Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) on Netflix
In 1952 Brooklyn, a factory strike enters its sixth month. Harry Black becomes strike secretary, and Tralala, a prostitute, lures sailors into robberies her pimp Vinnie sets up.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.8/107,740 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
The workers of a Brooklyn factory have been on strike for half a year. Harry Black, a shop steward, has taken the post of strike secretary, which pays better and gets him out of the house he shares with his wife Mary, who does not know he is gay. Boyce, the union leader, negotiates between the men and the factory. Tralala, a prostitute, brings sailors to a vacant lot, where Vinnie, her pimp, robs them; Georgette, a young transgender woman, is drawn to Vinnie. Big Joe, a striker, learns that his daughter Donna is pregnant by Tommy, a factory worker who rides a motorcycle. Spook, Joe's son, looks up to Tommy and is putting money aside for a motorcycle of his own.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- One of the earliest attempts to film the novel came from producer Steve Krantz and animator Ralph Bakshi, with Robert De Niro accepting the role of Harry Black in Strike; according to Bakshi, "the whole thing fell apart when Krantz and I had a falling out over past business."
SPOILER
As the gang-rape scene was about to be shot, Jennifer Jason Leigh stood up before the mob of actors and said, "Don't forget, it's only acting." There was an awed silence, and then the actors broke into applause.- German producer Bernd Eichinger and director Uli Edel had wanted to adapt the novel for 20 years, Edel having first discovered it as a university student, and they obtained the rights in the mid-1980s after Edel's success with Christiane F.
- Filming took place over 14 weeks in the summer of 1988 on location in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, "only blocks from the housing projects where Mr. Selby lived while writing Last Exit."
- For her role as Tralala here and her role in Miami Blues, Jennifer Jason Leigh won both the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1990.
- Bakshi said that after his own version collapsed he could not shake Last Exit from his mind, and an adaptation was also considered by Stanley Kubrick and Brian de Palma at one point.
- Some theaters, such as the Edwards Theatres in Orange County, declined to show the film at all because of its dark and graphic subject matter.
