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Last Exit to Brooklyn
Last Exit to Brooklyn
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Uli Edel
Screenplay by	Desmond Nakano
Based on	Last Exit to Brooklyn; by Hubert Selby Jr.
Produced by	Bernd Eichinger
Starring	Stephen Lang; Jennifer Jason Leigh; Burt Young; Peter Dobson; Jerry Orbach;
Cinematography	Stefan Czapsky
Edited by	Peter Przygodda
Music by	Mark Knopfler
Production; companies	Allied Filmmakers; Bavaria Film; Neue Constantin Film
Distributed by	Neue Constantin Film (Germany); Guild Film Distribution (United Kingdom); Cinecom Pictures (United States)
Release dates	12 October 1989 (West Germany); 5 January 1990 (United Kingdom); 2 May 1990 (United States);
Running time	103 minutes
Countries	West Germany; United Kingdom; United States
Language	English
Budget	$17 million
Box office	$1,730,005

Last Exit to Brooklyn is a 1989 drama film directed by Uli Edel and adapted by Desmond Nakano from Hubert Selby Jr.'s 1964 novel of the same title.^[4]^[5]^[6] The film is an international co-production between Germany, the UK, and the United States.^[5]^[4] The story is set in 1950s Brooklyn and takes place against the backdrop of a labor strike. It follows interlocking storylines among the working class underbelly of the Red Hook neighborhood, including unionized workers, sex workers, and drag queens.

Plot

In 1952 Brooklyn, workers have entered the sixth month of a strike against the local factory. Shop steward Harry Black relishes his new role as the strike secretary as it allows him to get out of the house, away from his wife who does not realize that Harry is gay. Boyce, the union leader, tries to negotiate between the factory and union representatives.

Meanwhile, Tralala is a prostitute who lures unsuspecting sailors out to a vacant lot to be robbed by Vinnie, an ex-convict and Tralala's pimp. Georgette is a young transgender woman who harbors a crush on Vinnie. Big Joe, one of the striking workers, struggles with accepting his daughter's out of wedlock pregnancy and embracing his future son-in-law.

Harry meets Regina, another transgender woman, and falls in love with her. Tralala also meets a kindly sailor in Manhattan who appears to truly love her and lets her move in with him. Both romances end on tragic notes for Harry and Tralala.

Cast

Stephen Lang as Harry Black
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Tralala
Burt Young as Big Joe
Peter Dobson as Vinnie
Jerry Orbach as Boyce
Stephen Baldwin as Sal
Frank Military as Steve
Jason Andrews as Tony
James Lorinz as Freddy
Sam Rockwell as Al
Maia Danziger as Mary Black
Camille Saviola as Ella
Ricki Lake as Donna
Cameron Johann as Spook
John Costelloe as Tommy
Christopher Murney as Paulie
Alexis Arquette as Georgette
Zette as Regina
Mark Boone Junior as Willie
Rutanya Alda as Georgette's mother

Production

Development

There had been several attempts to adapt Last Exit to Brooklyn into a film since the controversial book's 1964 publication.^[7] One of the earliest attempts was made by producer Steve Krantz and animator Ralph Bakshi, who wanted to direct a live-action film based on the novel. Bakshi had sought out the rights to the novel after completing Heavy Traffic, a film which shared many themes with Selby's novel. Selby agreed to the adaptation, and actor Robert De Niro accepted the role of Harry in Strike. According to Bakshi, "the whole thing fell apart when Krantz and I had a falling out over past business. It was a disappointment to me and Selby. Selby and I tried a few other screenplays after that on other subjects, but I could not shake Last Exit from my mind."^[8] An adaptation was also considered by Stanley Kubrick and Brian de Palma at one point.^[5]

German producer Bernd Eichinger and director Uli Edel had been wanting to adapt the novel for 20 years, with the latter having first discovered the novel as a university student.^[9] The two filmmakers obtained the rights to Selby's novel in the mid-1980s after Edel's success with the film Christiane F.^[9]

One of the challenges of adapting Selby's book was combining its different stories and characters into one film.^[5]^[9] Screenwriter Desmond Nakano was brought on to pen the screenplay.^[9]

Filming

Filming took place over 14 weeks in the summer of 1988^[10] on location in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, "only blocks from the housing projects where Mr. Selby lived while writing Last Exit."^[9]

Some scenes for the film were shot at Montero's Bar and Grill, which was owned by Pilar Montero and her husband.^[11]

Reception

Release

The film was first released in Europe in 1989, where it was a critical and a commercial success.^[9] The film had a limited distribution in the United States in May 1990 after delays to its release date.^[12] Some theaters, such as the Edwards theater in Orange County, declined to show the film because of its dark and graphic subject matter.^[13]

Critical response

The film has a 67% rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 critics' reviews.^[14]

Though critics noted the film's unrelenting bleakness and how it is not an easy watch, Last Exit to Brooklyn was also praised for Uli Edel's direction and the performances of its actors.^[7] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote the film "is both grim and eloquent. The strike scenes are some of the roughest ever seen in a fiction film."^[4] Canby added the film "has a European sensibility that works to the advantage of its American subject matter...[and] sees everything at the distance of a sober-minded alien observer. One result is that 'Last Exit to Brooklyn' never appears to exploit its sensational subject matter."^[4] He concluded the film "suggests that physical, social, psychological and political degradation can only be understood when seen in something like their true dimensions. Without hope."^[4] In a review that awarded 3 and ½ stars out of four, Roger Ebert wrote the characters "are limited in their freedom to imagine greater happiness for themselves, and yet in their very misery they embody human striving. There is more of humanity in a prostitute trying to truly love, if only for a moment, than in all of the slow-motion romantic fantasies in the world."^[7]

Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The strike-breaking attempt at the factory is Last Exit’s vast visual set-piece, a long and magnificently staged mass of moving bodies and machinery that shows Edel’s accomplished and painterly eye and the remarkable camera work of Stefan Czapsky."^[5] Benson singled out Jennifer Jason Leigh as the "defiantly tragic Tralala, [Ohrbach’s] [sic] implacable union leader, Stephen Lang’s self-hating Harry Black and Alexis Arquette’s dry wit-over-desperation as Georgette" as the film's standout performances.^[5]

Accolades

For her role as Tralala in this film and her role in Miami Blues, Jennifer Jason Leigh won the award for Best Supporting Actress from both the New York Film Critics Circle^[15] and the Boston Society of Film Critics.^[16]