Road to Perdition

 

Road to Perdition 2002

• Director: Sam Mendes
• Seen by this director: 1917, Skyfall, American Beauty
• Based on graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Raynor
• Cast: Tom Hanks, Tyler Hoechlin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Stanley Tucci, Jude Law
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Tom Hanks – The Circle, Sully, Cloud Atlas, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Catch Me If You Can, Road to Perdition, Cast Away, The Green Mile, You’ve Got Mail, Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Sleepless in Seattle, A League of Their Own, Joe and the Volcano, Punchline
• Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight, Annihilation, Margot at the Wedding, Road to Perdition, eXistenZ, A Thousand Acres, Kansas City, Georgia, Dolores Claiborn, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Paul Newman – The Tower, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Torn Curtain, Paris Blues, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hud
• Daniel Craig – Knives Out, Bond etc, Defiance, Infamous, Hotel Splendide, Elizabeth
• Ciarán Hinds – First Man, The Woman in Black, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter, Life During Wartime, Margot at the Wedding, Hallam Foe, Amazing Grace, Calendar Girls, Titanic Town, Jane Eyre, Ivanhoe, Cold Lazarus, A Mother’s Son, Mary Reilly, Circle of Friends
• Stanley Tucci – The Hunger Games, Fortitude, Jack the Giant Slayer, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Life Less Ordinary, Life During Wartime, The Pelican Brief, Billy Bathgate
• Jude Law - Genius, Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, Hugo, Contagion, Repo Men, Sherlock Holmes, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sleuth, The Holiday, The Aviator, Closer, Alfie, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Colm Mountain, eXistenZ, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gattaca, Wilde
•  Why?  Remember it as being very good. Good cast.
• Seen: Once before. Now 11 February 2022

1931. Midwest America. Young Michael (Hoechlin) lives with his parents (Hanks and Jason Leigh) and little brother in a nice big house. Michael finds out the hard way what his dad does for a living. He’s an enforcer for the local mob and when things go wrong Michaels Sr and Jr must flee for their lives.

This might be the first film I saw with Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Ciaràn Hinds and Stanley Tucci and the last with Paul Newman. With that cast plus Tom Hanks and Jennifer Jason Leigh, how can it not be excellent?

It is. It’s so much better than other mafia films. It has The Godfather 1-3 beat by miles. It’s almost Shakespearean in its psychological drama. 

4* of 5