THE YOUNG AMERICANS, released 1993, is a picture whose script
appears to have been written by a 14 year old, considering the
social circle of the protagonists, the title of the movie itself,
and the simplicity of the story. Unfortunately, those facts didn't
turn out to be trumps for the picture.

The strong point, is Harvey Keitel, who brings natural charisma and
realism to the filming, playing a police detective on loan to
Interpol (international enforcement) tracking down a weapons
trafficker, played amusingly by the sometimes enigmatic star Viggo
Mortensen.

The lesson of this movie, is difficult to surmise, considering the
confused, fatuous plot. Perhaps it is to bring patience to the
segment of the population who is over 21, with regards to those
younger than that age bracket, with a secondary goal bring to have
the juvenile element reflect on the serious consequences of taking
the message contained in music, pop culture, and TV at face value,
and agreeing to be corrupted by criminal elements in society.

The 3 major annoyances of this work, was first, the soundtrack. The
audio level needlessly and relentlessly ranged from deafeningly loud
(in the sequences filmed in the night club, and for the football
match), to the inaudibel whispered lines uttered by the actors.
Clearly, no effort was done to bring a consistent sound level
throughout the movie.

The next weakness, is the fact that the plot perhaps is so thin,
empty, and the morality of the movie so hollow, that many sequences
go on and on, for many minutes. Often, it appears the cameras are
rolling to fill up movie frames, with the audience watching the time
pass by, in expectation of actiont that often is never there.

Lastly, the soundtrack wasn't ideal. The choice of the songs, the
musical accompaniment showed effort and thought, but consistently
missed the mark, and seemed inappropriate or distracting to the
underlying action and story.

Its strength, mostly stemming from Mortensen's and Keitel's dual
efforts in carrying this picture to fruition. There's also a
quasi-Matt Damon twin who fills his role quite well.

With no suspense whatsoever, no thrill aspect maintained over 90
minutes, due to a lack of script, the end result is a movie worth
1.5 stars.

Other positive aspects, in addition to the leading actors, are the
filming locations in England, seen in the daytime, which are
interesting in themselves. Clearly, not enough thought, effort was
brought into boosting those weaker elements that otherwise, could
have helped this movie succeed in the non-European markets.

Harvey Keitel stars as a FBI agent in this dark and death-filled tale of gangs in London. The premise is a simple one, one that we've seen in many other mob movies. The older, established mobsters have a code of honor and try to do things the proper way. The rash, up and coming punks care nothing for honor and just want quick cash and drugs. In this case, it's an American - Carl Frazer (played by Viggo Mortensen) who is causing the trouble. The FBI has sent John Harris (Keitel) to help the London police force to shut him down.

Carl is a truly psychotic drug / arms dealer who loves to gather up lost but innocent young men, tell them that they are special, and then turn them into cold blooded killers. Carl gets his thrills from corrupting the virtuous. There are many comments throughout the movie - both by the cops and the old time mobsters - about how these young, sweet kids are having their lives destroyed by drugs and the lure of cash. In one scene, an old mob guy is attacked by two of these 'kids' who are trying to kill him. When he turns the tables on them, he refuses to shoot them - he just tells them to leave him alone.

I admit that I have a bit of an issue with this constant referring to the adult men as "kids" - they appear to be in their early 20s, they are out drinking, working, having lives. It's always tragic when someone is led astray, but to call them helpless "boys" or "kids" is marginalizing their maturity, in my mind. Maybe if they'd made the boys in the movie in the 13-15 age range it would have played better with me.

In any case, the movie is a little cardboardy. You have the crooked cops. Keitel is the hard-FBI-guy-who-is-still-tender. The mob guy is rough but tender too. Viggo is over the top as the psycho who smashes a prostitute's face in at a party because she was snorting coke instead of doing her job. His main lines and action only let him show 'moralless insanity' without many shades of anything else. Keitel got a lot of good moments and depth in his role, being tough with the bad guys, really caring about the innocent, and wrapped up in knots by his home life. Another great role was provided to Craig Kelly - he was great as the young man (oops I mean helpless boy) who first tries to avoid getting sucked into the situation, but finally has to make some hard decisions.

On the violence end, there was a lot of it. There was also a lot of loud clubbing, meaning that either your ears are being blown out by the noise or you're missing the soft dialogue because it's muddled. I usually don't have any issues at all with sound balance on a DVD so I really did find it odd how the mix was done here. Maybe that was part of the intention - to make you feel like you didn't know what was going on and were immersed in this throbbing London scene.

A great movie to watch once - either rental or on TV - before you decide if you want to actually own it.

I am a Viggoholic so for my tastes there wasn't enough Viggo in the movie.

There is a strange ambiance in this movie, as if we were dealing with spies in an Cold War era..You would expect Keitel's character to walk in the next Cafe Rouge to meet a Russian couple for dinner and ...well, conversation...Dave Arnold's music is just great, adding the necessary eerie side to the foggy London streets on which our DEA man chases his prey. Great work altogether, and a must see for Americans in Europe...

I caught this movie on TV one Saturday afternoon while flipping through the Channels. Seeing Harvey Keitel got my attention but the movie itself kept it. It's a really good movie. I was suprised that I hadn't heard of it before. Check it out. Its a great deal especially at the price Amazon offers it for.