DC Saturdays #21 - Road To Perdition (2002)

As we mentioned on last week's blog, in the years around the millennium, a series of critically slaughtered movies (notably the two Joel Schumacher Batman films and "Steel") had left the film arm of DC pretty much broken and it would be a long time before any further film tie-ins occurred for any of the group's main characters. However, before the DC universe returned properly with 2004's "Catwoman" (a film so bad it's a wonder it didn't send the company back under for another seven years but more on that when we come to it), we did get a few "are they or aren't they?" films from DC spin-offs. Next week we'll be looking at "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" which didn't start out as a DC title but joined the franchise around the time the movie came out which makes it just about worthy of qualification in my opinion. Before that though came two other titles, 2005's "A History of Violence" and 2002's "Road To Perdition", both based on titles from DC offshoot Paradox and both very different from the rest of the DC canon.

We won't be covering the art house film "A History Of Violence" on this blog because the writers weren't actually even aware of the comic book's existence when the film was written (they based it on the novel that came afterwards) meaning it's not really a straight tie-in as such but "Road To Perdition" is pretty much directly based on the comic mini-series of the same name and so just to say qualifies here. When it was released in 2002, this tale of a fugitive Irish mafia hitman and his son on the run from the mob was widely acclaimed and even saw Tom Hanks add yet another "Best Actor" Oscar to his extensive collection. Let's see how it's held up in the intervening 16 years...

The film is set in 1931, the height of the Depression, in Illinois and is based around the story of gangster Michael Sullivan (Hanks) who works as a hitman for his adoptive father John Rooney (Paul Newman) along with his stepbrother and Rooney's biological son Connor (a pre-Bond Daniel Craig). The film opens with Sullivan, his wife Annie and their two sons Michael Jr and Peter attending the wake of McGovern, one of Rooney's associates. However, McGovern's brother Finn uses his speech to make some pointed remarks about John causing Michael and Connor to cut him short and escort him to his ride home. Afterwards, John advises his boys to go and see Finn the next night to discuss his grievances.

Unbeknownst to Sullivan however, Michael Jr stows away in the back of his car as he and Connor are driving to their rendezvous. The previous night, Michael Jr and Peter had been discussing what their dad's job actually was and the former decides to find out. When the car reaches the brewery where the meeting is taking place, Michael Jr sneaks up to the door and watches the discussion through the crack in the middle.

However, the conversation breaks down and Connor's temper gets the better of him and he shoots Finn with Michael gunning down McGovern's two hitmen before they can draw their guns. Escaping from the brewery the pair find Michael Jr and swear him to secrecy.

The next day, Connor and Michael are summoned before Rooney's board with the former being made to apologise, much to his anger, by John. Afterwards, he takes Michael to one side and apologises properly before asking him to visit a speakeasy to conduct some business for him that night. Meanwhile, Michael Jr, still upset over the previous night's events, ends up getting into a fight at school and is kept back to do detention.

Sullivan heads to the speakeasy and hands the note to its owner Calvino. When Calvino suddenly draws his gun, he realises he's been set up and quickly dispatches the speakeasy owner and his henchman. Getting back in his car he floors it home, arriving at the same time as Michael Jr arrives home from school but they're too late - Connor has been to the house and shot Annie and Peter dead. Realising that they're wanted men, the pair go on the run.

Driving through the night to Chicago, Sullivan visits Frank Nitti, a conduit between Rooney and Al Capone and asks him if the Chicago mob boss is looking for men at the moment. Unfortunately Nitti is aware of what's happened back in Rock Island and is unable to help him. After Michael leaves, we see Nitti speaking to John and Connor in the back room and the trio reluctantly agree to put a hit out on Sullivan.

The hitman they recruit is Harlen Maguire (Jude Law), a crime scene photographer by day who lives a double life as a mercenary by night. Not realising he's in trouble, Sullivan opts to head to a town called Perdition on the coast (hence the film name) to leave Michael Jr to live with Annie's sister Sarah. He calls her after Annie's funeral but unbeknown to him, Maguire has infiltrated the ceremony and manages to trace the call by dialling the operator.

Maguire catches up with Sullivan a few hours later at a diner on the highway. The pair initially make conversation but, realising something's up, Sullivan escapes through the toilet window, slashing Maguire's tyres on the way out to stop him chasing them.

Angry that his old associates are still trying to kill him, Sullivan comes up with a scheme to get back at Rooney by holding up a series of banks (using Michael Jr as his getaway driver) and forcibly withdrawing the mob's assets from each one with the intention of using the money as a trade-off to get them to reveal where Connor is hiding so he can go round and finish his business by killing him. Does his plan succeed? Ah-ah, only so many spoilers I'm giving for this one...

"Road To Perdition" is a bit of a funny one - certainly it's very unlike pretty much anything else we'll cover in this blog. Critically acclaimed at the time, it's since become a bit of a Marmite film with some claiming it lives up to the hype and others writing it off as a disappointment. Me? I thought it was decent enough. Hanks, Law, Craig and Newman are all as good as you'd expect here and the plot is certainly gripping enough with a few unexpected twists and turns thrown in. The only slight problem is it sometimes feels as though the characters aren't as clearly defined as you want them to be and the interaction sequences feel a little stunted in places, especially between the Sullivans. But while it's not quite an all-time classic it's still an enjoyable big screen epic to waste a couple of hours to and I'd certainly give it a moderate recommendation.

The film did well enough at the box office and, ever so slowly, DC films started to crawl out of the woodwork once again culminating with 2005's "Batman Begins" which properly announced their return to the silver screen. However, as we'll see from the next set of reviews, unfortunately we've got a few misfires to deal with between now and then...

FINAL RATING: 🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫 (7/10)

CURRENT DC FILM TABLE

1. Batman Returns (1992) (9/10)
2. Batman (1989) (8/10)
3. Superman (1978) (8/10)
4. Superman 2 (1980) (8/10)
5. Batman (1966) (8/10)
6. Road To Perdition (2002) (7/10)
7. Batman Forever (1995) (6/10)
8. Superman 3 (1983) (5/10)
9. Swamp Thing (1982) (5/10)
10. The New Wonder Woman (1975) (5/10)
11. Superman and the Mole Men (1951) (5/10)
12. The Flash 2 - Revenge Of The Trickster (1991) (4/10)
13. The Flash 3 - Deadly Nightshade (1991) (4/10)
14. Wonder Woman Returns (1977) (4/10)
15. The Flash (1990) (4/10)
16. Wonder Woman (1974) (3/10)
17. Batman & Robin (1997) (2/10)
18. The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) (2/10)
19. Superman 4 - The Quest For Peace (1987) (2/10)
20. Justice League of America (1997) (2/10)
21. Supergirl (1984) (2/10)
22. Steel (1997) (2/10)

NEXT WEEK: Back to the "proper" superhero films with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...