Stale Popcorn

Revenge. It’s a noun. It means the harm done to someone as a punishment for harm that they have done to you or someone else. Never has one single sentence or dictionary definition provided more inspiration and plot outlines for the movie industry then that of the word “Revenge”. Like my love of conspiracy movies, great revenge movies are up there too in terms of out-and-out adoration. If the plot has the word conspiracy or revenge in it’s description then you can almost guarantee my interest is recorded (It used to be the same with “sporting underdog” movies until it become readily apparent that the formula was so stuck in stone that they were being released at a rate of 20 a year, all indistinguishable from the original 70s or 80s trendsetter!). The keyword in the term “great revenge movies”, though, is “great” because a ‘revenge’ movie is all too easy to make but quite hard to make well. Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme realise a revenge-themed flick at a rate of one a month. That’s 24 revenge-themed flicks a year between the two of them and not a single one of them is good… let alone even coming close to being great!

The equation for making a truly great revenge flick is a simple one – take one protagonist, remove from him or her something which they care a great deal about, remove it in as horrendous a fashion (however, the more horrendous the manner does not always dictate the greatness of your film!), fuck up said protagonist in the process (now, the more fucked up the protagonist the better you’re second and third acts will be!) then send him or her out to seek and find retribution.

As I said with The Conspiracy Collection, this “collection” is not all-encompassing and, unlike that collection, this one is not ENTIRELY a fair reflection on my own complete tastes for revenge films. Out of all the collections I build, this is the one where at birthdays and Christmases friends will do keyword searches on the word “revenge” and buy me films that normally I wouldn’t own. I’ll try to make mention of which titles these are, although if I was to say ‘Stephen Frears’ period drama’, ‘Vin Diesel B-movie’ and ‘Comic Book Blockbuster with John Travolta as the Bad Guy’ then I think you’d have a fair idea. Also, note that there are a couple of obvious omissions here and there but I think the titles you’ll think are missing will pop up in later issues as they’re held in other subsections of my DVD collection (Old Boy, Die Hard with a Vengeance, anyone?)

Last time out discussing my love of a certain type of movie, I ran through 35 movies at length and, with 28 in this particular collection, I’m very wary of forcing another issue of that length down your throats. This time round, I’m going to enforce myself to stick to a sub-genre ticklist sort of thing that will get the relevant information across in the shortest amount of words. Fun for me to try and fit within the confines of and hopefully fun for you all to read. So the criteria for looking at the flick will be whose out for revenge, who they’re out for revenge against, why and a couple of quick sentences from me about why I own/dig the flick.

As I say time and time again, I always look forward to your feedback so if you agree/disagree/want more information/want to flame me then I cherish every form of it all and that’s what the ATBs below are for. But, without further ado… These are the revenge movies that I own, adore (in most cases) and urge you to check out if you’ve never seen them before.

Cape Fear
Avenger:
Robert Mitchum’s recently released convict, Max Cady.
Target:
Gregory Peck’s lawyer Sam Bowden and his wife (Polly Bergen) and child (Lori Martin)
Why:
Bowden helped put Cady away for his last string of crimes and now Cady is out for revenge in a deadly game of cat and mouse, revenge, retaliation and murder, using the small print within the legal legislation to make Sam, the local police chief (Martin Balsam) and a private detective (Telly Savalas) powerless to stop him by lawful means!
Probably the most well-known and flawless of all the revenge movies ever made. It’s as noticeable a masterpiece in shock and suspense now, for modern day audiences, as it was back on the day of it’s release in 1962. Search hard enough and you’ll find this available as part of a double-pack with Martin Scorsese’s commendable and interesting ‘re-take’ for under £7. Absolute, unarguable bargain!

Cape Fear (1991)
Avenger:
Robert De Niro’s recently released psychopathic convict, Max Cady.
Target:
Nick Nolte’s morally-questionable lawyer Sam Bowden and his wife (Jessica Lange) and child (Juliette Lewis)
Why:
Bowden was Cady’s defence attorney but helped put him away for fourteen years after his latest string of sex crimes by withholding important evidence that could have got him off the charges. Now Cady is out for revenge in a deadly game of cat and mouse, revenge and murder, pushing the structure of the already unstable Bowden family to breaking point.
This is a really interesting and quite brilliant remake, standing well on it’s own but still (like all remakes, invariably) standing in the shadow of the original. Scorsese, and writer Wesley Strick, do some excellent shading of the characters in the updated version (Nolte’s good guy is actually an evidence hiding, hard drinking, unfaithful husband and bad father. De Niro’s bad guy is undoubtedly a misogynistic psychopath but, unlike Mitchum’s original take, this is a man driven by a personal wrong committed against him and not just ‘revenge for the sake of revenge’) and throw some ace little curveballs to fans of the original (bad guy Mitchum returns here as a good guy and Peck’s original hero returns as a bad guy!). Yeah, the cartoon-esque riverboat finale is completely OTT and very un-Scorsese-like but when the ride’s been this relentless in it’s psychological torment and your love for the original masterpiece is untainted then you can kind of forgive it!

