Cast
Susan Sarandon : Reggie Love
Tommy Lee Jones : Roy Foltrigg
(dit Le révérend car il cite souvent la Bible)
Brad Renfro : Mark Sway
Mary-Louise Parker : Dianne Sway
Anthony LaPaglia : Barry Muldanno
(dit The Blade (La Lame)
J.T. Walsh : Jason McThune
Anthony Edwards : Clint Von Hooser
Will Patton : sergent Hardy
Bradley Whitford : Thomas Fink
Anthony Heald : Larry Trumann
Kim Coates : Paul Gronke
Kimberly Scott : Doreen
David Speck : Ricky Sway
William H. Macy : le docteur Greenway
Ossie Davis : le juge Harry Roosevelt
Walter Olkewicz : Jerome "Romey" Clifford, avocat de la maffia
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Heroism very new/very old
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Mark Sway is a real hero here, although he is not only a mere child, but a disadvantaged child in the middle of adult power structures breathtaking in their deviousness and casual cruelty. The theme of youngsters forced by circumstances into adult roles and responsibilities, particularly in being more level-headed and mature than their parent(s) has become as strikingly common in contemporary literature as it was strikingly uncommon until about a generation ago. But there are ample parallels to real life in pre-Romantic history.
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It is really our modern assumptions of prolonged childhood and adolescence which are abnormal in the fuller perspective of human experience. Aren't we on the verge of these concepts' retreating from the apogees to which western culture pushed them in the 19th and early 20th centuries?If so, this film is on the cusp of the trend. Yet it might never have worked but for the director's good fortune in locating Brad Renfro for the lead role. What a find! His earthy, protean spunk and obliviousness to any cute brown-nosing towards his elders, simply because they are elders, make him entirely convincing in the part.
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He is, I hope, on his way to being a great actor, but perhaps it will continue to be this film which shows his freshness most clearly.Not that it isn't very taut cinema in other regards. The build up of drama in the opening scenes is superb, with acting, cinematography, and the score all combining to provide a seamless experience. As one critic put it, it starts like a house afire, and the fire never goes out. This is a film one can see again and again, noticing additional fine touches each time.
