Once A Killer, Always A Killer

Only a few years before assuming the role of a serial killer in 1993's "Kalifornia" and 1994's "Natural Born Killers", Oscar nominee Juliette Lewis played an uneducated 15-year-old named Amanda Sue Bradley whose life spirals and involves drugs, prostitution and murder. 1990's "Too Young to Die?", based on a true story, co-starred a young Brad Pitt, Lewis' costar in "Kalifornia", and it was interesting to see two future movie stars in a movie of the week. All the elements were there that led to this girl's downfall: a neglectful mother, a perverted stepfather, a failed marriage at 14. Pitt's hustler character didn't help her situation, forcing her into a job as an exotic dancer, where she met a nice guy soldier ("Caddyshack"'s Michael O'Keefe, I really like him as an actor) with young kids of his own. He claimed he wasn't after what she thought he was after when he let her stay with him, but his commanding officer saw things differently. "L.A. Law" lawyer Michael Tucker stepped in when Amanda Sue was thrown in jail after Mike was murdered and questions about the death penalty and charging a minor as an adult were raised before the credits rolled, so I won't give anything away. Lewis had the child-like qualities down in this role, since Amanda Sue was only 14 and clearly not very intelligent. She asked her lawyer for "candy-covered chocolate" that her absentee mother gave her when she was sick and she quickly became attached to the soldier's daughter's purple bunny, to say nothing of her closeness with the soldier's kids. Someone even referred to her as "15 going on 5". I liked the whole Midwest landscape of the movie. It took place in Oklahoma and you saw construction sites, trailer parks and other familiar landmarks of this part of the world in the film. Brad Pitt had a sizable role as the troublemaker who caused Amanda's life to take an ugly turn, but Lewis was really the star of this movie, although I did think she was a little over-the-top in some of the loud, emotional crying scenes. She was similarly loud, emotional and child-like in the 1999 film "The Other Sister", which I enjoyed. In that movie, her mother was very overprotective as opposed to being neglectful as was the mother in this film. I had seen parts of this movie on TV many years ago and when watching the whole thing last night, some of the scenes looked familiar to me. I was glad to be able to see the movie in its entirety.