The Funeral

1996
R
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

9.6K

YOUR RATING

The film begins with the funeral of one of the three Tempio brothers. These men are violent criminals. Mourning the passage of their beloved brother Johnny are Chez and Ray. Ray is cold and calculating. Chez is hot tempered. Flashbacks show us that Johnny was more sensitive. Exposure to Communist meetings as a spy sway Johnny's opinions.

The chief suspect in Johnny's murder is rival gangster Gaspare Spoglia.

Ray and Chez swear revenge. Ray's wife, Jeanette, opposes the campaign of retribution and the violence it will bring, while Chez' wife, Clara, struggles to deal with her husband's obsessive nature.

As it turns out, Johnny was not murdered by rival gangsters, but by a man who first claimed Johnny had raped his girlfriend, but who later admits, just before Ray kills him, that he wanted revenge because Johnny had beaten him up in front of his girlfriend and friends.

As he buries the dead murderer, Chez reflects on his brothers' lives before the tragedy. He then returns to Ray's house and shoots Ray's bodyguards, shoots his dead brother Johnny lying in the casket, shoots Ray, and then puts the gun in his own mouth and commits suicide as the family women wail over Ray as he too dies.

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Crime Drama

After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

9.6K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 2 wins & 7 nominations total

Ray Sr.
(as Gian Di Donna)

Dmitri Prachenko

Sentieri
(as Dmitry Prachenko)

Paul Perri

Young Ray

Gregory Perrelli

Young Chez
(as Gregory Pirelli)

Joey Hannon

Middle Chez

Robert Miano

Enrico

Frank John Hughes

Bacco

Andrew Fiscella

Murder Witness

Director
- Abel Ferrara
Writer
- Nicholas St. John
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Johnny is the youngest of the three brothers, while Chez is the middle child. However, Chris Penn was in fact four years younger than Vincent Gallo.

Goofs
Johnny is dead in his coffin, but he flinches when someone brushes his eyebrows.

Quotes
[first lines]
Humphrey Bogart: Just keep in mind that I and the boy are a candidate for hangin'. And the first time any one of ya makes a wrong move, I'm gonna kill the whole lot of ya!

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Ransom/Set It Off/Mad Dog Time/Mother Night/The Funeral (1996)

Soundtracks
Gloomy Sunday
Written by Rezsö Seress (as Rezso Seress) and László Jávor (as Laszlo Javor)
Performed by Billie Holiday
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User reviews52

Review

Featured review

7/10

Bury Our Sins?

The Funeral is a dark and gritty story that plumbs the characters in a New York band of criminal brothers. It doesn't have the romantic sweep of a Godfather movie, nor the rawness of Scarface. But it does have great acting: the cold, sinister aloofness of the leader-brother(Christopher Walken); the raging insanity of the bartender-brother(Chris Penn); and, the cockiness of the younger communist-influenced brother. Annabella Scioria as the wife with a tortured psyche who "had two years of college", and Bennissio del Toro, as the suave and slick rival mobster round out the terrific cast.

But the movie does have some problems. The abrupt, "surprise" ending is consistent with the arcs in the movie, and is supported by trends in the characters' developments, but seems unsatisfying. Also, long philosophical conversations between killer and victims seems unrealistic. While these conversations(and flashback sequences) give insight into characters, it just doesn't seem likely.

Watch this movie if you are a fan of crime/Mafia films, and you can enjoy a thoughtful introspection of characters and relationships between characters. Don't watch it if you want to see a "thrill-a-minute", or explosions every other scene.