Publisher's Synopsis
Collection of five films starring maverick actor Sean Penn. In 'Colors' (1988), Bob Hodges (Robert Duvall), a veteran cop nearing retirement, and Danny McGavin (Penn), a rookie know-it-all, are reluctantly teamed together on the L.A.P.D.'s C.R.A.S.H. unit when they investigate a brutal gang murder. They soon find themselves involved in a dangerous turf war, and are forced to put their differences aside in an attempt to keep each other alive. Dennis Hopper directs. In 'The Assassination of Richard Nixon' (2005), Penn plays Sam Bicke, a salesman for an office-supply company whose life is slowly beginning to unravel. His job is going nowhere, his wife, Marie (Naomi Watts), has left him, and his boss (Jack Thompson) keeps pushing self-help books on him that make a mockery of his state of mind. One of Bicke's few friends is Bonny Simmons (Don Cheadle), an auto mechanic, and together they come up with an idea for a tyre shop on wheels. While neither has the money to finance the project, Bicke has learned of a program for small-business loans instituted by President Richard Nixon, which he's certain will come through for him. But Bicke is denied his loan, which dovetails with his increasing suspicion of the president's Vietnam policies and a sudden interest in the 'by any mean necessary' political activism of the Black Panther Party. Desperate to seem important in some way, Bicke becomes increasingly obsessed with the duplicity of Richard Nixon, until he chooses to take it upon himself to stop the president once and for all. In 'At Close Range' (1985), after being kicked out by his stepfather, a young man (Penn) tracks down his real father (Christopher Walken), a petty criminal with a vicious streak. Dad schools his son in the trade until the boy becomes aware of his father's deranged and violent nature. 'Casualties of War' (1989) is a Vietnam War drama based on a real incident, telling the story of one soldier's quest for truth and justice amidst the violence and moral incertitude of war. On patrol with the hard-nosed Sergeant Meserve (Penn), US infantryman Private Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) refuses to join in when Meserve and the other soldiers kidnap, rape and murder a Vietnamese girl (Thuy Thu Le). Eriksson's stance then puts him in a dangerous position when the patrol returns to base, as the other soldiers get increasingly worried that he might report them. Finally, in 'State of Grace' (1990), Irish-American gangster Terry (Penn) returns to his old neighbourhood, after a mysterious absence. He is reunited with his childhood friend Jackie (Gary Oldman), now working in arson and extortion rackets, but a possible alliance with an Italian mob brings trouble for Terry's friends, and Terry himself might not be all he says he is. Based on a real-life New York gang, The Westies, who ruled 'Hell's Kitchen' during the 1970s.
