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Content:
Female/male nudity and fornication; graphic murders, gun battles and constant violence; prostitution, lying, gambling and theft; constant substance abuse; and, approximately 110 obscenities and 2 profanities
More Detail:
Here is a film with no redeeming message that’s completely devoid of any entertainment value whatsoever. This sickening crime drama features Christopher Walken as crime boss Frank White who, upon his release from prison, returns to the streets of New York seeking to control the crime syndicate and help his fellow man.
That is, he wants to foot a $16 million bill to get a community general hospital going in his district, since the city has no funds for it. To raise money for the venture, Frank strikes a deal with Chinatown crime lord Larry Wong to trade his manpower for their dope. However, treacherous double-crosser that he is, Frank brutally eliminates Wong and two other crime bosses. The reason: he’s tired of them unscrupulously ripping off their own people and using 13-year-old hookers. Yet, incredibly, Frank is oblivious to the double-standard in his own life.
Detective Bishop and his band of policemen are determined to get Frank, but are not having much success since he is well protected by a Park Avenue attorney and a corrupt city councilman. Finally, some of Bishop’s men decide to act as judge and jury and get Frank the only way they know how — by bribing one of Frank’s men to disloyalty, then staging a hit.
The raid is unsuccessful. Bishop’s men are killed, and Frank gets away. Bishop himself later encounters Frank on a subway, but is fatally shot. Frank eventually is surrounded by an army of police, and, as the movie ends, there is only the faintest notion that crime doesn’t pay.
KING OF NEW YORK insinuates the crime element in New York City is so bad that it cannot be stopped by the police, or due process of law. In fact, when Frank’s confidant queries, “Aren’t you afraid of the legal process?” He replies, “I have become the legal process.”
It seems that no one connected with this film has heard that the violence of the wicked shall consume them, or that those who live by the sword will die by the sword (Matthew 26:52). Neither is there restraint in other areas. Characters fornicate, degrade and flaunt their nude bodies on screen, substance abuse occurs constantly, people are gunned down ruthlessly, and over a hundred obscenities are heard throughout. The KING OF NEW YORK deserves to be trashed.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please address your comments to:
Robert Shaye
President
New Line Cinema Corp.
575 Eighth Avenue
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New York, NY 10018
(212) 239-8880