Movie Time: Road to Perdition

Since tomorrow is Father's Day, today's movie post is about a father and son adventure.

In this case, adventure means a spree of bank robberies across the Great Depression mid-west as part of a mission of bloody vengeance.

It's... Movie Time! 

Released on July 12, 2002 it's Road to Perdition, a crime drama directed by Sam Mendes and written by David Self, based on the first volume of the DC Comics graphic novel series of the same name by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner. 

The movie stars Tom Hanks who is backed up by some serious heavy hitter acting talent:

• Jude Law
• Jennifer Jason Leigh
• Stanley Tucci
• Daniel Craig
• and in his final live-action theatrical film role, Paul Newman.

The place: Rock lsland, Illinois.  

The year: 1931  

Meet Michael Sullivan Sr., a brutal and effective enforcer for Irish Mob boss John Rooney.  Rooney adopted Sullivan when he was an orphaned young boy and loves him more than he does his own biological son, the brash and irresponsible Connor.

12 year old Mike Jr, curious about what his dad does for a living, sneaks into the back of Sullivan's car. Rooney has sent Sullivan and Connor to deal with Finn McGovern, an associate who has been causing Rooney some trouble.

Sullivan figures to rough McGovern up a bit and set him straight on not fucking things up for the mob boss.

Hair trigger Connor elects a more permanent solution and shoots McGovern. Sullivan mows down all the witnesses in self defense.

Mike Jr sees the whole thing.  Finding out, Sullivan swears his son to secrecy.

Connor, anxious and afraid for his role in killing McGovern, plots to remove the only person who knows what he did. 

Rooney sends Sullivan to collect a debt from Tony Calvino. Connor has set up Calvino by sending him a letter: "Kill Sullivan and all debts are paid".

Sullivan is faster than Calvino and kills the man and his bodyguard.  

Fearing the worst, Sullivan rushes home to find his wife Ann and their younger son Pete have been murdered by Connor.  Only Mike Jr. escaped being killed due to arriving home late from school.   

Sullivan and Mike Jr flee Rock Island and head to Chicago to meet mobster Frank Nitti. Sullivan offers to work for the Chicago Outfit in exchange for permission to kill Connor. 

Nitti rejects his offer and advises Sullivan against seeking revenge. 

Rooney, knowing what Connor did and what Sullivan is going to do, reluctantly allows freelance killer Harlen Maguire to be sent out to kill Sullivan. 

Just barely staying ahead of the persistent Maguire, Sullivan and son take up bank robbing, specifically the banks holding money for the Chicago Outfit.  Sullivan has taught his 12 year old son how to drive so he can be the getaway driver. 

What follows for the rest of the movie is a downward spiral of violence as Sullivan relentlessly draws the noose around Connor tighter and tighter even as Maguire stays on Sullivan's trail.  

SPOILER: this will not end well for anyone in this movie.

BUT WAIT! Micheal Sullivan Sr. is played by Tom Hanks. Surely he's gonna be OK, right?

Assume nothing.

SPOILER: this will not end well for anyone in this movie.

SPOILER on a SPOILER: the kid will be OK.  Mike Jr. will survive.

Speaking of the kid....

Michael Sullivan Jr. is played by Tyler Hoechlin.

Yep, that Tyler Hoechlin who will grow up to play Superman on CW shows like Supergirl and Superman & Lois.

So the nicest guy in Hollywood, Tom Hanks, is a mob enforcer? The same Tom Hanks who will one day play the gentile and kind Fred Rogers? That guy?

Yeah but it works. Hanks' Micheal Sullivan Sr takes no joy at killing people, only the grim satisfaction that people who needed killing have been killed. It's his job. 

Even when the stakes become personal, Sullivan pursues is quest for vengeance with methotical precision of someone at work. Someone has hurt him. He will hurt them back.  A simple equation.

Road to Perdition certainly looks good, stylishly directed by Sam Mendes and gorgeous cinematography by Conrad L. Hall who would go on to win a posthumous Oscar for his work on this film.   

Road to Perdition is evocative of film noir classics in it's look, it's story and a slate of solid performances from a very strong cast. Jude Law is very creepy as the relentless Maguire. Daniel Craig's Connor is a jangle of nerves and tics.  And you can feel the weight of the world in Paul Newman's performance as Rooney, forced to choose his immoral son by blood over the more solid son by choice, Sullivan. 

And Tom Hanks portray's Sullivan with a grim determination to continue and complete his quest but the pain of his loss never far from the surface. And his love for his son and his desire to ultimately save Mike Jr. from his path, this way of life.    

Road to Perdition is a very strong and emotionally compelling film. It will make you sad.  A life of crime is not pretty or easy and ultimately, it does not pay.

But Mike Jr's narration at the end does provide hope for the future.  The son will not remember Michael Sullivan Sr. as a killer, as a gangster.

He will remember Michael Sullivan Sr. as his father.