At Close Range
| At Close Range | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | James Foley |
| Produced by | Don Guest Elliott Lewitt |
| Screenplay by | Nicholas Kazan |
| Story by | Elliott Lewitt Nicholas Kazan |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Patrick Leonard |
| Cinematography | Juan Ruiz Anchía |
| Edited by | Howard E. Smith |
| Distributed by | Orion Pictures Corporation |
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Release date
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Running time
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111 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6.5 million |
| Box office | $2,347,000 |
At Close Range is a 1986 American crime drama film directed by James Foley, based on the real life rural Pennsylvania crime family led by Bruce Johnston, Sr. which operated during the 1960s and 1970s. It stars Sean Penn and Christopher Walken, with Mary Stuart Masterson, Sean's brother Chris Penn, David Strathairn, Crispin Glover, Kiefer Sutherland, and Eileen Ryan (the Penns' real-life mother) in supporting roles.
The film was critically acclaimed.
Brad Whitewood, Sr. (Christopher Walken) is the leader of an organized crime family. One night, his estranged oldest son, Brad, Jr. (Sean Penn), contacts him after a fight with his mother's boyfriend and stays with him at his home in Homeville, Pennsylvania. Eventually, he becomes involved with his father's criminal activities, and starts a gang with his half-brother, Tommy (Chris Penn). The boys attempt a daring heist, which results in their arrest. All of them are bailed out except Brad, Jr.
During Brad, Jr.'s time in jail, another member of the gang receives a grand jury subpoena. Brad, Sr. believes that they will inform on him, so he rapes Brad's girlfriend, Terry (Masterson), as a warning. Brad, Sr. feels his only recourse is to eliminate every witness that can connect him with his sons and their gang. He kills Tommy himself and orders a hit against Brad, Jr., who is seriously wounded, Terry is also killed. Brad, Jr. threatens his father with a gun, intending to kill him, but decides that he wants Brad, Sr. to "die every day for the rest of his life," and instead testifies against him in court. His father is sentenced to life in prison.
The movie, while depicting incidents in Chester County and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was actually filmed on location in Franklin, Tennessee and Spring Hill, Tennessee.
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Wikipedia