Carrie
Avenger:
Tortured high-school misfit and daughter of a repressed religious zealot, Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) the perpetual victim with a penchant for telekinesis.
Target:
Anyone. Everyone. From her own mother (Piper Laurie), the school bullies (Nancy Allen and John Travolta) and those that stood by and done nothing (P.J Soles and William Katt), right the way through to those that tried and failed to help her (Amy Irving and Betty Buckley).
Why:
They made her life a misery and an inescapable one at that, but… in inviting her to the school prom and fixing it so that she would win Prom Queen, only to be drenched in a bucket of pig’s blood and humiliated to boot… well, they finally went too far and the once-shy teenager becomes an unrestrained, vengeance-seeking powerhouse of telekinetic power causing – as the posters famously declared – “… all hell to break loose in a frenzy of blood, fire and brimstone that will take you to the very depths of horror – and beyond!”
One of the best Stephen King adaptations and, as a result, probably De Palma’s best film. It sets the template for how to make a superb ‘revenge’ movie: make it slow burning! Make the act you’re avenging a long, slow, painful process (like it would be in reality) and then make the actual vengeance a third-act, bullet-fast kick to the face of not just the protagonist’s target but to the audience themselves! A genuine 70s masterpiece!

Conan The Barbarian
Avenger:
Orphan-turned-Slave-turned-Gladiator-turned-Warrior-turned-revenge-obsessed-Barbarian, Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Target:
A snake-worshipping cult leader (James Earl Jones) and his army of evil marauders.
Why:
Conan was just a small, weedy little boy when the cold-blooded cult leader and his army descended upon his village and wiped out his entire clan, beheading his parents in the process. As a result, and stinking of irony, young Conan was sold into slavery and from there, into the gladiatorial arena, building muscle and warrior-like skills that could not be equalled. If only that nasty snake-worshipping nut-job had never made Conan parentless then he wouldn’t have the now adult, now ma-hoo-sive, broad-sword carrying warrior out to end his life! Oh, the irony!
This flick is a huge, huge, huge guilty pleasure of mine. Like most early to mid eighties Arnie fair it’s quickly dismissed as dispensable, bloodthirsty action nonsense and whilst that can be quite accurate in the cases of the likes of Commando (although that particular movie is still a “little bit” ace!) and Raw Deal, it is totally not the case with John Milius’ swords-and-sorcery gem! There’s some wonderfully unique sequences within this film, none better highlighted then the moment when Arnie’s Conan – decked out in black and white body paint covering him from top to toe – and his small band of accomplices, sneak into the villain’s kingdom and quietly lay siege to each and every one of it’s inhabitants, all set to the sublime, timeless score by Basil Poledouris.

The Crow
Avenger:
Murdered rock-star Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) returning from beyond the grave.
Target:
Michael Wincott’s sadistic local crimelord, Top Dollar, and his band of notoriously psychotic, drugged up, gothic henchmen.
Why:
Well… it’s a fable about being careful about renting property and the caution that should be used when choosing a landlord isn’t it? Eric and his girlfriend, Shelly, are unhappy with the condition of their apartment within a tenement owned by local Mr Big, Top Dollar. When their complaints fall on deaf ears, they take it to the city’s government officials and… Oh, let’s not dress it up here people okay… This is a story about Top Dollar having his gang rape and murder Shelly in a particular disgusting manner for causing trouble, then shooting Eric dead and throwing him out of their apartment window. But Eric returns from the grave, guided by a mysterious crow, granted with supernatural powers and out to avenge his girlfriend’s murder.
Forget the god-awful Mark Dacasco TV show turned into even-more-awful Mark Dacasco TV movies. Forget the sequels, of how many I have lost both count and the ability to care. Even forget the rather naff comic book jobs post-movie that WEREN’T done by the original author, James O’Barr. This is a sensationally underrated piece of action/tragedy, dressed up by director Alex Proyas with it’s own impressively dark and dank visual style – taken wholesale into his next movie, Dark City – but more on that in another issue!

