From Hell's Heart (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781665701921)

There are two sides to every conflict. The story "From Hell's Heart", inspired by real life characters and situations, is based on a theme developed by one of the most influential film directors in the history of cinema, Japanese director, and screen writer Akira Kurosawa. The story of Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", now comes to life in this 20th century adaptation. In this variation on a theme, the protagonists once again, are seemingly on both sides of opposing forces and succeed by eventually exploiting one side against the other. Slightly diverging from the Yojimbo genre, the central characters in this story are not your classical boy scouts, but instead struggle throughout the story with their individual imbalances of what really is honor and decency.

Modernizing Kurosawa's premise to the 20th century, and exponentially increasing the scope of the conflicts, the story encompasses a pair of drug cartel families, a Marxist guerrilla group, and an American deep state entity. Lastly, through a series of mishaps, a final confrontation evolves between the United States and Colombia over nuclear proliferation. These three seemingly unrelated ideological agendas result in the formation of several asymmetrical symbiotic relationships that inadvertently crisscross one another to create a world crisis. The Chinese symbol for crisis is danger and opportunity, and in the middle of this crisis we will find that not only do our heroes thrive, but they actually need and welcome the chaos and adversarial challenges it brings.

The protagonists in this adaptation are born and raised in Brooklyn New York. Highly intelligent, resourceful, clever, with multi-layered personalities, they are far from ordinary people. Their stereotypical Italian ethnic and New York City nuances that comprise their personalities are captivating, entertaining, and occasionally provide some moments of comic relief as they reluctantly set out on a mission to save the world.