In the vast landscape and vibrant ecosystem of New York City, power stays in the shadows. The city’s rampant history of organized crime proves that authority figures are not always elected officials. In Abel Ferrara‘s slick and unexpectedly soulful crime thriller, King of New York, Christopher Walken plays a crime boss recently released from prison who seeks to regain control of his city with an iron fist. Unlike most ruthless gangsters, Walken’s Frank White does not attain the power to fuel his hubris or indulge in excessive consumerism, but rather, he opts to use his power to acquire enough wealth to give back to the community. Don’t be fooled, this is no feel-good story about a reformed ex-con who finally sees the light. This is a Ferrara film after all, so be prepared for unflinching violence and complex spiritual undertones in one of the most poignant and reflective modern crime dramas.
‘King of New York’ Is a Crime Thriller With a Touch of Soul
In the opening moments of King of New York, Frank White is escorted away from the prison yard and into his habitat of the Big Apple. As he is driven to his penthouse, he surveys the gang-run streets of NYC. He appears emotionally distant, but that’s only because he’s dead set on re-conquering his land. White reconnects with his crew and right-hand man, Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne). He immediately begins consolidating his power in the criminal underworld by killing drug runners in the Colombian cartel, the Chinese Triad, and the Italian mafia. As he wipes out his competition in the underworld, White looks to reform himself through philanthropy, funding a hospital for the underprivileged with his earnings from the drug trade. However, his quest for legitimacy and nobility can only manifest by maintaining his ruthlessness as a crime boss. On his tail is a trio of detectives played by Victor Argo, David Caruso, and Wesley Snipes, who are equally cutthroat in their respective goals as White. The film features an all-star supporting cast, including Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Calderon, Steve Buscemi, Theresa Randle, and Roger Guenveur Smith.
King of New York presents the collision of good and evil, high and low, and the sacred and the profane. Not only is White a vicious crime boss who vows to give back to the community, but he also operates in starkly contrasting milieus. His business takes him from the underground hideouts of local gangsters to high-class ballrooms filled with politicians. White and Jump conduct business inside lavish high-rises that loom over their kingdom. When he tours a decrepit children’s hospital in dire need of support, he discusses a lucrative narcotics transaction with a Triad associate in front of juvenile patients. The thematic juxtaposition extends to Abel Ferrara’s usual stylized direction, which combines the white-knuckle grittiness of a typical crime thriller with a philosophical reflection of one’s duties and responsibilities. Ferrara, director of torrid crime thrillers such as Ms .45 and Bad Lieutenant, shifts from bloody carnage to moody mediation on power with ease. Even when we experience the glamor of gangster life, the film defers its debauchery for something more cerebral, thanks in large part to the prevailing wistfulness shared among White and the detectives.
‘King of New York’ Does Not Glorify Frank White’s Act of Nobility
Frank White’s violent and power-hungry disposition amounts to a poignant deconstruction of the crime/gangster genre. Murder and ruling the streets of New York are implicit in his existence; no prison time could ever shake that out of him. Walken’s character could only be envisioned by Abel Ferrara, a director synonymous with lurid, violent, and salacious material who manages to extract perverse humanity out of these sociopaths. White acts as a Trojan Horse to the audience, packaged as a reformed Robin Hood who eliminates crime syndicates throughout New York to pay for a hospital’s bills. In reality, he sees the underprivileged minority communities as his way to assert his dominance over the city. Ferrara challenges the audience to resist sympathizing with White, no matter how soulful and nuanced he makes himself out to be. White, who lives and conducts business among the Black community, believes he’s on the righteous path, but his insatiable thirst for power shows his cards as a white savior. The character was ahead of his time, as his veneer of nobility amid a world of crime and brutal violence was prevalent within the iconic anti-heroes in the Golden Age of prestige TV.
Throughout King of New York, in moments of deep reflection or simmering ambition, Frank White stares at the NYC skyline, presumably projecting his fantasies of becoming the city’s ruler. He stares at the landscape covered by skyscrapers like it’s an artifact of worship. In moments of distress, such as when he feels the heat following Jump’s death, he steps outside to look above at the sky. From his view, all this crime and bloodshed is serving a greater cause beyond anyone’s imagination. Conquering the city is both unattainable and also within arm’s reach if he manages to wipe out all his enemies, and with our exposure to his killer instinct, it’s certainly more than possible. Despite his iron fist, White’s philanthropic mission positions him as a scrappy underdog against the perils of capitalism. Even to serve a decent cause, he must rule the streets with the same level of brutality as he would as a gangster peddling narcotics. In a tense stand-off between White and Bishop (Victor Argo), he tells the detective that the war on drugs carried out by law enforcement is futile, and at least he is trying to make legitimate changes to a broken system.
Picking from the best Christopher Walken performance is a game of no wrong answers, as he is pure dynamite in movies carried on his shoulders and in one-scene showstopping turns in True Romance and Pulp Fiction. King of New York precisely captures the unique essence of Walken. Known for his peculiar line delivery and eccentric physical acting, Walken is an unpredictable force of energy. There is a reason why everyone has tried to impersonate him, as no human operates on his wavelength. In King of New York, Walken, an outward source of awkward but radiant charm, internalizes all his thoughts. When he’s staring off into the distance, he seems to be pondering a hundred things at once inside his mind.
Frank’s aspiration for power is unwavering, yet his emotional distance and taciturn personality evoke the sense that he is wrestling with himself, unsure when to pose as a traditional hard-edged gangster or a thoughtful zen master of the street code. This is evident when White breaks into a Walken-y dance in the penthouse as his crew celebrates alongside him. It plays like a bizarre affectation put on to impress his old colleagues. King of New York identifies that Walken lacks the basic elements of common behavior to pass as an everyday human being, which gives him an inscrutable but larger-than-life persona. At the end of the day, Walken will always remain true to the Walken essence, just like how Frank White will forever be a ruthless crime lord, no matter how many hospitals he rebuilds.
King of New York is available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.
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