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No less emotionally charged than his indie breakthroughs Shadows and Faces, Gloria (1980) sees maverick director John Cassavetes shaking down and melding two well-established genres -- urban shoot-'em-ups and mismatched couples. The director's wife, Gena Rowlands, gives a white-knuckle turn as Gloria Swenson (a sly Sunset Boulevard nod), whose dilapidated glamour and sheer toughness are apparent from one of her first lines, "I don't like kids. I hate kids, especially yours." Naturally, when the neighbors are slain by the Mob, she takes unwilling custody of their Keane-eyed kid, Phil (John Adames). Trouble is, Swenson is an ex-chorus girl with a history of shady dealings, and the Mob is right on their tail. Although chock-full of narrow escapes and gut-wrenching twists of fate, the film's focus remains stubbornly on the gnarls of the mother-son relationship and on Rowlands's dazzlingly real characterization, for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Few women in the movies come as tough as Rowlands's Gloria. And there are few moments in film as exhilarating as when Gloria remembers how to use a six-shooter, complete with a cigarette dangling from her lip. Eddy Crouse

All Movie Guide

Gloria (Gena Rowlands), a self-involved woman in her forties who was once a mobster's mistress, is asked to look after Philip (Juan Adames), the son of her Mafia-connected Puerto Rican neighbors. This temporary set-up becomes permanent when the neighbors are killed in a mob hit. Philip has in his possession a diary containing a record of illegal Mafia activities; thus the boy is as good as dead unless Gloria takes decisive action. With Philip in tow, Gloria leads the hit men on a frantic chase around Manhattan, and during the various gunfire exchanges, more than holds her own. Offering to exchange the diary for the boy's life, Gloria is rebuffed by the vendetta-driven assassins. Where once she was content squirreling herself away in her lonely apartment, Gloria now must face a lifetime on the run. Directed on a more commercial level than was customary for John Cassavetes (with a subversive streak of self-parody in the bargain), Gloria served as an excellent showcase for Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands. The film won the Golden Lion Award at the 1980 Berlin Film Festival. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 043396085695
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español, Korean
• Time: 2:01:00
• Sales Rank: 9,305

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