This could have been regarded as a top level B classic - one of those genuine hidden gems. As it is, it's half way there.
It has so much going for it - a pulpy, but simple set up with great emotion underpinning it (hideously disfigured gangster has operation turning him good-looking but he still seeks vengeance on those who put him in jail); a well-cast star in Mickey Rourke (who, as has been pointed out several times by others, has turned into how Johnny Handsome looks at the beginning of this film); Ry Cooder's brilliant score; superb work as villains from Ellen Barkin and Lance Henrickson, plus Morgan Freeman as the bastard-but-not-wrong cop (you forget what a great prick Freeman can be, because so often he plays saintly creatures); Forest Whittaker is warm and sympathetic as the doctor; Elizabeth McGovern is pretty at least (despite her distracting southern accent); New Orleans location work; an ending with integrity.
And there are some scenes that have stayed with me for years: the opening shot; Handsome talking about beating up Carlyle; telling the speech therapist nun to stick with the program for other people, knowing that he's going to seek revenge; Handsome seeing his new face.
But it doesn't quite hit the top mark. It goes far too long - all the way through there are bits were you go "why not cut that out?". For instance, why have a long transformation sequence? It doesn't make the story less silly - just cut to, and have him transformed. (That's what a 40s Warner Bros movie - this film's spiritual godfather - would have done). Also, Johnny Handsome's plan isn't that clever - I guess he's going through all this to make some money as well as get revenge, am I right? Elizabeth McGovern's character would have probably been more effective if she'd had been the doctor or speech therapist. And the last act never quite works - it felt as though it needed another complication or something.
More surprisingly, considering it was directed by Walter Hill, the action sequences aren't that great - there's two robberies, both of which seem stock - I felt his direction got bloated in the late 1980s. His handling of actors and atmosphere remains strong, though. It just needed to have more of the stripped back quality of old Bogie, Garfield movies.
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