| Sonny Boy Directed by Robert Martin Carroll ( U.S.A –1987) This offbeat feature begins in 1970, and is set in the tiny town of Harmony in the state of New Mexico. A couple have just checked into the dingy Harmony motel. A local petty thief known as Weasel is staking out their Cadillac convertible full of goodies as they take their bags inside . As he gets to work hotwiring the classic car, the owner catches him and drags the would-be thief out of his vehicle. “I can explain” Weasel mumbles less than convincingly. “I got into the wrong car”. The owner hesitates for just a moment, and it’s long enough for the thief to drag a revolver from his top pocket. “Alright college boy… into your room!” he barks at the tourist. He shoots the college boy and his wife, then roars off into the desert in their Cadillac. It’s packed to the fenders with his victim’s possessions, and the television from the motel room. The next morning, Weasel delivers his latest haul to Slue. Slue runs a very successful stolen goods racket in Harmony. The ill tempered crime king has everyone in his pocket, and essentially runs the town from his property a few miles away. Slue’s property looks like the Branch Davidian compound that burned to the ground at Waco. There’s stolen merchandise stacked everywhere, and car bodies litter the land surrounding the sheds. The compound is guarded by an observation tower, and by Slue’s toy… his miniature howitzer. He delights in destroying car bodies and unwelcome guests with the small cannon. As Weasel pulls up outside the house, Slue welcomes him in typical fashion. “My dogs didn’t even bark at you ‘cause they know you’re a weasley piece of shit” he tells his employee less than warmly. “Now what are you here for?” he growls. Weasel shows his boss the lovely Cadillac, and also the television he swiped the night before. Slue examines the T.V. set for a moment before berating his incompetent employee because it’s black and white. “What the f**k am I supposed to watch on black and white?... Dragnet?” he bellows. The nervous thief tells the heavy set crime king, telling him that he’ll return the set to the Harmony Motel in the morning. “I own the f**kin’ Harmony Motel!” Slue reminds him. Weasel has brought something else without even realizing it. A baby boy is sleeping in a cradle on the back seat. An angry Slue throws his bumbling employee to the ground. Slue’s partner is a woman named Pearl. Believe it or not, Pearl is played by David Carradine in drag. I’m not too sure whether Pearl is supposed to be a transsexual, or just an extremely un-attractive woman. “Can I keep him? Please… can I Slue?” she begs her other half. He tells her that he’d rather feed the child to the hogs. “If you harm this child Slue, then I’m leaving you” Pearl warns him. The next day, another of Slue’s employees arrives on the scene. Pearl greets Charlie with the little tyke cradled in her arms. He tells her that he didn’t realize that she was with child. “I’ve been keeping it a secret” she explains in her baritone voice. “The shame of being an un-wed mother is just too much to bear”. A new recruit who’s just been transferred to the local police department comes snooping around investigating the murder of the couple at the Harmony Motel. Slue hasn’t had a chance to pay him off yet. He’s unaware that Slue is above the law in Harmony. He asks if he can take a look around the compound, and Pearl gives him the grand tour. “Do you have receipts for these?” he asks suspiciously as they walk past pallets of electrical goods. “Oh… we picked them up at a swap meet” the lady of the house hastily explains. The eager deputy would like to investigate matters further, but Slue blows him to pieces with the howitzer. It’s something of an overkill as pieces of the hapless lawman fly all over the yard. As Sonny Boy grows up, his foster parents Slue and Pearl mould them into their own twisted image. They become one big happy dysfunctional family. His sixth birthday party is a modest affair; attended by his gender bender mother, his criminal father, and sly Uncle Weasel. Sonny provides a lot of narrative during the film, which is rather ironic because his birthday heralds a speech impediment. “Father cut loose my tongue” he tells us. “A present for my birthday. A gift of silence… and Pearl put my voice in the freezer for safe keeping. We then ate sweet cake”. A touching family moment. As he grows into a man, Slue and Pearl treat him cruelly in a number of ways in an effort to make Sonny into the kind of son they can be proud of. They even lock him up inside a water tank, which becomes his new home. Despite their brand of tough love, Pearl and Slue love their son despite the fact that he’s now more of an animal than a human being. They feed the boy raw chickens through a hatch in the water tank. One day the Sherriff visits with some bad news. The Mayor wants a bigger slice of the kickbacks from Slue. “Mayor’s your brother in law isn’t he?” the racketeer asks the Sheriff. The lawman nods, and Slue tells him that it’s a shame. The heavy set criminal realises that his son’s vicious streak can be put to good use, and takes him to visit the greedy Mayor. Sonny tears him apart like a raw chicken. Weasel and Charlie are impressed, and use Sonny Boy in a violent robbery without their employer’s permission. The townsfolk are outraged, and form an armed militia to hunt down the ‘monster’. “You’re the monsters” the local physician tells them, realizing that Sonny Boy is a poor mis-understood boy who isn’t all there. “You let it happen. Now you good people are going to have to pay the price”. The last stand at Slue’s place has a very Waco feel as he and Pearl try their best to make a last stand defending their son, and their admittedly disreputable livelihood. For a film with such a bizarre premise, Sonny Boy works surprisingly well, mainly due to a strong ensemble of actors. Brad Dourif (unfortunately best remembered as the voice of Chucky) is always good value when he plays these slimy villains who are completely devoid of moral fibre, as is the always despicable Sidney Lassick (who played Gutchell in John Sayles’ Alligator). Paul Smith is also a welcome addition to the cast as the surly big man Slue. But the highlight performance has to be David Carradine as Pearl. The character seems ridiculous at first, but he actually manages to play a character with some depth (something he never managed in Kung Fu). After a few minutes you actually forget that it’s him, and your mind fools you into thinking you’re watching an extremely unattractive long lost female member of the Carradine clan. The surreal sight of Pearl blazing away with a pistol and shotgun during the climactic siege isn’t easily forgotten. Entertainment : 2.5 out of 3 Watchability : 3 out of 3 Overall : 4.25 out of 3 Reviewed by Blake |