State of Grace

1990
R
2h 14m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

26K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,536

Play trailer1:32

1 Video

55 Photos

Tragedy Action Crime Drama Romance Thriller

A Boston cop is recruited to return to his hometown and infiltrate the mob ran by his best friend's brother.A Boston cop is recruited to return to his hometown and infiltrate the mob ran by his best friend's brother.A Boston cop is recruited to return to his hometown and infiltrate the mob ran by his best friend's brother.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

26K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

3,536

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 1:32

Official Trailer

Photos55

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Several incidents in the film are based on actual testimony given by captured mobsters. The meeting in the restaurant with the Italian mobster and the dead man's hand sequences are based on the recollections of various New York gangs.

Goofs
When Nicholson guns down the bartender who had just been talking to Terry, the baseball bat the bartender is holding while being shot varies from being shot to pieces to being back in one piece again between shots.

Quotes
Terry: So I was in Boston, I just ended up there. Seemed far enough away. They come to me then, it just happened, you know how that is, things happen and other things happen and its your life. They were looking to get somebody to go undercover here, they wanted to get somebody who knew the kitchen who was known. And I coulda said no but I thought I could do it. It was like this opportunity in which I could look the entire thing in the eye. And you'd be gone, or married forgotten about me I thought. And Jack, I would leave him out of it. But it was only an idea. Nothing to do with the truth. It was just a fuckin' idea like... You believe in the angels or the saints or there's such a thing as a state of grace. And you believe it, but it's got nothing to do with reality. It just an idea. I mean you got your ideas and you got reality, and they're all... they're all fucked up.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Postcards from the Edge/Saving Grace/White Hunter, Black Heart/After Dark, My Sweet (1990)

Soundtracks
White City
Written by Shane MacGowan
Performed by The Pogues
Published by Stiff Music Limited.
Courtesy of Island Records, Inc.

User reviews138

Review

Featured review

10/10

Another SEVERELY Overlooked Film

Aside from being a great, dark film, with a substantial plot line and a GIANT cast (Oldman, Penn, and Harris), this is an Oldman performance not to be believed. Mr. Oldman himself has been quoted as saying that "State of Grace" is HIS favourite performance. And, as usual, he gives a performance to be equalled by none.

Sean Penn is marvelous, too, and Harris portrays evil incarnate.

This film should be re-evaluated, and Gary Oldman should have received the Oscar for it. His portrayal of Jackie Flannery, a wild, violent young gangster with an ethereal tender streak - is simply phenomenal.