The Lords of Flatbush

Summary

“I want that ring, Stanley!”

Sony has recently released the low-budget 1974  drama The Lords of Flatbush on Blu-ray. The film is notable for essentially launching the careers of Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler. Henry Winkler’s role in the picture landed him the role of Fonzarelli in Happy Days (which he based on Stallone’s performance here,) and he was able to later help Stallone to sell his script for Rocky by helping Stallone secure a meeting with producers. I had always been curious about this film, so I watched it for the first time the other day.

The picture takes place in 1958 in Brooklyn. The plot follows the actions of four friends who are seniors in high school and in a leather jacket gang of greasers called the Lords. Stanley Rosiello (Sylvester Stallone) is a tough guy who accidentally gets his girlfriend pregnant. Butchey (Henry Winkler) is a wisecracking kid who is wasting his brains hanging around his friend group. Chico (Perry King) is enfatuated with a new girl who has come to school named Jane Bradshaw (Susan Blakely.) Wimpy (Paul Mace) rounds out the gang (but is not given much to do in the film.) The gang begins to stop focusing on rumbles with rivals as Stanley and Chico deal with the highs and lows of their relationships.

I have to be honest – I really did not enjoy this movie. I can appreciate that folks who saw this movie when it was released may hold a special place in their hearts for it, but I hve no nostalgia to rely upon since this is my first viewing of the picture. The characters felt somewhat underwritten and obvious, but worse than that is that I had no desire to spend time watching the plots of these characters play out. The direction by Martin Davidson and Stephen Verona is not anything special, and the music in the film is somewhat distracting with its Neil Diamond style ballads that occasionally crop up. There is just nothing here for me to really grab onto. I kept looking at my phone every few minutes to see how much longer I had before I finished the movie. The only thing I commend The Lords of Flatbush for is launching the careers it launched.

Video

Sony has presented The Lords of Flatbush in 1080p using an MPEG-4 AVC encode in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The master used is not a new master and matches the master used to stream the film digitally. The picture does not look great on the format. It is not cleaned up all that well and has a lot of imperfections. While this was a low budget picture that could only be improved so much, fans will probably be disappointed to see that not much effort seems to have been put forth here.

Audio

Similar to the video transfer, Sony’s DTS-HD MA track presents the film in a less than spectacular fashion. This track could have been cleaned up to bring more out of the elements. Clarity is hit or miss. Not great.

Supplements

• Theatrical Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 2.5/5

Audio – 3/5

Supplements – .5/5

Overall – 2.5/5

The Lords of Flatbush helped launch the careers of Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler. I had always been curious about the picture, but after seeing it on Sony’s Blu-ray, I wish I had not sought it out. The Blu-ray itself is mediocre, and the film was a one-time viewing for me.

The film can be purchased at www.moviezyng.com.