MovieChat Forums > King of New York (1991) Discussion > Anyone else consider this film to be Abe...

Anyone else consider this film to be Abel Ferrara's best work and their favorite by him?


As much as he has indeed made some brilliant films both before and after, does anyone else think "King of New York" (1990) is Ferrara's best work and consider it to be their favorite one by him?
I definitely do. And yes it really is a masterpiece and besides that, I also consider it to be one of the ten best movies of the 90s and one of my all time favorite films. It really is an amazing movie, and it has just about everything in it to appeal to fans of Ferrara as well as gangster movies, thrillers, crime films, action movies, Blaxploitation, the works of Quentin Tarantino (and I bet my money he is a fan of this one, and in some ways, I couldn't help but feel that his 90s work, including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown were heavily inspired by this), Scorsese, Michael Mann and others.

And it is one of Christopher Walken's top 5 best roles and performances for sure.

Its a slight pity though that for the most part after about 1997, Abel Ferrara sadly has mostly gone into consistent mediocrity, with few exceptions, and in certain ways some of his later works like "R 'Xmas" (2001) to name just one example feel like average attempts to ape the brilliance of some of his best works especially this one, but with a movie like this, he still remains a respectable filmmaker in my book albeit one who has had a rather uneven career but with no doubt moments of brilliance in between, and with this one, he is forgiven and respected.

Anyways...

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yes

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And it also manages to be several things at once and work overall. At times disturbing, at times exciting, at times thought provoking, at times alluring, at times funny, at times sad, at times entertaining, at times gritty and at all times damn impressive.

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