Film Summary DCCXXXIII (The Lords of Flatbush)


Do you want to see a bunch of guys pushing on 30 (possibly over 30) playing disgruntled teenagers from the 1950s who wear ridiculous leather jackets and slicked-back there are with something that resembles bacon grease.
Well old boy is this the movie for you.

If you're coming into this movie expecting a ''The Outsiders" or even something like ''The Wanderers'' than you're in the wrong place. This might be the most realistic of greasers despitetions (despite the older actors who happened to play them).
They really are just a bunch of kids that hang around and go on dates with greacer girls.

A bunch of kids lounging around playing pool acting up, with Macho attitudes and trying to prove how cool they are.
Each one plagued with its own insecurities and minor problems. Rather that be relationship problems a possible pregnancy, shirking responsibilities or getting involved with illegal activities that really don't have any connection to the story after they're done.
Three of the Greaser kids steal a car in the middle of the movie and they give it to their one friend so he has a better chance with his dates the next time they go to the movies.
And you keep expecting that scene where the car is found and the kid goes to jail or somebody pays for the crime that was committed.
But nothing ever comes of it.
That's not the point of this movie. In fact it doesn't have much of any point.
It's just a character film where everybody's talking about one thing of the other and living their life. Honestly I'm not too bothered by that.
If you're an incredibly small budgeted crew when you're lactating what you can actually accomplish you have to be able to utilize your characters with what minimal activities are given to you.
In this case it's just character dialogue which everyone does all right. In any other setting these actors would be horrible for what they're trying to do if we all have that smug attitude about them but it's a greaser flick so it works out.

If you have a small budget and a small crew then you have to work with your own limitations.
That means utilizing the actors you have and hoping to God they can salvage your mediocre script.
And in that case I think they do all right here.
We've got Stallone and the guy from Happy Days; both of them playing up their act
And in any other movies I'd say they were a detriment to their film as they're not the greatest actors. But it's a greaser flick so they do pretty well here.
It's kind of hilarious that Stallone is playing this young punkish teenage kid when in two years he'll be playing Rocky the past his prime aging boxer who goes up against the heavyweight champion of the world.

Overall 'The Lords of Flatbush' is okay. It's no Outsiders to be sure but it's decent for what it is. It's only an hour and 24 minutes and thank God for that any longer in this movie would become a chore. But if you're in into Greaser flicks then give it a shot.


After thought:

There's this one awful scene where the one Greaser kid is with his girlfriend and they're making out on her couch. But her couch is covered in that horrible thin plastic that people used to put on their furniture all the time.*
The point is; It's the least attractive thing you'll ever watch on film. Just that crinkling plastic as two people feel each other up. Blah!

*(Not sure if it was a big thing in the fifties come to think of it that might have been more of a 60s thing but whatever.)

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