This movie is similar to Leon's storyline. Tough loner streetwise gun-wielding woman with connections to the Mob saves a kid from a family-murder committed by the mob. Mob goes searching for kid because he is "evidence" for the police. Woman starts to really like the kid and goes to great lengths to protect him, at the cost of her own safety. The only difference between Gloria and Leon, is that Leon's protagonist was a man, whilst in Gloria it was a woman, and that in Leon, the main protagonist dies in the end, whereas in Gloria she lives.
Gena Rowlands, the main actress in Gloria, has a face which reminds me of Jane Curtin (who acts in Third Rock From The Sun)! The boy whom she looks after comes across as a smart aleck who always has something to say about everything. He's not awfully natural in the way he talks though, because his lines may be rather adult-like, but he says them as if he had spent days memorising them and had to regurgitate all of it on the film set!
The movie is rife with one-liners which sometimes really come across as cheesy, but some people like watching movies with this type of dialogue, and as I had nothing much to do one night, I had all the time in the world to try and appreciate this late-night movie on TV! I have to say though, that although I initially was quite put off by the cheesy dialogues, Gena Rowland's character began to grow on me and I eventually started to like every single cheesy line that spouted from her gob. She doesn't appear to me to be a terribly "tough-looking" moll though, and its telling because somewhere in the middle of the movie, the boy had to say to her "You're so tough..." - is that an attempt by the director to try and project to us the audience that Gloria really is a toughie, even though she fails to project to us by her own performance and appearance that she really is tough??? I don't know, yet I can see how this movie is destined to belong on those video racks classified as "Cult Classics". Its soundtrack, for one, is very very typical of the era in which the movie was shot. We never get movies which play music like that anymore. This is point one which makes it a possible cult classic. Another point that makes this show a cult classic is the cheesy one-liner Mafia scripts. Surely there's pleasure to be had in enjoying one of these movies every now and then! We can even learn a thing or two! Heh! Third point is the strong feminine gangster character which is the centre of the show. There are probably people out there who love watching movies which feature a strong streetwise heroine as a winner in the end. Other such movies that come to mind include Jackie Brown, Crazy in Alabama... need I say more?
I'd recommend this movie for anyone who likes Mafia movies or for those who just love to see a tough gun-yielding woman win the day!
Gena Rowlands, the main actress in Gloria, has a face which reminds me of Jane Curtin (who acts in Third Rock From The Sun)! The boy whom she looks after comes across as a smart aleck who always has something to say about everything. He's not awfully natural in the way he talks though, because his lines may be rather adult-like, but he says them as if he had spent days memorising them and had to regurgitate all of it on the film set!
The movie is rife with one-liners which sometimes really come across as cheesy, but some people like watching movies with this type of dialogue, and as I had nothing much to do one night, I had all the time in the world to try and appreciate this late-night movie on TV! I have to say though, that although I initially was quite put off by the cheesy dialogues, Gena Rowland's character began to grow on me and I eventually started to like every single cheesy line that spouted from her gob. She doesn't appear to me to be a terribly "tough-looking" moll though, and its telling because somewhere in the middle of the movie, the boy had to say to her "You're so tough..." - is that an attempt by the director to try and project to us the audience that Gloria really is a toughie, even though she fails to project to us by her own performance and appearance that she really is tough??? I don't know, yet I can see how this movie is destined to belong on those video racks classified as "Cult Classics". Its soundtrack, for one, is very very typical of the era in which the movie was shot. We never get movies which play music like that anymore. This is point one which makes it a possible cult classic. Another point that makes this show a cult classic is the cheesy one-liner Mafia scripts. Surely there's pleasure to be had in enjoying one of these movies every now and then! We can even learn a thing or two! Heh! Third point is the strong feminine gangster character which is the centre of the show. There are probably people out there who love watching movies which feature a strong streetwise heroine as a winner in the end. Other such movies that come to mind include Jackie Brown, Crazy in Alabama... need I say more?
I'd recommend this movie for anyone who likes Mafia movies or for those who just love to see a tough gun-yielding woman win the day!