Sometimes brother’s fight. 

I don’t have a brother, so I can’t verify this from actual experience, but I’m told this is true by those who have them. 

When I started watching Nicolas Cage movies, I didn’t know much about the brotherly dynamic in his life. Evidently, it’s not easy being in a family of famous actors, directors, and writers–and brothers feel the brunt of this tension, especially when their artistic visions and acting techniques clash. This became real for me after I reviewed Deadfall early in the WATC(H) and got some interesting comments from (maybe?) Christopher Coppola (Nicolas Cage’s brother who directed the movie.) Check it out if you don’t believe me.

In the “anonymous” comment, you don’t need any subtext on the brotherly tensions running deep because Chris comes right out and says how he feels. He says that Deadfall was “the film that my brother used to destroy my career” that they “fought” because “[Cage] refused to take off his sunglasses” and that he wasn’t too happy that Cage got paid his millions and made the movie his personal “playground”. The movie was a flop so I can understand his irritation.

If Deadfall started the beef between Nic and Chris, then Arsenal (2017) took it to its fated “story arc” conclusion. Arsenal is a film about brotherly love, envy, hatred, violence, and sacrifice. We get to FINALLY see Nic and Chris on screen together airing their grievances, finding their fists, and finalizing their grudges, both fictional and autobiographical, and…well let’s just say it ends in blood and one man standing.

So, let’s get ready to rumble.

The World According to Eddie King (and his brother)

This film is not really about Eddie King (Nicolas Cage) or his buffer big brother Buddy (Chris Coppola) but they were the best parts of the story. This film is about two other brothers growing up in downtrodden Biloxi, Mississippi. The older, buffer brother Mikey (Jonathan Shaech) must shield his younger brother JP (Adrian Grenier) from a rough life of poverty and lack of parental figures. To do so teenaged Mikey finds work with the local crime lord Eddie King, a Sonny Bono sort of villain (with a Inspector Clouseau style prosthetic nose) who has offices in a maze behind an arcade and regularly beats guys to death with aliminum bats.

JP is none the wiser to his brother’s dealings as he finds success first as a high school baseball pitcher and then as a local construction baron and family man. Mikey’s decision to shield JP early in life takes its toll later in life for both brothers. Mikey is dishonorably discharged from the military, has a daughter he can’t take care of and resorts to pawning weapons and selling drugs to try and make ends meet. 

JP meanwhile is an upstanding citizen, a well-off business owner and a happily married man who has recently welcomed his first child into the world. As younger and very loyal brother, JP looks to protect his older brother by steering him back to a better path and gets some tips and help from their mutual friend, Sal (John Cusack), a do-rag wearing guy who may or may not be a reformed criminal / undercover cop–I’m still not exactly sure which.

But Mikey is gonna be Mikey and wants to pay his own way through life and keep his younger bro out of his mess. But when he loses his drug stash to some fellow thugs, he turns back to Eddie for support and the two come up with a plan to extort JP out of some of his cash. (Or so we are lead to believe.) 

When Mikey is kidnapped and ransomed for cash, JP and Sal must find a way to locate his kidnappers (hint-hint: it’s Eddie King) and free him before he is killed within 72 hours. JP overturns his business and his life to try and get the cash and find his brother’s where-abouts. He must take on the violent behaviors of his brother in order to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of unethical men. 

As Eddie King plots the “unsanctioned” ransom of Mikey, Eddie’s own brother Buddy (Christopher Coppola) shows up to uphold the family’s business values and “discipline” Eddie for going off the rez. Leading his brother to a plastic lined hotel room (never a good thing) Buddy and Eddie have it out. Fearing for his life, as it’s obvious Buddy will kill Eddie, Eddie turns the tables on Buddy and [spoiler] brutally murders him with his fists (yay for plastic lining). 

Omitting many unnecessary details, Mikey turns out, wasn’t a part of his own kidnapping plan. After an escape attempt, he and his daughter are hidden away and tied in a dank room until JP and Sal can rescue them. JP procures an arsenal of weaponry and comes in guns blazing (even though this doesn’t seem even remotely accurate to his character or lifestyle…brothers gotta come in guns blazing I guess.) I’ll have to check my notes, but I’m pretty sure Eddie and cronies get shot and killed and JP and Mikey and daughter escape basically unscathed.

Moral of the story: a brother’s love can cover a multitude of sins. Or something along those lines. The brothers play baseball together and everyone lives happily ever after.

C’mon Brah!

Fratricide has been going on for quite a long time in history, mythology, and film it seems. We’ve got Cain and Abel in the Bible. Osiris and Set in Egyptian mythology. Claudius and King Hamlet in Shakespeare. There’s even a wikipedia page listing the fratricides in literature. But this film is interesting because, as I mentioned, Cage and Coppola are real-life bros fighting out a fictitious bro fight on screen. Funny? Uncomfortable? Too close to home? I have no idea. I really thought for a second there Buddy would get his come-uppance. Eddie’s not supposed to be endangering the family business with a “messy” undertaking like a ransom demand. Buddy comes to Eddie’s hideout to pick him up still eating chicken wings (?) and forces him to ride along with him. Buddy / Chris is bigger than Eddie (tougher looking). This seemed ripe for a retribution. Not just for the Deadfall stuff, but for Nicky overshadowing Chris career-and-acting wise. I was pulling for Chris. Especially since Eddie is the obvious villain here and is pretty detestable with his gold chains, his 70s haircut, and his ridiculous cleft butt nose. Finally, I thought, Buddy/Chris is going to put a bullet in his brother’s head and put this whole beef to rest.

But alas, no. Eddie turns the tables on Buddy and beats the living shit out of him. I mean, the punches didn’t even look that realistic, but boy did they bludgeon the brah. Punch, after punch, after punch. Does he regret what he’s done? Yes, I think he does. He writes a poignant, grievance filled letter about it which he reads later to Mikey (I think)? Eddie envies what JP and Mikey share–the thing he never had with Buddy–a protecting and selfless kind of love. Makes me wonder what autobiographical notes (if any) are coming through in Nic and Chris’ ill-fated bromance. I don’t know. But it was a cool surprise seeing a commenter on this blog showing up for a scene–even if it ended up with his head getting crushed in. Sorry Buddy. 

The Nose

Half the fun of Cage movies is seeing what kind of crazy shit he is going to do next. Whether it’s a nerdy nasal fry like in Peggy Sue Got Married or a high-pitched voice and weird jaw clenches in Army of One, Cage adds some flavor to the role that feels simultaneously correct and totally wrong at the same time. He’s already had a ridiculous nose, if you remember, in his brief cameo in Never on a Tuesday. Well, now we have a hybrid character. Eddie (same name, slightly different character) Deadfall has been reincarnated and merged with “guy in the red sport car” from Never On a Tuesday. His eyes water (maybe from the cocaine) and he talks like he’s from the northeast even though he is living in the deep south. Weird. Weird. Beautifully weird. And, sadly or not, he’s the best part of this awful movie. He deserves what he gets in the end, but for his brief showing he’s bizarro Cage at his finest. 

2017

I’ve watched all of Nicolas Cage’s films from 2017 and they are some of his absolute worst of his (or any actor’s) career. I think all of them were limited release straight to video on-demand films that likely helped him pay off his tax burden (more than anything). The next one in the list, Vengeance: A Love Story seemed like it would be the most unwatchable for me, but then I watched Inconceivable. We’ll get to those. Arsenal starts the bar off pretty low however and it just goes lower. I’m not sure why this year in particular produced these movies for Cage, but I hope it’s not the trend for the next 30 or so. Mom and Dad, the last of 2017, has its moments of dark laughs and entertainment, and it’s by far, the best of the lot, but even that one is ill conceived, annoying at times, and falls flat in the end. I don’t know.

Or maybe (gasp) I’m just getting weary of the Nic Cage journey.

Just kidding. I’m good.

First for Nicolas Cage as Eddie King

• Beating a man to death with an aluminum bat
• First time on screen with his real-life brother
• Bloodily beats his brother to death with his fist
• Using eye drops
• In a paisley shirt

Recurrences

• Wearing a prosthetic nose for a role (Never on a Tuesday)
• In a film co-starring with John Cusack (Con Air, The Frozen Ground)
• Playing a gangster who seems a lot like a Sonny Bono impersonator (Deadfall)
• Snorting coke (Sonny)
• Drinking a bloody Mary (The Trust)
• Shot and killed at the end (Multiple)

Quotables

“Open your motherfucking mouth!” 

“That’s good, kid. That’s how you stay quiet.”

“I make money. I build jobs for my community. Blah. Blah. Blah.”

“Buddy? Buddy’s here? My brother? Really?”

“What is this? A brother’s bonding moment? It’s a little late for that don’t you think?” 

“Turn around? What are you gonna fuck me first?” [To Buddy]

“You got no love, no appreciation for your roots!” [To Mikey]

“Dear Buddy, sorry about today, but you always were the creature from The War of the Gargantuans when it came to me!” [Reading letter he wrote to Buddy after he killed him]

“I took the goddamn bus from the prison.”

“Video games? You were always a pussy.” 

“Didn’t your mom teach you boys to speak with distinction.”

“You want to know the secret to making a great Bloody Mary. You gotta have the right amount of Worcestershire to the right amount of celery.”

Closing thoughts 

I don’t have a brother, but I think when brothers have disagreements, they should just duke it out, forgive each other, and move on. Don’t let it fester and turn into something more insidious. I hope that’s been the case in the Cage / Coppola family. I hope that Arsenal, even as a bad artistic attempt at telling a brother’s story (or stories), provided some real-life reconciliation for Buddy and Eddie, Nic and Chris. Either way, I was happily surprised by this unexpected easter egg in the midst of the journey. I’ll never watch this film again, but I’ll always remember the brotherly dynamics that were uncovered that time I chose to watch every Nicolas Cage movie ever made.