Gloria (1980)

Even a genre film looks different in the hands of writer-director John Cassavetes. In this one, he casts a wonderfully hard-boiled Gena Rowlands as the title character: a former Mob moll who picked up a few tricks along the way. She becomes the unexpected guardian of a young boy (John Adames) who has just seen his parents wiped out. Worse, the Mob is after him as well, seeking a book he has--and the overdue fine is a killer. Though Cassavetes lets his actors have a little too much rein, it pays off in the complex--and surprisingly funny--performance by Rowlands as an unlikely nanny who discovers that, though she is an unwilling bodyguard, she actually learns to care for the tough little guy she's trying to keep out of harm's way. --Marshall Fine Amazon.com

Gena Rowlands shines, but the plot stumbles

This movie is worth watching for the pure joy of watching Gena Rowlands kicking butt and taking names. The movie starts out strong. The mafia closes in around a family who live down the hall from Gloria. The father works for the mafia but has been disclosing information to the FBI. As men with guns appear outside their apartment building and the family desperately realizes they are doomed, the mother convinces Gloria to take her son into her apartment so that he can be saved. The family is killed, and Gloria is left with a belligerent 6 year old she doesn't know what to do with. To complicate matters, she was working for the same people who killed the family, so by keeping the son alive, she jeopardizes her own life.

As she tries to decide what to do, the child rants and raves like an adult, proudly declaring "I am a man! I am a man! You can't tell me what to do" and angrily demanding to be returned to his father. Gloria considers leaving him to the mob, but then changes her mind when a car of hoodlums shows up to take him. She starts dragging him all over the city trying to find a plan of escape, and eventually she decides she loves the child.

Here's where the plot grows thin. Gloria's lines are natural, strong, effortless, but the child's voice oscillates between that of an actual child (but not one who cries or feels sad for his parents), that of an adult (but with a bizarre Street Car Named Desire machismo), and sometimes, that of some sort of narrator. His character didn't ring true, and so the maternal love story between him and Gloria doesn't end up feeling real. Despite this, Gena Rowlands is able to carry the movie.

At the end of the movie is a strikingly cheesy slow motion running-to-safety scene. A slow motion running scene from Cassavettes, founding father of American independent cinema? I can only hope to blame the cultural void that was the 1980s for that error of judgement. November 2, 2007

My All-Time Favorite

Who knew Cassavette's could make an action film, and a funny one at that? I love "Minnie and Moskowitz." I admire "A Woman Under the Influence,' and I weep over "A Child Is Waiting." But "Gloria" is still the best work Rowlands and Cassevettes did together. In my formative years, only five women got to pack heat: Pam Grier, Charlie's Angels and Angie Dickenson (ah "Police Woman" ...the memories). Then came "Gloria" in 1980. Critics at the time nicknamed this film "Dirty Harriet" for the multiple stadoffs at gun point. Roger Egbert in his year-in-review said this film gave him the single biggest laugh of any movie that year. Rowlands tears up the screen and takes no prisoners. She is off-set all through by a great wide-eyed performance from child actor John Adames--where is he now?

I could quote this film all day long: "Got a million bucks and this slow elevator." "Move it, you double-crossing little rat. Move it!" The opeinging credits feature a series of paintings done in child fashion by the great African-American painter Romare Beardon. The score features an orchestra, Spanish guitar and a Jewish cantor gets thrown into the mix. The film is a multi-ethnic valentine to New York City circa 1980. Watch for the moving tracking/crane shot that follows Gloria and Phil through the bus station depot, up an escalator and out into the street. Easily done today, it was a technical marvel in 1980.

God bless Sharon Stone's misguided attempt to remake this film: She was too young and pretty to make it work as a comedy. April 8, 2007

Eh...

I am a huge Cassavetes fan but I cant say this one did it for me, and I dont believe it really does Cassavetes any Justice.

Watch this one last, the story has alot of corny part. Cheesy lines from the young actor who, gets better as the film goes along, but almost completely ruins the first half of the film with his terrible, and i mean TERRIBLE, acting.

Purchase CASSAVETES FIVE FILMS

Get this later.... January 4, 2007

One of the best in the Gangster Genre

Gloria remains one of director John Cassavetes most accessable films. It is also his most commercially successful, being one of 1980's biggest hits at the Box Office.
Cassavates cast his wife, Gena Rowlands in the title role of a former Mafiosa Moll trying to get on with a life, in a post Mob existence. This, however, is turned upside down when she finds herself with a six year old boy whose family has just been wiped out by the very Mob with whom she used to consort. Realising the magnitude of the situation, she cynically first of all tries to get rid of the lad but later forms a maternal bond with him. Both go on the run together from the Mob, in a desperate struggle to survive and flee the city. Before long, the Mob have despatched their hitmen. However, and unfortunately for the Mob, Gloria definitely ain't a lady for the burning, and instead is a very tough individual who uses her streetwise knowledge and considerable skill with a firearm to terrible effect. Soon a trail of Mob bodies begins to pile up as various gangsters lethally underestimate Gloria, in their attempts to snatch the boy....
Rowlands is simply superb in the role, and at times strides across the screen like a female Bogart. Her wardrobe complements this, and the overall effect is that of a tigress protecting its young. This is underlined by one scene where she guns down a hitman and retrieving his pistol, snarls contemptuously "Huh, he had to use a Magnum on me!"

The music by Bill Conti is superb and sax riffs have seldom sounded so good as in this film. Ultimately this is a bleak film to watch, colour is very subdued and the atmosphere is raw and gritty. The ending is very ambiguous and Cassavates has pretty much left it up to the viewer to interpret what is actually happening.
This is a truly great film though and I recommend it unreservedly. December 30, 2006

Follow your bliss!

Everyone must find his way in order to achieve a reason to live. And that's is what it happens when the ex mob mistress decides to help a young neighbor's once his parents are murdered. Good action and smart reflections about both experiences which have much more than a simple aspect in common. Any resemblance with Jean Luc Besson's The Professional is just a mere coincidence.

Gena Rowlands as always, is great in her performance.
December 5, 2006

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