Spotlight on…Dennis Farina

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_MSg8CyvEM

The late American actor Dennis Farina’s first international hit marked the beginning of new gangster pictures. That was back in 1988. And it had been an unremarkable year in cinema until Midnight Run was released at Christmas. It was a magical mob movie, directed by Martin Brest, and starring Farina as a Mafioso out to get Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. The attitude and the language would be common today: cocky characters strutting round the screen, spitting out profanities like verses of urban poetry. But remember this was before The Untouchables scoured the streets of Chicago. And remember that Joe Pesci had yet to use the f-word 300 odd times in Goodfellas. Farina was a criminal unlike any other. He was mean, tough and funny. His character had onscreen gangsters terrified and audience members laughing out loud. How could you bury a phone in someone’s head?