Albino Alligator

Albino Alligator is a 1996 American crime thriller film. The directorial debut of Kevin Spacey as well as the screenwriting debut of Christian Forte, it stars Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway, and Gary Sinise.

It tells the story of three small-time criminals who take hostages after being cornered by the police. The title refers to an anecdote told in the film, claiming that alligators will use an albino among them as sacrifice, so that the opposing alligators will be distracted and become prey themselves.

Brothers Dova (Matt Dillon) and Milo (Gary Sinise) are small-time crooks. They and their partner, Law (William Fichtner), pull a holdup in New Orleans that goes terribly wrong. A police officer is killed, as are two other men. The robbers flee to a local bar, Dino's Last Chance, desperately taking everyone inside hostage.

Milo is seriously wounded and bleeding. Law is a sociopath who is ready and willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Dova is their leader, trying to keep the situation calm while federal agents, led by Browning (Joe Mantegna), surround the bar. A bar employee, Janet (Faye Dunaway), tries but fails to reason with the intruders. Her boss, Dino, behind the bar, secretly has a shotgun that he is hoping to get a chance to use. He does—grabbing Law and holding it on him, but Law gets the upper hand and bludgeons him. Besides a barfly (John Spencer) who is barely coherent and a younger man, Danny (Skeet Ulrich) shooting pool, there is one other customer (Viggo Mortensen), a man named Foucard dressed in a business suit, who is strangely silent and inactive all his time there. As the life of Milo slips away and the robbers' demands to the cops go unmet, Dova decides whether to surrender or start letting Law shoot hostages one at a time. Law is especially terrified of going back to prison. Dova and Law prepare to take Danny as a hostage. But Janet pleads with them not to as he is her son. It is revealed that Foucard is a wanted fugitive and the police really want him. Dova and Law prepare to give Foucard to the police and pretend that Foucard is the kidnapper and they are the hostages.

Milo has Dova and Law swear on their mothers that they will not kill anyone. But when painted into a corner, Law is more than ready to kill and Dova agrees. Milo wants no more of it all and prepares to turn himself in. Dova holds a gun on him to keep him there. When Dova and Law leave, Milo takes the knife he was given from a hostage and uses it to cut his wrists, committing suicide. Dova finds out and is in tears. They prepare to give the police the wanted Foucard. The police finally storm the place and open fire, killing both Law and Foucard. Dova and the real hostages are allowed to vacate the bar. Janet covers for Dova, as he kept Law from killing the rest of the hostages. Dova walks on in a state of shock.

In May 1995, it was reported that Kevin Spacey would direct Albino Alligator. By December of that year, Miramax acquired distribution rights to the film for $5 million. As Bryan Singer had been instrumental in getting him cast in The Usual Suspects despite the producers' hesitance at his casting due to being an unknown, Spacey routinely conferred with Singer for advice throughout the production.

Albino Alligator premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 1996, before receiving a U.S. theatrical release on January 17, 1997. In early 1997, the film grossed only $339,379 against a $6 million budget.

Reviews for the film were generally mixed. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 20 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Matt Dillon's intense performance is the best aspect of Albino Alligator, a mannered thriller that pantomimes the tropes of film noir to phony effect." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 48 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.