Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story (1993) (TV)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

John Herzfeld

Writer (WGA):

John Herzfeld (written by)

Release Date:

3 January 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

The third made-for-TV movie detailing the relationship between the Long Island "Lethal Lolita" Amy Fisher (Alyssa Milano) with auto mechanic Joey Buttafuoco (Jack Scalia). Where as the first one (which starred Noelle Parker) detailed Amy Fisher's point of view, the second (which starred Drew Barrymore) detailed the public's point of view, this version details it from the Buttafuoco family's point of view with Joey Buttafuoco playing a shady, straight-arrow family man who becomes the obsession of unbalanced teen Amy Fisher which leads to her to shooting his wife in the head on an August morning in 1992.

Plot Keywords:

Lover | Lolita | Mechanic | Tabloid | Crime Of Passion

Cast

Jack Scalia	...	Joseph 'Joey' Buttafuoco
Alyssa Milano	...	Amy Fisher
Phyllis Lyons	...	Mary Jo Buttafuoco
Leo Rossi	...	Bobby Buttafuoco
J.E. Freeman	...	Det. Marty Algar
Peter Van Norden	...	Joey's Attorney
Lawrence Tierney	...	Joey Buttafucco's Father
Anne De Salvo
Michael Bowen	...	Paul Makely
Jack Kehler	...	Elliot Fisher
Jeff Perry	...	Amy's Attorney
Georgia Emelin
Mike Girard Sheehan	...	Vince Donnelly
Nancy Cassaro	...	Maria
Nick Corello	...	Frankie (as Nicky Corello)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Netherlands:12 | USA:PG-13 | Australia:M (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California, USA

Company:

The Sokolow Company

Quotes:

Amy Fisher: I wanna be wearing your shirt on my body.
Joseph 'Joey' Buttafuoco: It may be a little big for you.
Amy Fisher: I can handle your size.
Joseph 'Joey' Buttafuoco: You can handle extra large?
Amy Fisher: I can handle anything you give me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Gwyneth Paltrow/Barenaked Ladies (#24.12)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Snakeskin Voodoo Man

A True American Tragedy

The story about an event that shook up a quiet Long Island community back in 1992 and became front page and headline news in all the tabloid newspapers and TV shows not just in the USA but all over the world as well.

The movie "Casualties of Love" tries to portray Joey "Butterfingers" Buttafuoco in a good light, in this sordid and sleazily episode of suburban life on the Island, but fails miserably in light of what has transpired since the movie's release back in 1993.

Early in the film we see Joey, Jack Scalia, recovering from a serious coke-drug addiction habit and getting back to a normal life working for his father old man Buttafuoco, Lawrence Tierney, as a auto-mechanic in his car body repair shop and meets one fateful afternoon a very attractive but emotional disturbed and unstable young Amy Fisher, Alyssa Milano, and the rest is history.

Amy getting her sights on the good-natured and overly friendly Joey and becoming infatuated with him gets her car smashed up a number of times just to have an excuse to be around and close to Joey and even going so far as trying to get poor and innocent Joey alone in his office and induce him to have sex with her can't seem to budge, the rock hard and straight as an arrow happily married family man, in having Joey commit an act of adultery. With Joey chivalrously turning down all of her sexual advances a frustrated and mad as hell Amy then plans to have the one person standing in the way between her and Joey his wife Mary Jo, Phyllis Lyon, put out of the picture permanently.

After unsuccessfully trying to get some of her friends in school to assassinate Mary Jo by giving them money and "free sex" Amy goes to the Buttafuoco's residence and tries to do the job herself by shooting Mary Jo in the head and leaving her paralyzed for life.

The movie tries very hard to make Joey look innocent by reason of being too naive and, well let's just say, stupid in not realizing what Amy's intentions really were and how far she would go to take him away from Mary Jo and his two children thus in some way trying to make Joey look not responsible for what happened to Mary Jo.

The movie also goes to great lengths to show the audience that Joey didn't have an affair with the underage Amy but it's not very convincing since the release of the movie Joey pleaded guilty to having sex with the 17 year-old Amy Fisher which in New York state is considered statutory rape that landed him in jail for six months and since then Joey was arrested a number of times for soliciting prostitutes for sex which makes the Joey Buttafuoco in the movie look both phony and ridicules.

Amy since her release from prison became a writer for a local Long Island newspaper, The New Island Ear, and seems to have put her life back together but Joey, besides his arrests for soliciting prostitutes, was just indited in California for insurance fraud.

The Buttafuoco/Fisher affair destroyed both of the Buttafuoco and Fisher families with Joey's father losing his business that he built up and worked at for almost fifty years and almost cost Joey's wife, Mary Jo, her life and ultimately ended their marriage. It also destroyed Amy's parents marriage as well has having her put behind bars for almost ten years and being brutalized, and reportedly raped by a male prison guard, while she was in prison. This story, the Buttafuoco/Fisher affair, turned out to be a true modern day American Tragedy.