The Lords of Flatbush (1974)

Thanks for the memories!

Brilliant and touching

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Made on a shoestring budget, by Hollywood standards, this slice-of-life, coming-of-age drama depicts the lives of four Brooklyn youths (whose gang name provides the film's title.) King is the handsome lothario who uses one girl (Paris) for quickie sex while pursuing another, more refined one (Blakely) who is new to their school. Stallone is a working class lug who is faced with new responsibilities when his girlfriend Smith informs him that she's pregnant. Winkler is the introspective one who considers life beyond their fish bowl existence. Mace is a bit of a misfit, who strives to be friends with the others. Though there is a progression of sorts, from the start of the film in a classroom to the finale at a wedding, the film doesn't contain a considerable amount of plot. It's more a series of vignettes from the era, coming along episodically, augmented with songs intended to evoke the time and shot with a camera and film which are intended to capture the verisimilitude of 1950's Brooklyn. King does a very fine job with his role and is, as ever, charming and attractive to watch. Stallone does very well, also, and has what has become one of the film's most praised scenes in which he grapples with the purchase of an engagement ring for his karat-conscious fiancé. Much of his dialogue (some of it written/improvised by himself) is rather unintelligible thanks to both the sound quality and to Stallone's legendary mumbling. Winkler, of course, went on to play the iconic Fonzie on "Happy Days", but that character is actually more like King's or Stallone's than the one he portrays here. Mace is not given the amount of focus that the others get, though he does partake in a memorable game of pool. Blakely, like most of the actors, is not believable as a high school student, but succeeds in bringing most of the qualities of one to the role. Her dramatically changing hair length is an indication of some re-shoots that took place after filming had wrapped in order to improve some scenes. Smith and Paris provide authentic and frequently amusing spins on their somewhat tacky characters. Fans of "Gimme a Break" will enjoy seeing Sweet as Stallone's father. Only an archaeologist could effectively dig up Assante in his alleged appearance as a wedding guest. The movie starts with a vivid and discomfiting scene in Neuman's homeroom, effectively showcasing the juvenile delinquency that began to take hold in the 50's when disrespect for authority started to blossom. Though several sequences after that are memorable and engaging, not a whole lot really happens before the film meanders to its conclusion. (The ending was re-cut in order to be more upbeat than whatever was originally intended.) This is less a dramatic story than a character study focusing on a specific time, place and type of neighborhood. Stallone apparently got to know and appreciate several of the actors from this film because he used them in his later vehicle "Paradise Alley."

Okay, I was only eleven years old and very much a Fonzie fan, leather jacket and all...but stopped short of being an actual punk (Dad saw to that!)...so it was exciting to me to see this movie, with the guys wearing greasy hair and leather jackets and Chico riding a two-tone Harley Road King (I may be wrong there, but it's what I remember). I wondered why a suburban kid like me couldn't find some hard-edged friends to form our own gang like this. The word gang, of course, had a different meaning then.Seeing the film again years later, it is easy to see why it was no big hit, although it is enjoyable enough to sit through and marvel at the youth of the better-known actors (Stallone, Winkler and King), and the absolute "cheesy-ness" of the 50's-imposter soundtrack. The brawl with the football team seems so unnecessary; but that's what jealous young boys do...the "walkin' tough" among buddies is something I could relate to, strength and POWER in numbers. And Chico's relentless knocking at the chick's chastity belt and morality...yet another thing that is easy to relate to. But overall I see that it is not brilliantly acted and rather amateurish. That's okay, as there are some scenes that do stand out, such as Chico's realization that adulthood is every kid's dreaded inevitability but one needs not be limited by this approaching fear (his scene with Stanley on the roof); the jeweler's feeling mortified after Stanley's threat to write on his tombstone that he was so foolish as to sell his girl a sixteen-hundred-dollar diamond ring; Eddie's telling Butchie that his foolish pranks and immature friends are no place for a young man who is smart enough to be a collegiate (putting his "two cents" in).Butchie getting run over is just a reminder that no matter how tough a guy is, with and without his buddies, Life throws some unavoidable disasters your way and there's nothing you can do about it.Not a bad character study, especially in Stallone's character. My favorite scenes are of him cackling with his pals after he "allows" his girl and her friend to leave the diner ("Did I say you could go?....you can go."); and his throwing the rival gang member against the pool table, terrorizing him and dismissing him from the pool hall...and giggling, as if to say to the viewer that he looks like one bad dude but is in reality a gobble who uses his tough facade for just a little bit of fun!I bought the DVD for cheap and from time to time I like to enjoy this film, knowing to only take it for what it is, a harmless guilty pleasure.

No review here. Just a memory of seeing The Lords of Flatbush, a cheapjack greaser of a nostalgia flick that was designed to cash in on the whole '50s nostalgia craze thirty-odd years ago.I saw it once at the drive-in and once more on ABC a year or two later. In the short time between its theatrical release and television debut, Perry King, Sly Stallone, and Henry Winkler had hit it from moderate to big and I thought my opinion would have improved with the recognition of early work from a talented group of actors. It didn't, and it still hasn't.TLOF is dull and embarrassing, sporting one deep and memorable observation about a character, something to the effect that he weeps when he ejaculates.Them thar's great writin', huh! Skip this greasy mess.

A good, decent film about leaving adolescence behind, and the threshold to adulthood.Sylvester Stallone is very good as Stanley, the pug of the gang, who is facing fatherhood and marriage, and tries to amiably go along. He's not too bright, but he understands there is much more out there. His scene on the roof with Perry King is his way of trying to communicate that the world they have been living in is coming to an end, but, through their dreams and imagination, they can go places and experience other things. Things are changing for him, and he instinctively realizes there is much more to the world than their little corner of Brooklyn.Perry King's Chico, on the other hand, is brighter than he lets on, and he understands all too well what is out there and is waiting for them. The trouble is, in the adult world, he will never again have the freedom and power that he has running the streets with the Lords. Growing up is not something he looks forward to. He resents what he sees as the end of the road. He wouldn't mind living out the rest of his life with the Lords, prowling the streets, knocking up girls, fighting with the clean cut kids. In this world, he is powerful and respected, but he senses it coming to an end. His argument on the roof with Stanley is his rejection of dreaming or imagining something, or somewhere, else. His unfortunate episode with Susan Blakely is his inability to relate to her as another human being. To him, she is still just a chick to be laid, not someone he may have to relate to. Everyone around him is growing up and passing him by, and Chico resents it. He basically wants things to stay just as they are.The final rumble at the football field is an example of the Lords in their element, when they are at their happiest. The aftermath of the fight (the accident) is a further reminder that this life is at an end, and adulthood awaits, whether they are ready for it or not.A decent, entertaining movie. Quite an interesting character study, well-acted, especially by King and Stallone.