That line from Dead Man’s Shoes pretty well sums up the feelings on many of the lead characters in this weeks DVD viewing round-up.
Dead Man’s Shoes
Very violent yet intensely moral at its core, Shane Meadows film is as good an exploration of vigilante justice as you’ll probably ever see. It’s hard not to sympathise with Paddy Considine’s ex-soldier as he hunts down the people who victimised his brother (shades of Get Carter) but the film doesn’t make him out to be a hero. The twist towards the end won’t come as much of a surprise but this isn’t a film that relies on cinematic sleight of hand for its power.
Thriller: A Cruel Picture
A bit of Swedish sleaze as Christina Lindberg, after being hooked on drugs and forced into a life of prostitution, wreaks vengeance on the people responsible. The slow-motion violence isn’t exactly a Sam Peckinpah-style bullet fest, coming across as overly static and staged and the addition of hardcore footage adds nothing to the film, particularly as it isn’t even Lindberg in the inserted shots. The movies biggest claim to fame is that it was a big influence on Tarantino’s Kill Bill, and it’s the sort of film only QT could love.
Vigilante
The ‘80s produced a lot of vigilante movies and Vigilante was one of the better ones. That’s not to say it’s a great film but it is well put together and Robert Forster and Fred Williamson offer good value for money, with Forster playing a bereaved father whose son is murdered by a vicious street gang and Williamson…well playing Williamson really, the ultimate Black badass we all know and love. The problem with Vigilante is it stops just as the story starts getting interesting, with Forster punishing not just the people who committed the crime but also the judge who let them go free. It’s a shame they never made a sequel.
Falling Down
Michael Douglas does his bit not just to cut down crime but for consumer rights as well. Director Joel Schumacher’s career has been a bit hit and miss but this is a contender for his best film, with Douglas and Robert Duvall both giving great performances, even if some of the supporting players do go a little over the top (Frederic Forrest being the most obvious but not the only culprit).
Death Wish
Probably the first film most people would think of if asked to name a vigilante movie. Michael Winner is, somewhat unfairly to my mind, often referred to as a talentless hack, the Seventies/Eighties answer to Paul W. S. Anderson or Uwe Boll, but Death Wish is a well made film, with strong performances and a decent script. It even has something to say, even if much of what it says it politically incorrect and a little heavy handed. Charles Bronson isn’t the one man army he would become in subsequent films in the series, after his first outing as a vigilante he’s in need of a stiff drink and following his first ‘execution’ he’s barfing down the toilet. The film also scores points for not having Bronson find his wife’s killers, it makes his quest for justice indiscriminate and never ending.
Death Wish II
This lacks the finer qualities of the first film, being an exercise in pure exploitation. The faceless evil of Death Wish is gone, this time Bronson sees what the killers look like and sets about hunting them down, going to absurd lengths to dish out his own brand of justice. Everything is overdone, even the rape scene tries to out-shock the first films, it’s a prime example of Eighties excess. Bronson is now a killing machine, no matter where you are, he’ll find you, no matter how big you are, he’ll kill you. It’s stupid but still entertaining, and Jimmy Page’s pounding score fits it perfectly. Of course the film’s worst crime is one it shares with many of Charlie’s later pictures – Jill Ireland.
Last House on the Left
The men behind those modern day titans of terror Freddy and Jason, Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham, made this nasty little revenge movie at the start of their careers. It’s a simple tale of two young girls, a murderous gang of escaped cons, and one of the girl’s parents who exact some chainsaw wielding, penis chomping retribution for the murder of their child. It’s a film that sets out to shock and achieves its aim, although the most shocking element it that Craven could write such a contrived story (the killers, having left the big city with the girls in the trunk of the car, manage to break down on the same country road where one of the girls lives) and expect people to buy it. David Hess is convincingly unpleasant as the main villain and the film pretty much gave him a career playing similar roles, good job really as his songs, featured on the soundtrack, are pretty awful.
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
Violence begets violence in a spiral of destruction. Chan-wook Park’s film has character’s you can empathise with, which makes their inevitable downfall all the more powerful. Violent and very stylish but with the focus firmly on the characters, this isn’t exploitation but rather a serious (and at times blackly comic) look at the repercussions of man’s primal urge for vengeance. A tie with Dead Man’s Shoes for the most intelligent film of the week.
