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

Director:

John Herzfeld

Writer (WGA):

John Herzfeld (written by)

Release Date:

3 January 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

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:

Femme Fatale | Crimes Of Passion | True Crime | Love Triangle | Betrayal

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:

Mary Jo Buttafuoco: This is, like, the worst thing that could ever happen.

Movie Connections:

Featured in 101 Biggest Celebrity Oops (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Snakeskin Voodoo Man

A ludicrous travesty

Turned-on set to this just as it was beginning on "Lifetime," and had intended to go to another channel. But it was one of those instances where you watched for a minute or two, then another, then another..., etc.

I could see at the outset that it presented Buttafuoco differently from the clownish lout I remembered from this whole well-publicized course of events.

As I watched, I looked at the prior comments here, which quickly confirmed this. The actor portraying him was handsome, especially not having the real guys' homely, thin-lipped, weak mouth, and a facial look which cries out for the description "smarmy."

One wouldn't have thought it possible to present the Amy Fisher character, on-screen, as being a worse person than she actually was in real life -- but this flick managed to accomplish that almost seemingly-impossible task.

As I watched, I still expected that there might be some indication towards the very end of his duplicity, and at least a modicum of responsibility on his shoulders for her entering his home and shooting his wife point-blank in her face. But there was not even at least some oblique reference on this point.

The scenes between Buttafuoco and the local pair of policemen even made it appear that they should show more feeling for him and have greater understanding than was displayed. And his watching television with wife, father and son, as a tape displayed by a lover of hers was exposing her slutty side, could have been the Cleavers, say, watching a broadcast, exonerating Wally or Beaver from some local minor mischief which might have been suspected.,

Hard to feel any sympathy whatever for these folks, except the lady shot point-blank, and Pop, with his lifelong business placed in jeopardy.

The two or three times I've seen the real Joey on the tube, even a long time following these events, completely confirmed: this guy is a homely, cocky, smarmy asshole, the opposite of the portrayal by the actor in this flick, on all counts.