Welcome back to my blog. Here’s my recommendation of a movie to check out today and hope you punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” OK, let’s take a look at a fractured film that wasted both the interesting story and the talent of the cast: “A Prayer for the Dying” from the best-selling novel of the same name by Jack Higgins and starring Mickey Rourke, Alan Bates and Bob Hoskins.
“A Prayer for the Dying” is the story of an Irish Republican Army gunman (Rourke) and he’s had an epiphany about his life and deaths that he caused and doesn’t want to cause in the future. Of course, he becomes embroiled in a gangster’s plot in London and the film tries to be the morality play of both physical and spiritual deaths.
However, “A Prayer for the Dying” just never works out and is the flawed product of two directors, with the second having tried to get his named removed after the studio re-cut the film for release in the U.S. Rourke was quoted as saying he didn’t like the amount of violence in the film, but that’s a canard because he obviously read the screenplay before signing on for the production.
“A Prayer for the Dying” has Rourke trying to shake free of his IRA past and to get a new identity, he finally accepts to a killing contract given him by Bates. At the murder scene in a cemetery there is a witness: Hoskins as a priest. Well, Rourke then uses the confessional at the priest’s church in a loophole of confidentiality to keep Hoskins from telling police the identity of the guman.
Of course, Bates wants everyone dead and the story plays out to a predictable end.
It’s sad that “A Prayer for the Dying” could have had a better studio experience. The story is creative and had the potential to be an almost instant classic with a different director, producer and any other actor in the role given to Rourke. Both Bates and Hoskins are solid and the limited supporting cast also does a solid job in the face of mediocrity behind the camera.
So, I say punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” and watch “A Prayer for the Dying.” It is available for rent via a variety of streaming platforms. You will thank me later when you watch “A Prayer for the Dying” today!
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