At Close Range

At Close Range is a 1986 American neo-noir[2] crime drama film directed by James Foley from a screenplay written by Nicholas Kazan, based on the real life rural Pennsylvania crime family led by Bruce Johnston Sr. which operated during the 1960s and '70s.

At first, Jr. starts a gang with his brother, Tommy, fencing their stolen goods through Brad Sr.'s criminal network.

As a result of entanglements with his 16-year-old girlfriend, Terry, Brad Jr. seeks full entry into his father's gang, but tries to back out after witnessing a murder.

Leonard was turned down by Paramount for that project, but Madonna, who was at the time married to Sean Penn, decided that the theme would work well for At Close Range.

She wrote the lyrics and presented a demo cassette to director James Foley, and suggested Leonard compose the film's soundtrack.

It grossed a total of $2,347,000 at the North American box office during its theatrical run in 83 theaters, earning less than its budget of $6.5 million.

[3] Roger Ebert gave it 3½ (out of 4) stars, noting that "few recent films have painted such a bleak picture of human nature".