King of New York seems to be on every streaming service so it’s easy to take it for granted. The new Lionsgate Limited 4K UHD is definitely the best way to watch this gritty 1990 gangster movie. There’s plenty of Christopher Walken dancing too, but from Abel Ferrara, you know it won’t be glamorous.
When it’s dark in an Abel Ferrara movie, there is literally just no light or color on the screen. So in the prison cell, his limo at night or on the streets of New York, the darkness threatens to envelop you. Even a performance art show has a gun emerge from the void. Walken’s black suit also cuts an impressive silhouette through every scene.
There is a lot more surround sound than I expected from a 1990 indie movie. There’s atmosphere in the prison cells, car doors closing behind you, subway noise, street music coming from boomboxes, that theater production and of course the gunshots.
There are also plenty of archival extras featuring Ferrara and cast, but three new bonus features are included in this edition. The Sacred and the Profane is a critical appreciation of Ferrera’s career and political undertones in the film.
Walken gives a new interview and rememberes a lot of specific scene work from King of New York after all the movies he’s made. He also remembers his first impressions of Laurence Fishburne and Wesley Snipes.
Paul Calderon also gives a ne winterview. He remembers how New Jack City and hip hop were emerging at the same time as this film, though New Jack became a bigger hit in 1991. Calderon also remembers Fishburne auditioning in costume.