Dangerous Liaisons
Avenger:
Glenn Close’s callous Marquise de Merteuil via John Malkovich’s misogynistic Vicomte de Valmont
Target:
The innocent and virginal Cecile de Volanges (Uma Thurman)
Why:
Merteuil believes she can have any man she so desires and have them until she gets bored of them, until one in particular leaves her before her interest has waned. When she finds out that her lover has abandoned her for a much younger, far more beautiful virgin by the name of Cecile de Volanges, she hires one of the country’s greatest seducers, Valmont, to hunt Volanges down and deflower her, leaving her broken-hearted and damaged goods for her future husband… and Merteuil ready to gloat. Valmont, however, gets side-tracked when he lays eyes on Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer).
This DVD was a present of my girlfriend. It’s one of her favourite films and, only a couple of months ago, she couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen it (I’d always just disregarded it, no matter how critically acclaimed it is, as “just another period flick”. And as you all know, I don’t do those movies where the women were corsets, the men were tights and they all speak “funny” and posh). She was almost as staggered when I told her I’d seen the god-awful modern day remake, Cruel Intentions, and I’d hated every single minute of it (even the lesbian schtick!) so had no “intention” of seeking out the original movie it was based on. She bought it for me, forced me to watch it, then sat back smugly when I happened to admit that I dug the hell out of it – it’s a cold-hearted, distant and painful flick to watch in some places… which is just how ‘revenge’ itself should be!

Dead Man’s Shoes
Avenger:
Returning soldier Richard (Paddy Considine), dragging his young “simple” brother with him.
Target:
The local hard-man (Gary Stretch) and his gang of incompetent henchmen, running the small Midlands town through fear.
Why:
British soldier, Richard, left his hometown on a tour of duty eight years ago, leaving his younger brother behind. Exploited and abused by the local gang in the most tragic of ways imaginable and bullied for his learning disabilities, the younger brother struggles without his big sibling around for protection. Richard returns and decides to take on anyone who ever took advantage of his brother.
That’s not an entirely accurate plot description, truth be told, but I’m being exceptionally cautious to not touch on anything that could topple the superb third act revelation that underpins the shear powerfulness of Shane Meadows’ masterpiece. I haven’t – still – been able to get to see a copy of his follow-up, This Is England, so I can’t say for certain, but I consider Dead Man’s Shoes to be the greatest film he has made, and could possibly ever make. I’m willing to be corrected though. Standing alongside Mike Hodges’ Get Carter (more on that later on), this casts a very dark shadow over that seminal 70s classic. This is a film that wrong foots you with tentative steps into the slasher-horror genre, the bumbling-Ealing comedy type, the gritty British drama and the slow-burning pain of a true, realism-soaked revenge piece. I considered it the best film I had ever seen when I first saw it and, whilst that praise has burned down ever so slightly, this is still one of the very best films of the last ten years and, in my humble opinion, the greatest British film ever made! Find it! Own it! View it! Allow it to break your heart! I cannot recommend this film enough. A truly fantastic masterpiece of a revenge movie!

Death Wish
Avenger:
Bleeding-heart liberal Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson)
Target:
The gang who killed his wife and sexually assaulted his daughter and… pretty much anyone else Kersey considers to be “scum”.
Why:
It’s pretty much covered in the above sentence. Mrs Kersey is murdered and Miss Kersey is raped by a gang of thugs and, through police failures, Mr Kersey is forced to take up arms and turn vigilante, stalking the streets of New York for any muggers, hoodlums and scumbags for him to exercise his fury upon.
I’d never seen this. I’m not particularly ashamed to admit that because it’d been previously unavailable for a long time, I hated Michael Winner movies with a passion and the bits of the embarrassing sequels that I had suffered a viewing of made me think that this was the exact ‘sort’ of revenge flick (or franchise) that gave great revenge flicks a bad name. Then a buddy of mine bought me a copy of the newly released uncut version on DVD and stated I could not claim to be a fan of this sort of genre without owning this flick. Well, it didn’t live up to the hype he instilled it with and it’s nowhere near close to being the “greatest revenge film” ever made. It hasn’t aged very well at all, Michael Winner’s direction is as incompetent, unfocused and clumsy as you’d expect it to be and Wendell Mayes adaptation of Brian Garfield’s source novel is pretty weak too. However, Charles Bronson’s original take on the character of Paul Kersey is interesting enough to drag it above one note and Herbie Hancock’s score is really cool. Asides from that? With regard to my mate, I’ll say it’s the thought that counts huh?

