Year: 1988
Duration: 1:43:16
Directed by: Donald P. Bellisario
Actors: Tom Berenger, Daphne Zuniga, Chick Vennera
Language: English
Country: USA
Also known as: Ritual de Sangue, Vínculos de sangre, Crimes de sang, L’ombra del peccato, Last Rites – Sakrament des Todes, Mafia, rito de sangre
Description:
Father Michael Pace (Tom Berenger) became a Catholic priest to escape his powerful Mafioso father Carlo, but when he must help protect a vulnerable murder witness, he finds himself suddenly at odds with his family. Things start with a bang as Father Michael’s Mafia-raised sister Zena guns down her husband Geno while his Latin American mistress Angela (Daphne Zuniga) watches. Terrified, Angela makes her way to church, where she confesses her feelings of guilt to Michael. Although not revealed until much later, Geno was being paid off by a rival family keen on taking over the New York syndicate. In exchange for feeding information to the Feds about Don Carlo’s illegal activities, Geno was to receive $5 million and a free pass to Mexico to spend the rest of his life frolicking on the beach with Angela. At first, Michael hides the girl from the pony-tailed mob sleazeballs combing the New York side streets, but as he finds himself attracted to her—and increasingly tempted to break his vows—he agrees to help Angela escape to the Mexican underground as originally planned. Once across the border, they spend a night of passion together, whereupon Angela inexplicably disappears. Left in the dark, Father Michael, like the audience, must figure out exactly what has been going on.
Like most discriminating movie fans, I’m usually wary of back-of-the-box hyperbole, but in this case I have to agree with Last Rites’ liner notes, which explicitly state that this is a thriller that “will keep you guessing until the final frame!” How very true! Last Rites does differentiate itself from the cookie-cutter erotic thrillers with one unexpected surprise: full-frontal male nudity. Although the film is rife with bare skin, and seems constructed around ways to get Zuniga in various states of (inexplicit) undress, it is Roberto Corbo who is the only actor to bare all in the opening minutes of the film, as he pleads with his wife not to shoot him in the crotch. The rarity of such a scene gives it a mildly startling effect here, which I thought was worthy of a mention.
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