Abel Ferrara's homage to gangster movies from Cagney to Coppola is less an exploration of organised crime or family loyalty than a disturbingly intense study of what makes men kill and how they reconcile themselves to their crimes.
The plot might lose its focus amidst the flashbacks, but screenwriter Nicholas St. John has created such complex characters and such idiomatically poetic dialogue that he can be forgiven the odd discrepancy. Less impressive than The Addiction, but streets ahead of most American crime pictures