King of New York: Difference between revisions

[[File:king_of_new_work_wikisize_2575.jpg|frame]]

'''Frank White:''' "I spent half my life in prison. I never got away with anything. And I never killed anybody who didn't deserve it." }}

 

 

Meanwhile, the cops, led by the low-key Roy Bishop (Argo), do their best to bring Frank back in on any charge that will stick, but are stymied at every turn by his fleet of high-priced lawyers. Finally, two of Bishop's subordinates, Dennis Gilley (Caruso) and Thomas Flanigan (Snipes), decide to take the law into their own hands, and get Frank by any means necessary...

* [[Affably Evil]]: Frank.

* [[The Aggressive Drug Dealer]]: Frank mocks this trope while talking to Bishop, pointing out that drug consumption went ''up'' while he was in jail.

* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: Every woman given more than two cumulative minutes of screen time will get in Frank's pants. Or Jimmy's pants. Or both.

* [[Amoral Attorney]]: Played straight with Frank's attorney Abe. Averted with his ''other'' attorney Jennifer, who only represents him because she's in love with him.

* [[As Himself]]: Columnist Pete Hamill and singer Freddie Jackson.

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Test Tube, who is the crew's resident chemist and wields a mean pistol.

* [[Better Living Through Evil]]: Three thugs mug Frank on the subway. After scaring them with his pistol, he gives them a wad of cash and offers them all jobs. Two of them are later seen among his [[Mooks]].

* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: Frank is a ruthless drug dealer and cold-blooded murderer, but he also has higher moral standards than possibly anyone else in the Film. He genuinely believes that the hospital he's building is worth the bloodshed. Factor in that the men Frank has killed are considerably worse than himself and ran operations far worse than drug dealing. The police, meanwhile, firmly believe that Frank is a killer who needs to be stopped at all costs and it is their duty to stop the body count rising anymore. Only Bishop knows that this will lead to more carnage.

* [[Bodyguard Babes]]: Melanie and Raye.

* [[Bodyguard Crush]]: In the opening scenes, it is ''very'' heavily implied that the first thing Frank did after getting back to New York was to have a threesome with Melanie and Raye.

* [[Briefcase Full of Money]]: Frank's men kill a Colombian drug dealer for his in the opening sequence. Also subverted during the same sequence, when another Colombian thinks he's getting one, but opens it to find it full of tampons.

* [[Bulletproof Vest]]: {{spoiler|Flanigan}}'s doesn't do him much good.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]

* [[Civilian Villain]]: After his release, Frank makes every effort to rebuild his image, attending swanky plays and ritzy restaurants, hobnobbing with politicians and celebrities, raising money for hospitals and jokingly announcing that his new life goal is to be Mayor. All while making eight-figure heroin deals and killing rival gangsters left and right.

* [[Conspicuous Consumption]]: Frank and company live it up.

* [[Crapsack World]]: The police are powerless to stop drug dealers who in turn have to spend their days dodging bullets, evil men cannot be reasoned with, only destroyed, anyone who believes in a cause or moral crusade will die for their idealism, redemption is impossible for anyone who strives for it and in a world of evil, crooked but well-meaning cops and cold-blooded philanthropists are the best anyone can hope for. And for Ferrara, this is upbeat.

* [[Cycle of Revenge]]: {{spoiler|Jimmy kills Flanigan, so Gilley kills Jimmy. Frank gets back at him by blowing his head off with a shotgun at Flanigan's funeral.}}

* [[Da Chief]]: Bishop.

* [[Downer Ending]]: Practically everyone is killed, and {{spoiler|Frank's hope's of redemption go unfulfilled}}.

* [[The Dragon]]: Jimmy

* [[Ho Yay]]: After Flanigan is {{spoiler|killed by Jimmy}}, Gilley kisses him on the mouth and says he loves him.

* [[Hookers and Blow]]: The favored method of recreation for Frank and his men.

* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]

* [[Jerkass]]: Gilley and Flanigan. Jimmy is pretty personally unpleasant to anyone outside the gang.

* [[Mutual Kill]]: {{spoiler|Frank and Bishop.}}

* [[Odd Couple]]: Frank and Jimmy.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Bishop

* [[Pet the Dog]]: Frank's hospital project. Jimmy hands out money to an impoverished woman and her grandchildren at a restaurant, right before getting busted for a double homicide.

* [[Police Brutality]]: Consistently applied by Gilley and Flanigan.

* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: Frank tries to talk it out with Larry Wong, suggesting that they should become partners in drug distribution. He is rebuffed.

'''Jimmy:''' They're for the bullet holes, ****! }}

** Seconds later...

* [[Rabid Cop]]: Gilley and Flanigan.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Bishop

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Jimmy's "welcome home" present to Frank is to kill a bunch of Colombian drug dealers he apparently had a grudge against.

* [[Salt and Pepper]]: Three of them: Frank and Jimmy, Gilley and Flanigan, and Melanie and Raye.

* [[The Stool Pigeon]]: {{spoiler|Joey Dalesio}}.

* [[Title Drop]]: Gilley makes a sarcastic toast to Frank being "the King of New York."

* [[True Companions]]: Frank and his crew.

* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Frank and Jimmy, all the way.

* [[Villainy Discretion Shot]]: Rampant. We see Frank kill a lot of gangsters, but we never see the effects of his drug dealing on the people of Harlem.

* [[White Shirt of Death]]: {{spoiler|Both Frank and Bishop make the mistake of wearing one for the last twenty minutes.}}

* [[Wicked Cultured]]: Subverted. Jennifer drags Frank to an ''avant-garde'' play, with which he is clearly bored out of his mind.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]