Four Brothers
Avenger:
The four brothers of the title (played by model-turned-rapper-turned-overrated-actor Mark Wahlberg, model-turned-failed-popstar-turned-vacuous-actor Tyrese Gibson, rapper-turned-popstar-turned-surprisingly-talented-actor Andre Benjamin and an actor more-wooden-than-Noah’s-Ark, Garrett Hedlund), adopted out of their respective troubled childhoods and into a stable, loving environment by a kindly old neighbourhood lady.
Target:
Chiwetel Ejiofor’s local cartoon crime-boss and his minions.
Why:
The ‘kindly old lady’ is murdered in a grocery store hold-up that smells ‘suspcious’ and the four estranged adopted siblings, now all adults, decide to reunite and find out the real culprits behind the crime, avenging the death of the only person to ever respect them along the way.
This is big, empty-headed, nigh-on ineptly acted, poorly scripted, B-movie fare but, in the hands of once-promising directorial talent turned under-rated “hack”, John Singleton, you get a big, empty-headed rush from the experience. There are some decent action sequences (a car chase on ice, in a snow storm, is a definite highlight!) and some hot female eye-candy that help pass the time amiably. There are way, way, way worse ‘revenge flicks’ then this one, although by the time Mark Whalberg’s character does his slow-mo walk to the climactic confrontation it’s pushing it admittedly, and there are far worse ways to spend 104 minutes. This is a DVD I did a very quick burn of as I’d struggled to catch up with it on the big screen (A History of Violence, Million Dollar Baby, Batman Begins, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Life Aquatic, were all far more pressing!) and don’t mind having on the shelf – but if I’d bought the DVD on a whim or paid for the cinema ticket then I don’t know whether I’d be so easily pleased!

Gladiator
Avenger:
Roman army general turned slave turned gladiator (hmm… that sounds familiar!) Maximus (Russell Crowe)
Target:
New emperor of Rome, Commodus Aurelius (Joaquin Phoenix), son of the recently deceased and much-loved emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris)
Why:
Commodus wanted to take his father’s position but his father favoured turning over his commanding duties to his ‘favourite’ general, and surrogate son, Maximus. Commodus murdered his father, took his position by deceit then had Maximus de-ranked and taken out to be killed. Maximus escapes and returns home to his family, only to find Commodus has been nothing but thorough and had his wife and child murdered too. Recaptured and beaten, Maximus finds himself sold into slavery and then into ‘certain death’ as a gladiator, fighting for his life… and the amusement of none other than Emperor Commodus.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this film. On the level of ‘revenge flicks’, it’s a friggin’ awesome one that I recommend whole-heartedly to you. Hell, even Scott’s capturing of Maximus and his fellow gladiators taking part in a recreation of the Battle of Carthage, is work a definite recommendation… being how it is one of the truly great modern action sequences in cinema. But the film as a whole? Over-long, over-rated and extremely anti-climactic. I’ve never liked Crowe’s performance in this film and I’m fickle as to my opinion of Phoenix in it too. I hate that this is constantly being sold to us as a genuine “modern masterpiece”. It’s a cracking, old-school style revenge film but it’s no flawless gem… and plus, Spartacus and Conan the Barbarian did the whole slave-turned-gladiator-turned-whatever thing WAY better!

Kill Bill: Volume One
Avenger:
The Bride (Uma Thurman), an ex-special-assassin for a covert, deadly team ran by…
Target:
Bill (David Carradine), a martial arts expert and ex-lover of our avenger, along with ex-team mates (Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah)
Why:
The Bride wanted to leave the team after finding out she was pregnant, settle down and get away from “the life”. After hunting her down at a rundown chapel in the desert, many years later, while she prepares for her wedding to some other guy, Bill and the other members massacre the entire wedding party, beat The Bride and put a bullet in her head. Four years later, she’s awake from a coma and thirsty for revenge, concentrating on the one that’s turned into a stay-at-home-mommy (Fox) and the one who’s now a Japanese crime lord (Liu).
As kitschy, post-modern ‘revenge’ flicks go this is definitely worth a look. I like it and you can’t have a modern-day category of revenge films in your DVD collection without including Tarantino’s two volume attempt but… I just, well, I just don’t love this flick anywhere close to as much as I thought I would. I loved the heck out of it the first time I saw it. The second time I went back I was like “Oh-kay! That didn’t stand up a second time as well as I thought it would!” By the time someone bought me the DVD of it for my birthday I was very much like “Oh, I’d forgotten all about this film!” It’s Tarantino-dialogue-wrapped-around-the-concept-of-a-woman-walking-around-with-a-fucking-samurai-sword-killing-people. My opinion or attempts to justify it’s inclusion in the collection are soon drowned out by that one line!

