tarantino noted, the series’ story structure and characterizations seemingly owed a lot to the movie. They both devoted equal amounts of screen time to the cops and criminals to humanize both groups before their inevitable bloody clashes happened. They also struck a fine balance between realistic depictions of the fight between the law and crime, and the heightened version of this seen in exploitation and pulp cinema. Whether or not filmmakers and audiences realize it, King of New York had a profound effect on crime fiction that can still be felt today.
King of New York is a severely underrated crime movie. Despite being the progenitor of many of the crime genre’s modern conventions and themes, the movie is often left out of discussions about the genre’s best exemplars. At worst, the movie may show its age in parts. For example, it will be hard to ignore the fact that crime movies and TV shows made after King of New York greatly improved upon its ideas and execution. Tarantino also pointed out how the movie’s biggest action setpieces, particularly the car chases, lacked the visceral impact of the more claustrophobic gunfights and felt like they belonged in another movie. Despite these, King of New York stood the test of time and endured long enough to prove its moralistic detractors wrong. King of New York is a movie that new generations of film buffs need to watch at least once, not just because it’s good, but to also see what kind of movie left a permanent mark on one of today’s greatest filmmakers.