The Eighties was the decade that put the roar into Mickey Rourke’s career. It was the era of his awesome aura, beginning in 1981 with his incendiary portrayal of an arsonist in Body Heat and playing out in 1989’s Johnny Handsome as the titular deformed delinquent.

During this period he portrayed a number of Johnnys – the aforementioned Johnny Handsome, Johnny Favourite aka Harry Angel in ANGEL HEART, John in NINE AND A HALF WEEKS, and Johnny Walker in HOMEBOY.

Written by Rourke under the pseudonym Eddie Cook, this is a tough, honest unglamourised bout of boxing brio.

If films could mate, this might be the offspring of MIDNIGHT COWBOY and ROCKY.

Rourke plays Johnny Walker, a cowpoke pugilist, a none too bright boy further dim-witted by blows to the head sustained in the ring. Johnny is an unabashed character, pity his skull was not un bashed. He’s a punch shy of permanent Palookaville when he falls in with a two bit hoodlum with haute couture allusions named Wesley Pendergass, played by Christopher Walken.

Pendergass wants to be Johnny’s promoter, benefactor and confident, and also an accomplice in a jewel heist which he considers easier to fix than a fight.

Meanwhile, Johnny falls for a flawed and fractured female named Ruby who is into horses both literally and artistically. Rourke’s spouse at the time, Debra Feuer, plays it with an austere air that understates the character’s fragility and uncertainty of entering into a relationship. These bruised and battered people, in both body and psyche, embark on an unvarnished romance.

Unvarnished is also the style opted for by director Michael Seresin,  Alan Parker’s cinematographer of choice, who shot Rourke in ANGEL HEART  the previous year. He chose Gale Tattersall as his lenser, who went on to shoot Rourke in WILD ORCHID the following year and then usurp Seresin as Parker’s cinematographer on THE COMMITMENTS.

HOMEBOY didn’t hit any home runs at the box office but it doesn’t deserve to be sin binned either.

It’s a rough gem, hewed by Rourke’s brave, honest and unadorned performance and honed with another unforgettable performance by the incomparable Christopher Walken

HOMEBOY is released on DVD through SHOCK