Johnny Handsome’s name is, of course, ironic. He was deformed at birth, and an early surgery made it worse. His cleft pallet and overgrown jaw make him barely intelligible, but he’s smart. He’s what the criminal world calls a “planner.” A heist man, he cases out targets, plans everybody’s job, and finds the people to pull off the crime.
Buy Johnny HandsomeHis old buddy Mitchell needs a plan, because he’s underwater on his bar, so Johnny sets him up. They hook up with Rafe and Sunny (Lance Henriksen and Ellen Barkin, respectively) who seem sketchy but are available. Of course, the plan goes south. Rafe kills Mitchell and gets off with the loot, and Johnny ends up in prison. There, after a shanking, he’s brought to a hospital where a doctor has a radical solution: not just to heal him, but to change his face. This is his key to rehabilitation: a new face, a new name. A new life.
Only Detective Drones (Morgan Freeman) doesn’t believe it. He’s the cop who brought Johnny in, and he believes whatever happens to the man’s face, he’s the same person underneath. He’s never killed anybody not because he’s incapable, but because he’s too smart to get the rap. But there’s nothing but criminality underneath that deformity. Drones knows it.
Johnny Handsome, directed by Walter Hill in 1989, is an unabashed B-movie with late ’80s A-movie visuals and actors. It’s a great-looking production with an incredible cast: Mickey Rourke as Johnny, and the aforementioned Ellen Barkin, Lance Henricksen, Morgan Freeman. Forest Whitaker plays the doctor. There’s not a wrong note in the whole damn thing.
That is, as long as you like dark crime movies where you know nothing good can come out at the end. That’s part of what makes the story interesting. It asks the question that if a man’s obvious disadvantages are removed, will he improve himself? Whitaker’s doctor and the clerk Handsome takes a liking to, played by Elizabeth McGovern, believe he will. They’re modern. They believe in moving forward. They believe in self-invention. Drones, Rafe, and Sunny are from a different world. The question is, what world does Johnny belong to?
The characters aren’t complex, but they’re fully drawn. Sunny isn’t quite as smart as she thinks she is. Rafe thinks he’s clever but knows he’s not quite clever enough. Drones is one note, but he plays it to the hilt. It’s interesting to see Morgan Freeman, who has basically played grandpa and God in the last 20 years, do the same thing and make it seem sinister. And there’s Rourke’s Johnny. He has a severe speech impediment which never totally goes away. He’s vulnerable, and when he gets to wear Rourke’s actual face, he always has a look of misgiving, like someone’s going to take it all away.
It’s a crime story, and a noir. Darkness is in the name. It’s beautifully shot in Walter Hill’s unassuming, straight-forward direction style. This 4K is from a new restoration, and the visuals look completely pristine to me.
Johnny Handsome was a throwback when it was made. It’s a ’40s style noir with the ’80s begging to be let in. The past says no. There’s some nudity, and one ’80s-style violent sequence, but most of it is tough talk, men with hard edges. and women with no soft ones. Johnny gets his chance to move into the modern world. He doesn’t take it.
Johnny Handsome has been released on 4K and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber Studio Classics. Audio extras include two commentaries: one by filmmaker Edgar Pablos and historians Nathaniel Thompson and Howard S. Berger, and one by critics Alain Silver and James Ursini.
Video extras include “Elizabeth McGovern” (16 min) an interview with the actress; “Codes to Live By: Walter Hill on Johnny Handsome” (44 min), an interview with the director; “Wordsmith: Interview with Writer Ken Friedman” (13 min), an interview with the screenwriter; “Eye of the Beholder: Interview with Makeup Artist Michael Westmore” (11 min); and “Action Man: Interview with Stuntman Allan Graf” (12 min); and a trailer.
