This is a real gem for Penn and Walken and Masterson. Walken is a rural criminal mastermind (and is extremely vicious too), Penn is his coming-of-age son who dips his toes into crime, and Masterson is Penn's intelligent girlfriend. The supporting cast (including Crispin Glover!) is fantastic. This is an interesting movie.
Ebert called this movie "bleak" and Walken's performance as "hateful," and that is right on the money. This movie is filled with have-nots who decide to take instead of live with nothing... and they barely improve their material lives anyway, while degrading the remainder. And Walken is a burning cauldron of anger and hatred, and generally acts his ass off - he really did well in the 80s.
And of course Sean Penn was an acting god in the 80s, and it shows here too. But secretly my favorite character was Terry, the girlfriend, played by Mary Stuart Masterson. She radiates goodness in a way that completely counteracts the bleakness.
I hadn't ever heard about this movie before I found it randomly on Amazon Prime, which is a shame - it deserves to be better known.
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