30 years after its release, The King of New York appears as the ultimate junction point between Abel Ferrara’s style and the wave of Ghetto Movies.
“Who you prefer to be ? The King of New York or the Prince of Bel Air ? “Besides the obvious clues about the age of its author, this sentence, taken from the song Let us do it rapper Infinit, has the merit of introducing into French rap a cult film for many American rappers, but little referenced by their French counterparts, blocked in the eternal cycle “The Godfather – Scarface – The city of God – the film de Scorsese-Paid in Full“.
A cult that may seem curious at first. After all, The King of New York is above all the sixth film by Abel Ferrara, sulphurous filmmaker, underground esthete and author mainly inspired by his stronghold and his city of heart: New York. Along with Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, Ferrara is one of the filmmakers who gave its cinematic letters of nobility to the new Amsterdam.
But Ferrara would be closer to a Lumet or a Scorsese period Taxi Driver in his way of making the rot of souls in the big apple his basic material. In The King of New York, Ferrara dilutes his obsessions in a stylized gangster movie, which heralds, in its own way, the wave of Ghetto Movies (a practical, but misleading name) which will sweep through the 1990s. Let’s go back together until the crossroads.
The lord of the big apple
The Cringe of New York
Franck White (Christopher Walken), former New York godfather, has just come out of five years in prison and intends to resume his place in the Mafia pyramid of the city, even if that implies liquidating all that it has nationalities. He will be accompanied in his task by his loyal mostly African-American lieutenants, in particular his mad dog, Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne).
But these five years spent in a Sing-Sing cell also left a deep mark on him, prompting him to seek to do good by investing in the city hospital and claiming to want to run as mayor. An evolution of his mentality of which he will have a hard time convincing Gilley (David Caruso), Bishop (Victor Argo), and Flanigan (Wesley Snipes), three cops who do not intend to let White take back control of the city so easily. .
Who gets who first?
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