Main Cast: Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Elizabeth McGovern, Morgan Freeman, Forest Whitaker
Release Year: 1989
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Small-time crook Mickey Rourke is mockingly named Johnny Handsome because of his grotesquely deformed face. While in stir on a robbery rap, Rourke is knifed by convicts in the employ of his former partner--and now bitter enemy--Lance Henriksen. While in the prison hospital, Rourke is cared for by a kindly doctor (Forrest Whitaker), who believes that the key to Rourke's rehabilitation might be a literal change of face. Undergoing plastic surgery, Rourke emerges as virtually unrecognizable to everyone but the audience. Paroled, Rourke seems to be willing to follow a straight and narrow path. Seems to be. Only Morgan Freeman, playing a hard-bitten law officer, sees through Rourke's "new leaf." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
It's ironic that a film about physical deformity cured by plastic surgery undergoes a facelift of its own part way through, changing from an original cinematic entity into an all-too-ordinary crime thriller. Johnny Handsome goes downhill about the time that a facially misshapen and vocally muffled Mickey Rourke -- who seems to be giving a daring, vanity-free performance -- is miraculously transformed, scar- and slur-free, into the smoldering brooder we know so well. As soon as the makeup -- a superlative effort by former Oscar nominees Michael Westmore and Zoltan Elek -- gets stripped away, Johnny Handsome loses its vitality, resembling one of Rourke's prototypical seedy noirs a lot more than a thoughtful contemplation of identity and physical appearance. It's also unfortunately familiar territory for director Walter Hill, whose smart visual style, including some sharp cutting on form, gets neutralized by narrative clichés. Johnny Handsome hearkens back to the days when Morgan Freeman was still allowed to play unsympathetic characters, only two years after his menacing turn as Fast Black in Street Smart. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Lance Henriksen - Rafe Garrett; Scott Wilson - Mikey Chaimette; Yvonne Bryceland - Sister Luke; Jim Burk - Prison Guard; Blake Clark - Sheriff; John P. Fertitta - Prestige Salesman; Peter Jason - Mr. Bonet; Ken Medlock - Shipyard Accountant; Jeffrey Meek - Earl; Raynor Scheine - Gun Dealer; David Schramm - Vic Dumask; J.W. Smith - Larry; Ed Walsh - Judge; Ed Zang - Prestige Manager; Dick Butler - Shipyard Security Guard; Gie-G Duncombe - Accounting Secretary; Eugenia Ives - Nurse; Bonnie Timmermann; Allan Graf - Bob Lemoyne
Credit
Christa Munro - Art Director, Ted Kurdyla - Associate Producer, Mae Woods - Associate Producer, Dan Moore - Costume Designer, Walter Hill - Director, Donn Aron - Editor, Freeman Davies, Jr. - Editor, Carmel Davies - Editor, Mario Kassar - Executive Producer, Andrew G. Vajna - Executive Producer, Ry Cooder - Composer (Music Score), Richard Bryce Goodman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Zoltan Elek - Makeup, Michael Westmore - Makeup, Gene Rudolf - Production Designer, Ted Kurdyla - Production Designer, Matthew Leonetti - Cinematographer, Charles Roven - Producer, Ernie Bishop - Set Designer, Joseph P. Mercurio - Special Effects, Alan Lee Graf - Stunts, Ken Friedman - Screenwriter, Nicholas Meyer - Screenwriter, John Godey - Book Author
A career criminal who has been deformed since birth is given a new face by a kind doctor and paroled from prison. It appears that he has gone straight, but he is really planning his revenge on the man who killed his father-figure and sent him to prison.
Cast
Mickey Rourke - John Sedley a.k.a. Johnny Handsome/Johnny Mitchell
