Spike of Bensonhurst

Viewers that know Paul Morrissey only from his Warhol days will be surprised by  Spike of Bensonhurst, the tale of a rude ‘n’ crude Italian-American boy, out to Get What’s His in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst. Our selfish leading man believes his Italian-American heritage puts him a cut above all other ethnicities. All he wants is his avowed birthright, an easy life in the mob system. He skates on his good looks and remains unfazed when both of his girlfriends get pregnant. In fact, making that happen ends up being part of his plan.

Several characters in Spike of Bensonhurst seem overacted. The show has farcical elements yet tells a (depressingly) believable story. The screaming arguments and profanity are fairly routine now, but in 1988 the show could have been perceived as “Son of Scarface” in the profanity stakes. Everybody says what they think, loudly and with little heed as to who’s feelings might be hurt.

Is this punk really going somewhere?  He certainly has the self-confidence for it. 

The show isn’t highly rated, yet it seems a template for pictures that attempt to illuminate a particular American sub-culture. It’s a mob picture with some tension but no killings. Family feuds, mob business and ethnic contrasts clash, big time, but since everybody accepts a world with injustice and corruption, nobody’s protesting. The conflict is all wrapped up in the leading character’s inflated opinion of himself. Spike of Bensonhurst seems primed to promote actor Sasha Mitchell into the orbit occupied by superstar Sylvester Stallone. The Italian Stallion, however, made sure to play a character that audiences would like. The show has a number of good personalities to observe faces, but the reall attraction is Ernest Borgnine, a real pro. His upper-middle rank mob boss is so believably human that he transcends the general crudeness… Crudity… Crud. He’s an honest character within a shaky satire.

Bensonhurst is a somewhat upscale neighborhood in Broolyn. Good-looking Spike Fumo (Sasha Mitchell) abuses his family, friends and any girl that takes up with him, yet he’s considered a prince of the neighborhood. Fumo believes whole-heartedly in the mob’s rule, and the way it makes 4th-class citizens of the Puerto Ricans in neighboring Red Hook. He’s in a boxing club that puts on fights that everyone knows are rigged, and it doesn’t seem to matter. Spike and others take turns being knocked out, for pittance pay. Local mob boss Baldo Cacetti (Ernest Borgnine) compliments Spike on the way he takes a dive.

Spike’s idea of ‘carpe deum’ is to force his hand. His plan to succeed without really trying is to marry Angel Cacetti (Maria Pitillo), Baldo’s spoiled princess of a daughter. Baldo wants Angel to marry another guy, a square college student with a future. As Spike won’t take no for an answer he gets himself banished to Red Hook, where he takes up with Bandana (Rick Aviles), normally his boxing opponent. Bandana turns out to be a swell guy — and doesn’t seem to mind Spike’s insults against Puerto Ricans. Spike is honestly offended by Red Hook’s open drug market, and makes himself a local hero by chasing away some pushers. [ How he can do this without getting his throat cut is a mystery. ]

Bandana’s emotional mom (Antonia Rey) has values issues; like too many women she loves the handsome Spike, and equates the Mafia with upscale security. Spike takes up with India (Talisa Soto), Bandana’s swooningly attractive sister. Yet he tells India that he’s angling to get back with Angel, to secure that cozy mob future he’s after.

Despite Baldo Cacetti’s precautions Angel and Spike are able to meet up; she announces that the way to make daddy accept Spike is to get pregnant. Meanwhile, India becomes pregnant by Spike as well. Spike’s crime-fighting activities cause more friction with the Mob. Baldo’s superiors are not happy that he is permitting an upstart Bensonhurst punk to interfere with drug sales in Red Hook.

There are plenty of side issues to be debated, argued, screamed. Spike’s mom is living with a girlfriend, a source of derision that he’s able to slough off. Spike’s dad is serving a prison term for a crime that otherwise would have been charged to Baldo. This is why Baldo cuts Spike so much slack, and why Spike figures he can get away with any outrage short of murder.

With so many broadly drawn characters Spike of Bensonhurst can feel like a sitcom gone crazy. The various dramas are credible; it’s the cast members spend their waking hours aggravating each other that seems exaggerated. The interesting thing is that Morrissey stresses an angle ignored by other ‘culture clash’ dramas: the people in this ethnic and criminal battleground accept the system, corruption and all. It’s most telling in Puerto Rican Red Hook. Spike says things we’d think would make Bandana and India scream at him, if not murder him on the spot. No, the underdog PRs know the status quo when they see it. The main test for this comes when Angel confronts India, knowing that they’re both pregnant by Spike. No catfight ensues. The whitebread Angel claims the inner track to marriage. India accepts that she has no rights or status in the matter. Her only response is a serene silence.

Numerous characters make noise, but we’re most impressed by Borgnine’s effective, understated performance. His Baldo can be as crude as the bums around him, but he comes off as sincere about keeping family peace. He follows a skewed but recognizable credo to Do What’s Right. Baldo exercises that decency only in his household, not in the outside world of drug pushing. It’s what most of us do, on an enlarged scale.

Any other tale of this kind would entail a string of killings, reciprocal vendettas with wronged women exacting Old Country vengeance, that sort of thing. The irony is that Spike’s main strategy is undone by a misunderstanding that’s out of his control. For a movie that at first seems uncouth and anarchistic, Spike of Bensonhurst ends in a surprisingly civilized way.

Ernest Borgnine is not the only actor to watch. Sasha Mitchell actually does well, but his career didn’t take off from this starring role. Annie DeSalvo is fun as Baldo’s pampered wife, while Sylvia Miles is more than a little forced as Bensonhurst’s cocaine-sniffing Congresswoman, basically a front for the Mob. Geraldine Smith is coarse as Spike’s mom, and Antonia Rey ia overplayed but lovable as Bandana’s mom. Hardcore Mafia cred is encourged through the presence of familiar faces Frank Adonis and Frank Gio.

Maria Pitillo had quite a few good breaks; she even played Mary Pickford in Richard Attenborough’s now forgotten Chaplin. It was her bad luck to land the leading role in the 1998 remake of  Godzilla, where she became a target for lazy critics looking for actors to slam.

Talisa Soto received more attention at the time. Although her India has short hair and dresses in outfits that look like combat fatigues, she is the expected knockout on multiple levels. Again, critics repeated that she needed acting lessons, even Roger Ebert. We don’t agree that Soto isn’t acting; we think that India’s quiet, observing manner befits a proud, patient woman in a disadvantaged position. Ms. Soto went immediately from this show to the movie most of us know her from, the James Bond epic  Licence to Kill. Everybody noticed her there.