Dead Man’s Shoes (2004)

The revenge movie, in its proper sub-genre setting of harrowing gritty violence, I had thought to be a thing dead. Consigned to the video nasties of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Though briefly and occasionally resurrected for some brief gasps during the 90s. Gone were the days when you could find a movie about a man or woman who had just been pushed too far. Where there was no A-team like arsenal or some insane Seagal Hollywood-ed up ninja doing mental things with pressure points. Rather instead; some crazy fucker with a sock full of quarters beating people to death or a guy with a ‘suped up blowtorch burning people for their crimes.

It takes a good lead to carry off the relentless and the merciless right.

Bronson had it — that sort of empty relentless stare. So does Eastwood, Nero and maybe a scant handful of others. As did Robert Ginty in ‘The Exterminator’. There’s also, the off-shoot category where it’s not a proper revenge movie, but circling on someone’s descent into insanity with the likes of Ms.45 (So much going on ther).

Hollywood gave us a few attempts over the years. Brad Pitt and Co joining forces ala Monte Cristo in ‘Sleepers’ to make the men who buggered them as children pay their dues.

Or the wannabe revenge movie ‘Mystic River’. Wherein Eastwood steps behind the camera and gives us a very real drama — with a build up towards the act of vengeance — real emotions — but the wrong ones.

I’d like to say ‘Frailty’ falls into the category of Revenge movie proper, but sadly it has more in common with the likes of Ms.45 than the likes of ‘Unforgiven’, ‘I spit on your grave’ or ‘Last House on the Left’.

It can’t be too intricate — no great plan to take down an abstract corporate entity that’s befouling mother-earth.

Revenge. Plain and simple. The plan shouldn’t be too particular. Either track them down and kill them, torture them and then kill them or torture them mentally, then physically, then kill them.

And above all. The weapons should be kept simplistic. A modified blow torch here. A bullwhip, or pistol.

The more DIY the weapons — the better.

The tagline for ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ states;

“He’s in all of us.”

And he is. Any right and sane thinking person, I’ve ever watched ‘Straw Dogs’ or ‘Get Carter’ with — usually feels they did the right thing. If your brother’s little girl was raped on film, if your brother or childhood friend was brutally murdered or if some general villainy decided to try make your life a misery. At some point, when normal means and solutions fail. That which you could describe as biblical is the only solution.

Sure, ‘Kill Bill’ is a revenge movie. But it’s to the genre what Warhol is to painting. Pop Art — too filled with smart-ass cultural references, over blown and broken as it attempts to throw every cool borrowed technique from just about every cool movie that has ever been made. Right down to getting Morricone to do soundtrack work. Though granted, I can understand that, even if I was making a farce I’d probably want to get Morricone to do the soundtrack.

I’m sure there are a few of you, muttering about the Asian contingency here, the likes of ‘Old Boy’ and ‘Violent Cop’. But I don’t count them. The Asian industry stands in a world of it’s own when it comes to class. By and by, they just make better movies. It’s like trying to compare a Bollywood flick with a Mike Leigh movie.

I love revenge movies not for the brutal violence within them, but because I find when you set aside the more positive of humanity’s emotions; happiness, the want to help people and look at what we would consider negative. Rage is a muddled storm of everything. Hate often unreasonable. Revenge, though sometimes misguided and wrongly applied, often results from the cold after place of the righteous fury that comes after a terrible wrong has been committed against you or those you care for. Revenge often walks hand in hand with justice and such for me, represents a pure simplicity in humanity where the simple is at just the point where it becomes the crux. I can’t help but find a sort of bleak beauty in that.

Without giving anything at all away, the basic premise of the movie is; after eight years, two brothers return to their hometown. One is slightly retarded the other, his older brother, seeming driven and calculating. Their reasons for returning are painstakingly revealed in small bursts of flashbacks, leaving you unsure of the exact details of why they have come back until the very end.

The opening line we’re given from Richard, Paddy Considine’s character,

“God will forgive them for what they have done, and he will allow them into heaven. I can’t live with that.”

is like a verbal fist clenching, ready to be used.

From there, the movie runs quite fast into the cold and relentless pursuit of revenge, where there is no specially crafted samurai sword or intricate torture devices, but the raw and brutal simplicity of a hammer, an axe and the odd knife.

Considine’s performance is outstanding in its pure humanity and harrowing reality. The team of Meadows and Considine give an all too real representation of small town life and the pathetic petty gangs that so often grow up within those surroundings. With Considine, from his Richard in ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ to his other performances within Meadows’ work such as “A room for Romeo Brass’ that he is like a largely undiscovered country and quite possibly the finest actor of his generation. Which, I guess is high praise for anyone whose name doesn’t end in Day-Lewis.

He is in no small way helped by the fact that Meadows’ somehow managed to assemble a supporting cast of nearly the same caliber. With Gary Stretch as Sonny, the central villain of the piece giving a particularly standout performance. Although saying that in no way detracts from the others within the film.

Always thoughtful and hard-nosed. The particulars, especially to those who’ve done acid, will have many wincing. As well never having the violence needlessly gratuitous, the film is buoyed up even further by a wonderfully chosen and sublimely used soundtrack. All qualities that keep this a drama a step above the exploitation movies within the same genre that are its brothers and sisters in both style and content.

I just wish films of this power beauty and quality were not so rare.

Originally published 3/3/08