Kill Bill: Volume Two
Avenger:
The Bride (Uma Thurman), an ex-special-assassin for a covert, deadly team ran by…
Target:
Bill (David Carradine), a martial arts expert and ex-lover of our avenger, along with ex-team mates (Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah)
Why:
Pretty much still the same as Volume One. The Bride wanted to leave the team after finding out she was pregnant, settle down and get away from “the life”. After hunting her down at a rundown chapel in the desert, many years later, while she prepares for her wedding to some other guy, Bill and the other members massacre the entire wedding party, beat The Bride and put a bullet in her head. Four years later, she’s awake from a coma and thirsty for revenge. Only now, she’s concentrating on the one that’s now given up “the life” in favour of ‘bouncing’ at a strip joint and living in squalor (Madsen), the one who used to be her rival, is still trying to keep her hand in with the occasional murder and still yearns for her ex-boss (Hannah) and, of course, the boss himself… Bill!
Man, forget about Bill – it killed ME the first time I saw this flick! I remember walking out the cinema and saying “That bastard had us sit through 230 minutes of a 235 minute ‘opus’ and killed this Bill dude off with a slap to the chest and a walk round his garden? Are you fucking kidding me? He’s meant to be the baddest man on the planet, the Western world’s greatest martial artist and we’re having him dispensed with like that?” I was beyond livid. I absolutely adored pretty much 75-80% of all that went before and dug it way, way more that the first film but then, post-ending, I started to let the love slide and started to pounce down on one factor I just could never let go – Tarantino never considered this as one whole film! I don’t believe him. I don’t believe Harvey Weinstein. We were fucking duped like Enron employees! Thematically and stylistically these two films are completely and utterly different on a vast scale. Even their tones are of a totally different nature. To have us believe that they would have been included together in one long edit, is suggesting that Tarantino would have us sit through a slice of “Eastern” revenge cinema homage of comic-book outrageousness, suspending of disbelief and cartoon violence then just jack-bolt the same story and characters into a dank, gritty “Western” dramatic piece of disturbing set-pieces with comedic slap-dash pasted in here and there. Sorry, no, not buying what you’re selling! That’s like buying a ticket for Schindler’s List and getting Mel Brooks’ Springtime for Hitler for the first 90 minutes, then the atrocities kick in and we’re back to Spielberg in the gas chambers! And if it is true and I’m wrong, then where the hell was the proposed 2005 Cannes Premiere of Kill Bill: Version Longeur that showed us Tarantino’s original intent? Where? Up his ass!

The Limey
Avenger:
English hard-man Wilson (Terence Stamp)
Target:
Hollywood big-shot Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda)
Why:
Wilson’s estranged daughter is dead. Wilson wants to know who is responsible. Travelling from England to Los Angeles, he starts asking questions and searching for clues among LA’s toughest criminals. However, after surviving a near death beating, getting thrown from a building and being chased down a dangerous mountain road; Wilson decides to turn the tables around.
Top Five reasons why this film is ace and must be seen? 5. Luis Gusman is in it! 4. Peter Fonda is suitably slimy and does seedy villainy very well indeed! 3. Steven Soderbergh takes Lem Dobb’s achingly cool screenplay and turns it into a visually superb, bullet-paced, 85 minute brutal kick up the arse of the revenge subgenre! 2. Terence Stamp! 1. Terence Stamp screaming “Tell them I’m coming!” in only a way Terence Stamp could! There you go!

A Man Apart
Avenger:
Drug Enforcement Agent Sean Vetter (Vin Diesel)
Target:
The mysterious, major drug cartel figure known only as Diablo
Why:
Vetter gets a little too close to unmasking the identity of Diablo, and destroying his operations, so a hit is attempted on Vetter’s life – leaving his wife brutally murdered and the injured DEA guy severely annoyed and out for revenge!
I got this as a birthday present. I’d had no interest in seeing it – the constant change of titles, the delay in release, the huge amount of chopping and changing in the edit suite and not being a particular fan of Vin Diesel, all played their part in killing any desire to view this flick. I’d wrote it off as being a dodgy-straight-to-DVD ‘revenge’ flick in the vein of something Segal or Van Damme pushes out on a regular basis. Had I not been given it as a present I wouldn’t have ever got round to watching it, just short of it turning up on TV when there was nothing else on. The last minute rewrites and subsequent re-shoots show up very clearly as the film goes from an interesting, well executed first act (everything up until and including Vetter’s wife’s murder) to being totally nonsensical in it’s attempt to tease us into being interested in just who Diablo is. The alleged twist is one of those annoying types where the film is telling us it’s one character one minute, then pulling back and showing us that suggestion was a bluff, only to reveal it actually was who was originally suggested. Boring, disappointing nonsense that will disappear from my collection in time – but exists only because it was a gift! As you’ll see from reading about the other titles in this issue, there’s far greater ‘nonsense’ revenge flicks out there then this!

