Dead Man's Shoes (DVD)

I have never been a fan of British films, always preferring the big Hollywood blockbusters. One day at work I was talking about the film This Is England. I had watched it the night before and thought it was pretty good. One of my workmates then told me that the director Shane Meadows had also wrote and directed a film called Dead Mans Shoes and if I liked This Is England I should watch it.

I bought in on DVD from play.com for £4.99 so it was pretty cheap, even if it was rubbish I couldn’t really lose. The front cover of the DVD had two quotes from magazines. “Dark, gritty, funny and chilling, and excruciatingly violent all at the same time” and “taxi driver meets first blood in the Midlands. Compelling. Brilliant. Genius”. Both quotes along with the silhouette of a man holding an axe immediately grabbed my attention. The quotes were both spot on.

The film is written by Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine. Meadows also directed the film. The cast list is nothing to write home about, all the actors are pretty much unknown (well to me they were anyway). They all perform extremely well though, putting in realistic performances. Considine himself plays Richard, the main character and is excellent. The way he moves from being calm to becoming what I can only describe as psychotic is quite unsettling but makes the movie what it is. Without Considine It wouldn’t be the same film.

Dead mans shoes is a story of revenge. Richard is an ex-soldier who returns to his home town in the midlands. He has a younger brother called Anthony. Anthony is mentally handicapped and starts hanging around with a group of lads, one is a drug dealer called sonny, played by an ex-boxer called Gary Stretch, the rest of the gang are all drug dealers as well but work for Sonny and are scared stiff of him.

Richard returns to take revenge on the dealers. He has found out that after Anthony befriended them, they terrorised him. They bullied him and made him take drugs against his will, using his disability against him for their own amusement.

The film gets straight to the point. It begins with a couple of minutes of old video film showing the two boys with their mother and together playing. The video plays just as the films opening credits roll, once they finish it reverts back to present day. The opening scene shows Richard sat in the corner of a working mans club, he is sat facing his brother Anthony. One of the dealers walks in and sells a couple of pills to some lads playing pool. Richard sits staring at the dealer. When questioned “what are you staring at?” Richards quick and extremely nasty reply soon has him back peddling out of the bar.

From the first scene on the film moves along at a quick pace with Richard terrorising the dealers. Although there is bad language and some violence, the film has its funny moments as well, I won’t describe them, and if you watch the film you will know what I mean. The worst scenes in the film involve Anthony. A couple of the scenes are quite distressing when they show him being bullied by the others. They are a necessary part of the film; they show exactly why Richard is going to such extremes to get revenge.
Dead mans shoes is an 18 certificate, the violence and subject matter fully justifies its rating. With a running time of only 86 minutes it isn’t the longest film ever, but well worth taking the time to watch.

The DVD features the usual commentary from the director and writers that most films have nowadays. Also there are deleted scenes, extended takes and an alternate ending.

There is a short documentary called In Shanes shoes. It is mainly an insight into Meadows life and what inspires him when writing films.

Another feature is a short film by Shane Meadows called Northern Soul. This is slightly bizarre. It begins with a young man, played by Tony Kebell who played Anthony in dead mans shoes, leaving his home after his wife asks him to leave. I only watched a couple of minutes. Once the main character announces that he wanted to be a wrestling champion I decided this is not worth watching and couldn’t understand why it was included on the DVD.

The other extras are a music video and trailers of the film.

I thought that Dead mans shoes was a really good film. Some people would probably argue that Richard is a bit extreme in the way he deals with the bullies, at the end of the day though, it is just a film. It is definitely a film I would sit and watch with the girlfriend or wife but was definitely one of the best fivers I ever spent.

The best thing about it is that it doesn't rely on special effects and CGI. It's just a well made film, with excellent acting and a storlyine to match.