I rented this out a year or so ago. I happened to catch a small piece of information about it on a culture show. I'd never heard of it, but it sounded interesting so I watched it. I'm glad I did - It's possibly the best British film of the new millenia.
I watched it again only the other day, having purchased it in the HMV summer sale for £4.49 (it's not there anymore, I've looked!)
The plot of this film sounds pretty pedestrian on paper; guy comes back from the army wanting to avenge his mentally disabled brother. Said brother having been taken advantage of by a local gang of petty criminals who have used him as a plaything. But as you watch the film you realise that it's much more ambitious than that.
The director. Shane Meadows, is now considered to be a major hope for British film-making. Prior to this movie he had written and directed a couple of other highly praised pieces (Twentyfourseven & A Room For Romeo Brass). With this film though he really made his mark, being selected for numerous high ranking film festivals (Venice, Toronto & Edinburgh). Perversly, he has yet to hit commercial success. Which is just crazy. Anyway back to the film...
Richard (Paddy Considine) is back
from the army after being away from home for 8 years. He's on a mission, his mentally disabled kid brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell) has been badly abused by the gang of criminals that run the small town that he left behind. He has no home to return to, so he dosses in an abondoned farmhouse and ponders his plan of action.
To begin with he lets the gang know that he is back, and that he's mad as hell. One of the minions of the gang goes scurrying back to spread the word. Sonny (Gary Stretch) is the leader of this pack of vermin, and he's the one that fronts up Richard. 'You're not afraid of me, are you?' enquires Sonny. With a crazed look in his eye, 'No' Richard replies. We can see almost immediately that Richard has absolutely nothing to lose. He will do whatever it takes, and risk all to get a little justice for his brother.
Throughout the film we are given plenty of access to both sides of the story. We see the gangs abuse of Anthony via black and white footage. The abuse that he suffers through these flashbacks escalates. Whatever methods Richard uses to bring about justice, the viewer is left with their own moral dilemma. What would I do/feel like in his situation?
Some of the drug using/dealing members of the gang have some very comic moments. You feel guilty for laughing along on occassions, but this is probably the Directors intention. You feel especially guilty when you discover just how horrible certain members of the gang were to Anthony. He was abused because he couldn't fight back. And in a way this spurred the abuse on. The abusers couldn't understand why this guy just took the crap that they dished out.
Richard has his own demons to come to terms with, he felt ashamed of his brother as they grew up. He now feels partly responsible for the abuse that he received. The fury that he vents on the gang is a cathartic experience for him. But eventually he realizes that he has become the monster.
So what did I think? Well to say that this is one of my favourite films sounds a bit weird. It's a gritty and gruelling film to sit through. It makes you think long and hard about people that you yourself may have treated less than kindly throughout your life. It also demonstrates that when people stand back and do nothing, bad things happen.
The cast are superb. Special mention must go to Paddy Considine as Richard (who was also brilliant in the Madchester biopic, '24 hour party people' [he played Rob Gretton]. He has become pretty hot property in Hollywood). Also Toby Kebbell as his brother, he's not actually handicapped in real life but is so convincing and believeable that he must be a truly gifted actor. The thugs all seem to be ad-libbing to a certain degree which makes it seem somehow more realistic. You get a feeling that these thugs are more likely to be the ones that you'de find on the sink estates throughout the land rather than the ones that dwell in Guy Ritchies increasingly stupid movies.
Paddy as Richard is electrifying. There are a couple of scenes in the film where I was transfixed. It doesn't happen very often but I realized that this actor and this director where truly something special.
The scenery of the film is like a ying and yang. You have the beautiful rolling hills of the peak district spliced with the grey estates that litter it. And the soundtrack - well it fits the movie like a glove. The main pieces being little guitar pieces from the fabulous 'Calexico'. Haunting music for a haunting movie.
As I mentioned earlier this is a film that will leave you feeling dirty. But it's a film that should be watched. It connects us with our base instincts of protecting the ones we love at all costs and also the pack-animal morality that seems to be increasing throughout the land. You can believe that things like this do go on in the estates that you drive through with the windows wound up tight and your fingers clamped on the steering wheel.
A movie that will disgust and move you. A film that deserves to be watched. A film that should be shown at schools throughout the land to show how teasing can turn into bullying and escalate into violence where everybody loses.
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Harrowing thriller about a hotwired ex-soldier (co-scripter Paddy Considine fromCinderella ... more
Man) who returns to his sleepy Midlands hometown to dole out merciless revenge upon the booze and drug-sodden hoodlums who abused his mentally handicapped younge...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The fourth feature from Shane Meadows (Twentyfourseven, A Room For Romeo Brass), one of ... more
the UK's most exciting directors, Dead Man's Shoes is a gritty yet fiercely moral tale of gangland retribution.Two brothers return to the hometown they left eight y...
Harrowing thriller about a hotwired ex-soldier (co-scripter Paddy Considine fromCinderella ... more
Man) who returns to his sleepy Midlands hometown to dole out merciless revenge upon the booze and drug-sodden hoodlums who abused his mentally handicapped younge...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Two brothers return to the home town they left years previously. Richard the elder is ... more
strong and purposeful. Anthony is the younger more hesitant keen to mimic the actions of the sibling he reveres. As the brothers set up camp in the hills overloo...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: shane meadows film Disadvantages: none
claireimitation 14.09.2008 (14.09.2008)
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Jul 12th, 2006
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