Man on Fire
Avenger:
Ex-CIA operative turned down-at-heel bodyguard John Creasy (Denzel Washington)
Target:
Anyone and everyone involved in or associated with the kidnapping of his client’s daughter (Dakota Fanning) in Mexico City
Why:
Creasy is a lost soul, burnt out and on the edge until he comes to be employed by a rich American family living in Mexico. He’s hired to chauffeur, chaperone and protect their young daughter from an environment whereby a kidnapping occurs every thirty to sixty seconds. Through his job, Creasy finds a new found level of self-respect and purpose – until a kidnapping attempt leaves him riddled with bullets and comatose, and his charge taken into the Mexican underground. Waking from his coma, Creasy unleashes a firestorm of relentless vengeance using the tools of his CIA training against anyone who has had anything to do with the missing girl!
It’s not often that ‘poster quotes’ do a film a real justice but it really is the case with the cover for this flick – Quentin Tarantino calls it “tough as hell” and FHM regard it as “the Godfather of revenge movies”. Both are pretty much spot on. This is one hell of a brutal ride, and a superb revenge flick to boot. I’d never have thought Denzel Washington could have delivered as a cold as ice a performance as this one. His turn in Training Day was one of pure pantomime malevolence. Here, he is a total liquid-nitrogen-blooded bad-ass of enormous proportions. Brian Helgeland’s screenplay is an epic, twisted play of extremely commendable scope on AJ Quinnell’s original novel (already adapted for the screen starring Scott Glenn and Joe Pesci, for you trivia fans!). What really amazes the viewer though is that Tony Scott’s epilepsy-inducing, flash-for-flash style of direction (that, when contained well, can prove immensely effective i.e. Spy Game or a complete disaster i.e. Domino) finally finds a home, producing one of the most visually compelling and hugely enjoyable adult thrill-rides of the last five years! I strongly recommend this film to you!

Memento
Avenger:
Short-term-memory-afflicted ex-Insurance Investigator Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce)
Target:
The man responsible for the rape and murder of his wife.
Why:
As it says above, Shelby’s wife suffered a brutal attack and was murdered – during the process of which, Shelby himself was struck and is now suffering from a short term memory that only allows him a matter of minutes to grab information before his mind is wiped blank again. Allegedly!
Forget the fantastic concept of the film being told back to front (i.e. starting at the end and working back to the beginning). You all know that this is the style of the film and that the film itself has become more famous for this “selling point” then it has for the wonderful script, brilliant direction or the cracking performances from Pearce and fellow co-star Joe Pantoliano. Instead, let me just leave you with an actual conversation between a mate and me: “Why is Memento in your modern classics section?” “Because it’s a genuine, unarguable modern classic!” “Yeah, but why’s it not in your ‘revenge’ collection?” “It’s not really a revenge film as such is it?” “Of course it is; a guy is out to hunt down the murderer of his wife and kill him – that’s a pretty clear cut revenge flick if you ask me!” “Yeah, but that’s not really the drive of the film is it? I mean, there is no murderer. There is no murder to speak of is there?” “What the fuck are you talking about?” “Remember the black and white bits involving Stephen Tobawolksy’s character? Remember the flash of Pearce’s face onto that character?” “Yeah?” “Well don’t you think that the suggestion is that Pearce’s Shelby is in fact Tobawolsky’s character? That there was no murder. Shelby overdosed his wife on her insulin by mistake, because of his memory problem – and is hunting a killer that doesn’t exist, being manipulated by a seedy figure to clean up for him!” [SILENCE] “You never got that about the film did you?” [SILENCE] “Yeah… well… I still think that it should be in your ‘revenge’ section of your DVDs!” So… just for you buddy of mine who asked me not to put your name up here because, and I quote, “people will think I’m a thick twat!” it’s in that section and getting a mention right here!

Munich
Avenger:
A secret Israeli-funded ‘hit’ squad made up of a purposefully exiled Mossad member (Eric Bana), a South African mercenary working as a getaway driver (Daniel Craig), a ‘clean-up’ man (Ciaran Hinds), a toymaker turned bomb-maker (Mathieu Kassovitz) and the logistics man (Hanns Zischler)
Target:
Eleven specific Palestinian figures… and anybody else the Israeli government identify!
Why:
These identified Palestinians are alleged to have funded, planned or assisted in the massacre at the 1972 Olympic Games competitors’ village in Munich.
As Spielberg throws out his Jurassic Park sequels and his War of the Worlds or his Kubrick-dedicated sci-fi misfires (A.I – Artificial Intelligence), behind it all he quietly busies away producing and directing some of the greatest ‘history’ pieces that cinema has ever known. Whilst Saving Private Ryan was blighted by a sometimes turgid middle section and questionable book-ends, and whilst Schindler’s List was almost perfect in terms of its sorrowful subject matter, save for that misfire of a sequence involving Schindler ‘comically’ interviewing potential secretaries, Munich is a flawless masterpiece. Absolutely perfect for every single second of it’s two hour and thirty seven minute running time. It’s a superbly well made, expertly paced thriller. Everything, from the production design to the sweat-inducing sound and visual edits, is evidence of a master showman at the top of his game. To see Spielberg at his absolute best in terms of popcorn cinema, then go back to his early stuff or throw on Jurassic Park. To see exactly why he is one of the best all-round directors cinema has ever been blessed with then this is the film to watch. Criminally pushed aside at awards season, this is a film screamingly worthy of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor (for Geoffrey Rush). The best film of it’s year, of the last ten years… no twenty… thirty… fuck it… One of the best films EVER MADE! Watch it as a double-bill with Kevin MacDonald’s awesome documentary piece, One Day In September, and you’ll have one of the best cinematic encounters of your life! Trust me!

