Like other Irvin films, this noir saga (more of an urban Western) is burdened with a philosophical layer that's incongruous with the basic tale, though acting by Keitel, Dorff, and others is good.

The movie plays more like an exercise in noir atmosphere and violence than like a story; the pieces are sometimes nice, but they don't fit.

Slight, solemn, borderline silly but watchable.

The majority of it may be generic – few concepts stand out as original – but Keitel makes for a wholly convincing ruffian.