February 20, 2005
By Matt Savelloni
"I WRITE BECAUSE I CAN'T IMAGINE NOT WRITING." RICHARD PRICE
Finally! For months, it seemed like I was forever destined to review only comic books, fantasy geek authors and half-assed supermarket checkout fluff. Today I get to vamp on a true legend, a bona fide inspiration, a man with balls, brains, power and skill to burn. His name is Richard Price and if you¹ve never read him, well, shame on you. I can almost guarantee, though, you¹ve at least watched his words performed because Price is one of the few masters of both novel and screenplay. Today we¹ll be checking out FREEDOMLAND but really, this is a Richard Price rally.
Looking back on the 70-some articles I¹ve done, maybe one out of ten concerns a writer who has left an indelible print on me like so many thousands of others. Price exudes that type of rarefied effect and for readers/wannabes in the know, he¹s an absolutely indispensable genius of substance meets commerciality meets true artistry; Philip Roth without the pretension, John Irving without the girth, Elmore Leonard with more gravitas, a contemporary Thomas Mann, dishing out ghetto-ized wisdom in passionate but never hypocritical and always uncompromising street-beat cred. And yet, for all his contemporary attitudes, Price¹s writing remains timeless. THE WANDERERS is just as vibrant and heartbreaking today in serving up the dreams, distractions and desperations of urban youth as it was over thirty years ago. So while it might seem like Price is always tackling headlines, his classical style recalls yesterdays while portending tomorrows.
FREEDOMLAND is similar to Price¹s masterpiece, CLOCKERS, in that a relatively small crime explodes into racial disharmony. And once again, it is up to a cop to solve the crime before the tangential tensions overflow into full-scale warfare. Of course, this is an oversimplification, but the beauty of Price¹s writing is that he plots a simple course, which he then festoons with ornaments of dialogue and in-depth characterization that sets his work apart from what we would normally call a ³crime writer². While the story may sound familiar, I assure you the interactions, mystique and tragedy are not. Price always feels fresh without trying too hard; the story thrives, at hand, close and commanding. He¹s not a page-turner but a page-attractor. You don¹t race through a Price novel, you live it, learn it and love it.
"I DON'T LIKE TO WRITE - I LIKE TO BE FINISHED." RICHARD PRICE
FREEDOMLAND is not quite as persistent as CLOCKERS but it indubitably knows its own territory. It¹s a fictional burg, one that mirrors every economically depressed hood in major cities from Boston to Portland, Miami to L.A. Like most of Price¹s works, there are no typical heroes; virtually every major character expresses moments of tenderness and compassion as well as pettiness and outright evil. The question comes down to shading and no one crafts the dynamics of urban denizens better. You can spend your time trying to figure out the mystery‹which really isn¹t that hard to guess‹but Price is more concerned with tuning readers into the circumstances of how so many disparate people connect and clash, then disconnect. Detective Council, our boatman on this particular tributary, offers a refreshing workingman¹s morality without any of the NYPD BLUE platitudes and histrionics. You want to gaze into the soul of a city shield? Richard Price is the writer to seek.
I hesitate to reveal too much about the plot since it unfolds with such grace and gripping wit, but suffice to say, Price knows how to raise the stakes without unnecessarily complicating the plot. Brenda Martin is no more the sympathetic weepy mother than she is a drug-addled Macbeth. Her brother is no more a racially prejudiced cop than he is a concerned uncle trying to find his nephew. And the neighborhood leading into FREEDOMLAND is as much a home to the noble downtrodden with a faint view of hope as it is a squalid pit of larcenous demons dealing drugs, guns and death. If you want cookie-cutter cops and robbers with a Maid Marian waiting to be rescued from the storm, check out those glossy numbers written by word processing lawyers and retired cops looking to buy the boat in Boca. Richard Price came from this world, still resides just outside it and is turning the haunts, joys and memories of these singular lives into urban poetry. Everyone else is just selling the jive.
"IT WOULD MAKE ME SO HAPPY IF I DIDN'T HAVE TO WRITE THE SCRIPTS OF MY OWN BOOKS." RICHARD PRICE
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Like I said, Richard Price possesses that rare ability to craft stories for the page and screen. For some unknown reason, the film versions of Price¹s first two novels, BLOODBROTHERS and THE WANDERERS, did not enjoy the talents of their creator, which is probably why they are pallid imitations of the source material. Price¹s first credited script is for THE COLOR OF MONEY and the collision of his words with Cruise, Newman and Scorcese created one of the shining rubies of an otherwise ho-hum decade. This was a street movie before GOODFELLAS made street movies cool again amongst Hollywood¹s cocktail circuit. His work since has helped form two additional hits (SEA OF LOVE, CLOCKERS), unique but not entirely successful works (MAD DOG & GLORY, NEW YORK STORIES, NIGHT & THE CITY) and some outright misses (KISS OF DEATH, RANSOM and SHAFT). Still, his command of craft is never in doubt and the resonance of dialogue echoes throughout even the lesser films.
Which brings us to FREEDOMLAND, a large and anecdotally studded work that could very well be the most challenging of his novels to convey. In many ways, FREEDOMLAND presents the same challenges as Stephen King tales because its successes, the factors which leaven it above almost everything else of its ilk, are almost impossible to transcribe to the screen: back story, allegorical asides and characteristic quirks that without substantial explanation may seem random, even bizarre. Nevertheless, we can take comfort that at least Price himself is calling the shots on this script, picking and choosing what to edit out and what to accentuate. Coupled with a first-rate cast of Sam Jackson and Julianne Moore (both sorely in need of a respectable hit), Edie Falco, Ron Eldard, William Forsythe and an assortment of citified character actors that would make THE SOPRANOS jealous, the backbone of FREEDOMLAND seems to be in place. So why is it coming out on February 17th?
Anyone who follows film with any sort of objective interest knows that January and February are typically the dumping grounds for movies the distributor either has no faith in or knows are outright stinkers. Personally, I will be first in line as I am with all projects even remotely associated with Richard Price. My expectations are low simply because I know how difficult it is to distill a very large, detailed book into a two-hour movie, even for the original author, himself a notable screenwriter. Price¹s unique flavoring offer the potential for an involving racial potboiler along the lines of DO THE RIGHT THING but if given only superficial A-Z plotting, FREEDOMLAND could also come across as an extended, R-rated episode of LAW & ORDER.
³You can point out to people how to make what they do better, but you can't teach somebody how to be a great writer, just like you can't teach somebody how to be a fast runner. You can work on their technique, but either they're fast or they're not; either they can write or they can't.² Richard Price
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