The Funeral (1996 film)

Plot

The film begins with the funeral of one of the three Tempio brothers. These men are violent criminals. Mourning the passage of their beloved brother Johnny are Chez and Ray. Ray is cold and calculating. Chez is hot tempered. Flashbacks show us that Johnny was more sensitive. Exposure to Communist meetings as a spy sway Johnny's opinions.

The chief suspect in Johnny's murder is rival gangster Gaspare Spoglia.

Ray and Chez swear revenge. Ray's wife, Jeanette, opposes the campaign of retribution and the violence it will bring, while Chez' wife, Clara, struggles to deal with her husband's obsessive nature.

As it turns out, Johnny was not murdered by rival gangsters, but by a man who first claimed Johnny had raped his girlfriend, but who later admits, just before Ray kills him, that he wanted revenge because Johnny had beaten him up in front of his girlfriend and friends.

As he buries the dead murderer, Chez reflects on his brothers' lives before the tragedy. He then returns to Ray's house and shoots and kills Ray and all of his bodyguards. Chez then shoots Johnny, lying dead in the casket, before putting the gun in his own mouth and committing suicide as the family women wail over Ray's dying body.

Cast

Reception

Reception from critics was positive, as The Funeral holds a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews.