Jennifer Jason Leigh in the role of her career.

As the tagline says, the novel “Last Exit to Brooklyn” shocked the world upon its publication in 1964. Hubert Shelby Jr. wrote an uncompromising portrait of a lower class neighborhood in Brooklyn during the early 1950’s; exposing, in brutally honest prose, such topics as street violence, drug use, homosexuality and gang rape. This book was the subject of an obscenity trial in England and was banned in Italy. It would not be made into a movie until 1989 and even then the screen version would be tamer than the written word.

The plot is several intertwining stories all set in one neighborhood near the Brooklyn waterfront. The lives of several characters intertwine and crisscross during the course of a local union strike. There is the loud-talking prostitute who spends a few days with a young soldier heading to war in Korea. There’s a closeted union worker who has rough and perfunctory sex with his wife. A young transvestite lusts after the bad boy leader of the local gang. In some ways it is that clichéd “Boy was my neighborhood tough” joke that comics have bandied about for decades. Only it is far too real to be funny.

The cast features several well known faces, including Jerry Orbach, Stephen Baldwin, Sam Rockwell, Alexis Arquette and Ricki Lake. Overall the acting is quite good. Jennifer Jason Leigh steals the picture and gives one of her best performances as the hooker Tralala. She’s outwardly tough as nails but her eyes reveal just how lost, fucked-up and sad this girl is. A young neighborhood boy, about fifteen, loves Tralala. She’s his first love. In his eyes she is all beauty, glamour and kindness. The final scene they share together is heart wrenching as we witness his loss of innocence in her arms. I won’t spoil it with details.

This movie also shows an aspect of pre-stonewall gay society. Although a really grim and pathetic side. Transvestites then had to worry about getting arrested just for appearing in public in drag. Naturally they were a part of the underside of the city. The only place they could get along to any degree. Last Exit to Brooklyn is the antithesis of the idea of the 1950’s as a carefree golden time in America. It is also that rarity. A great novel that became a great movie.

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