Open Range
Avenger:
An old, weary free-grazing cowboy (Robert Duvall) and his retired gun-for-hire sidekick (Kevin Costner)
Target:
Denton Baxter (Michael Gambon), a ruthless and evil rancher who runs a local town with a big old dose of fear, thanks to his band of violent henchmen.
Why:
The free-grazer, his sidekick and their two fellow workers just want to drive cattle, live off the land on the open range and try to escape their pasts. When Baxter has his men try and force the gang of four away by murdering two of them when they venture into his town, the remaining two realise they have to face up to their pasts by battling it out for the honour of their fallen workers, the justice of bringing a man to account for his crime and for a way of life that is quickly disappearing.
Forget the fantastic climax that concludes this flick – it is awesome, probably one of the best of its genre and every bit as breathtakingly excellent as you have heard it to be! Nah, what has to be REALLY noted about this film is its status as probably the best “fuck you” to the industry since James Cameron managed to take a turgid mess like Titanic and turn it into a billion-dollar success story in the face of bad industry/trade whispers! Costner was an industry joke; the Waterworld/Postman fiasco(s), followed by some criminally stupid choices of starring projects led to him being written off by the studios and by the cinema going public. Gone was all memory of his reputation as being the ‘golden boy’ (look at his choices from the late 80s to early 90s – superb, diverse, interesting, entertaining!). So much so that despite being an Oscar-winning director in the Western genre, when word leaked that he was returning to that particular style of film with this title, there was not a single note of positive buzz. There wasn’t even the smallest dash of interest. Then he released it to huge critical acclaim and Costner’s Open Range started slowly but surely busying away at making its money back, becoming the arthouse/mainstream crossover hit of 2004. His directing/producing/starring stint on this project, and the resulting kudos, paid off and the Costner we know (and a lot of us secretly dig the hell out of) is now back, bashing out brilliant turns in the likes of Thirteen Days and The Upside of Anger, even going so far as to throw out cracking character pieces in guilty pleasures (The Guardian) or absolutely abysmal films that don’t deserve it (Rumour Has It). One of the best modern westerns ever made and as closest a companion piece to Eastwood’s Unforgiven as you could possibly wish for! Buy this movie!

The Patriot
Avenger:
Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson), a former war hero of the French and Indian war, now living in peace with his children having renounced his notoriously violent past.
Target:
The British Redcoats – specifically one of their commanding officers (Jason Isaacs)
Why:
Amidst the American Revolution, the commanding officer in question brutally kills one of Martin’s youngest sons and when his eldest, Gabriel (Heath Ledger) signs up to join the fight, Martin feels he has no choice but to take up arms once again in order to protect the surviving members of his family and, in the process, face off against the murderer of one of his children.
I remember catching this at a midnight screening during my year in Australia and digging the hell out of it. When I got back to the UK, and a few years later, I found it cheap on DVD during the sales and decided to revisit it. It didn’t stand up well to my memories of that first viewing. There’s a couple of cracking little action sequences caught up in the film’s running time and a few extremely well staged battles but… it’s incredibly over-long and self-indulgent and the revenge storyline works against instead of working with the historical epic it tries desperately to be. There’s far better large-scale cinematic historical war flicks out there for you to check out. As a revenge film, Gibson’s chase-down and rescue of his sons in the forest towards the start of the film makes this well worth checking out for that scene alone and it’s probably the only reason it remains on my DVD shelf but… the rest of the film really does smack of shoulder-shrugging indifference from the half-way mark onwards really!

The Proposition
Avenger:
Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce), criminal and middle brother to a trio of villainous outlaws
Target:
First and somewhat reluctantly – his older brother Arthur (Danny Huston). Secondly – Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) of the local law enforcement.
Why:
In the harsh, unforgiving landscape of the early twentieth century Australian Outback, Charlie is captured alongside his youngest brother, Mickey, and subsequently presented with an impossible proposition by Captain Stanley, the Englishman brought over to enforce the law of the land. To save Mickey from a neck-snapping encounter with the gallows, Charlie will be set free and given time to hunt down and kill the notorious, psychotic outlaw that is Arthur Burns – his other brother! But brought face to face with his evil, untameable sibling, Charlie finds himself forced to choose between revenge, loyalty and his own conscience.
I could rave about this film all day. From John Hillcoat’s direction to Nick Cave, of Nick Cave and the Badseeds fame, and his truly brilliant screenplay. From Chris Kennedy’s production designer to Cave and Warren Ellis’ outstanding soundtrack. All fantastic! Instead, I’ll just let the poster quotes do the work for me: “One of the year’s best movies!” The Mirror. “Exceptional!” Uncut. “A Riveting Experience” The Guardian. “Terrific” The Sun. “Brutal, bloody and brilliant… one of the finest of the year!” Empire. All totally true! This is one of the most gut-wrenchingly violent films you will ever see. It’s also one of the greatest!

