An important entry in the list of gritty 1970s films (released 1980) that served as a counterpoint to anodyne plastic schlock available in the mainstream.Gloria herself is a metaphor for New Yorkers - complaisant in the crumbling of the city around them, existing in an uneasy complicity with the forces of corruption, and bolting herself into an apartment that vainly attempts to keep the decrepitude of the Bronx at bay.Ms. Rowlands does a workmanlike job. She shines at moments when depicting ferocity in confronting mobsters with a gun in her hand; but at other times, she is less convincing in showing that she is conflicted about continuing to protect the child whom she takes in at its father's behest, moments before he and the rest of the family are liquidated by the mob.Her work would have been easier if the script had been more coherent. At one point the two protagonists take refuge in an apartment, huge and luxe, without any apparent explanation of whose it is or how Gloria has the key. It would help if so much of the dialog were not inaudible. Full marks to Cassavetes for trying for authentic sound, but there are moments when we wish he could have looped a few lines that sound as if they were recorded in the next room by someone coughing through a cushion.Ultimately, the star of this movie is the Bronx itself, shown at the depths of the Dinkins administration. The flaking paint and dingy lighting of decaying hallways and stairwells; potholed streets and shuttered stores. New Yorkers will value this film for the hugely evocative portrayal of the city as she was, when she was on her knees. Thirty years later, recession or not, New York City is a different world.

I dig this out once a year to watch it and it always gets me. I've been watching this film ever since it came out! The production, including the opening credits, has a foreign feel to it. The opening has watercolor artwork that appears to have been made by a child. The camera sweeps over this while displaying opening credits as jazz music plays.The film takes place in New York City and not the glamorous areas of New York. No, here we see the seedier, gritty, grimy side of New York where children run unsupervised and people are struggling to survive.The acting here is excellent by everyone. Some people say it seems unrealistic and there might be times when that becomes apparent but you can't deny the raw, nervous energy of the film. It's hard to escape the atmosphere here. Gene Rowlands plays her role perfectly and despite her tough as nails attitude you can't help but love her character.Give this a chance. It could become one of your favorite films as it is hard to forget.

I've watched it 3 times in the past 10 days. But I have to admit that when I saw it years back I didn't care for it much. It's funny how your viewpoint changes over the years. I'm just about sure that some of the critics here may also do the same as the years pass. However, most so-called 'critics' are so full of themselves anyway in my opinion.But what's not to love about the film? Directed by John Cassavetes, the music by Bill Conti, the lovely opening credits and artwork by Romare Bearden, the great NYC locations, etc. I love the opening sequence where the watercolor painting of night buildings dissolves into a real night scene and those two opening minutes of the fly over of New York and Yankee Stadium and as we see the Statue Of Liberty you can see that dawn is approaching with the sky lighting up. As the fly over continues under the Brooklyn Bridge then the shot of the bridge with Manhattan in the background and George Washington bridge in the lower part of the frame. And finally the camera pans to a day game at Yankee Stadium to zoom up on the bus approaching. I did spot a continuity glitch where the 3 teens are running toward the El and there's a crowd of people on the corner and when they show them running from the bus the crowd is missing. Big deal. One more comment before I go when they show Gloria and Phil at the cemetery and the scene slowly dissolves with the gravestones and laps into the bridge shot of NYC skyline and I thought how the skyscrapers seemed to symbolize the gravestones too. Life and death in the Naked City.I Love This Movie

This film certainly has the gritty look and feel of an urban thriller of the 70s, and it's highlights are the street scenes, many shot from a distance to avoid real New Yorkers staring at the actors or the cameras. Real people walk past the actors completely oblivious to who they are or what's going on and it adds immeasurably to the realism of the film.Sadly, that's about the only positive thing I have to say about this film. I'm frankly surprised that this film comes from a director with as distinguished a reputation as John Cassavetes. Having said that, I'm not too familiar with Cassavetes' work with a director so can't form an opinion on whether that reputation is deserved.Anyway, what's wrong with this film? Firstly, the acting between the two leads is pretty poor. Gena Rowlands was a journeyman actress at best and really doesn't possess the acting skills or presence to carry a film. John Adames as the kid she spirits away from the mob is just plain bad, there's no disguising the fact. He's not helped, either, by the lines he's given to speak as, more often than not, they're words that no kid would speak in such a situation. On top of that, he seems remarkably unmoved by the fact that his entire family has been wiped out.The other main faults for my money are that the musical score is intrusive and overwrought, rising to dramatic crescendos at wholly inappropriate moments, and the plot as a whole really doesn't hang together. And that ending is just horrible and overly sentimental. Cassavetes has failed to arouse any real concern for the characters throughout the preceding two hours, so seeing them reunited in the way he has written just doesn't work at any level other than making it look like the ending of some hokey TV movie