The Punisher
Avenger:
Ex-Special Agent Frank Castle (Thomas Jane)
Target:
Ruthless businessman Howard Saint (John Travolta) and his associates.
Why:
Castle’s last undercover job saw Saint’s son unfortunately get killed during the operation. In retaliation, Saint has Castle’s entire family – mother, father, wife, child, in-laws, you fucking name it – wiped out and leaving Castle for dead in the process. Rising from possible imminent death, Castle becomes a merciless vigilante hell bent on destroying Saint and his band of underworld assassins, on a mission of redemption and revenge.
I’d avoided seeing this film specifically because of bad word of mouth that I’d read about it on this very website. There’s a couple of people here whose opinion I respect greatly and take as gospel when it comes to recommending films and they flamed this down to the ground. I stayed away. A mate of mine bought it on DVD for me as a birthday present and, I’ve got to admit, the film very, very, very nearly got away with impressing me. Loved the opening act with the assault on the Castle family! Loved Castle building himself up for revenge! Really dug Laura Harring as the grieving but sadistic mother! And I really, really adored the slow-burning, methodical nature of Castle building his plan against the Saint family and turning people against each other. But damn, the minute the subplot involving Ben Foster and Rebecca Romjin-Stamos’ characters was introduced, I was out. Then the daft muscular dude smashing Castle around his apartment… Yawn! And, Jesus Christ, that ending with Castle sneaking into Saint’s impregnable complex filled with “henchmen”? That just screamed “Seagal” didn’t it? I can’t even begin to find words to describe John Travolta’s performance! This is a mix between a guilty pleasure and a hugely missed opportunity! Great first act, all down-hill thereafter!

Revenge
Read the full review RIGHT HERE!

Road to Perdition
Avenger:
1930s Mob hitman Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks)
Target:
His boss (Paul Newman), the boss’s son (Daniel Craig) and a rival hitman (Jude Law)
Why:
Michael’s eldest son becomes fascinated with finding out what his father does for a living and, in the process, witnesses a brutal murder at the hands of the mob boss’s crazy, unreliable son. Callously believing all loose ends need to be tied up, the mob boss orders the execution of Michael’s son, missing the opportunity but killing Michael’s wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and youngest child instead. Now targeted by the very mob he has devoted his life to, Sullivan and his only surviving son find themselves with nowhere to turn and with no choice but to reconnect, stay together and avenge the loss of their family.
I like this flick a great deal. Sam Mendes does over-direct the hell out of it though, and the “Look at me Ma, I’m acting!” styles of vapid types like Jude Law and Daniel Craig contrast badly against the natural, understated turns by Tom Hanks and Paul Newman but this is an, at times, majestic and powerful film. David Self’s script is where the real kudos lies though – capturing brilliantly the real ache of realising that your surrogate father and surrogate family have committed the ultimate betrayal and are forcing you to react in a manner you’d always considered being foreign to your very nature! It’s also a superb piece on that big canyon of a gap between the relationship of father to son and vice versa. It’s not even ten years old yet and already it seems to have gone from being lauded as a “modern masterpiece” on its release (which is a tad strong) to being completely forgotten, which is a shame! Check it out if you haven’t seen it before. You’ll get a great couple of hours out of it!

Sleepers
Avenger:
Four childhood friends, now adults – an attorney (Brad Pitt), a journalist (Jason Patric) and two street thugs (Ron Eldard and Billy Cudrup).
Target:
Noakes (Kevin Bacon), the sadistic paedophile who worked as a prison guard at the young offenders institute where they all spent time as children. Following on from him, they’re going to take on the prison system itself!
Why:
After a childhood prank goes wrong, leaving a hotdog vendor fighting for his life, the four friends are jailed in said young offenders institute where they are exposed to brutal and devastating sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Noakes and his team of guards. Several years later, after release, two of the childhood friends murder Noakes in cold blood and the other two realise that this is their opportunity to use the trial as a chance to get revenge and expose the atrocities they suffered.
With a cast that houses Pitt, Patric, Eldard and Cudrup alongside Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Renfro and Minnie Driver and written for the screen/directed by Barry Levinson whose emotional attachment to the very location/setting of this film would drive the film up a notch, you really do expect more from Sleepers then it does deliver. Obviously the film is blighted by original author Lorenzo Carcaterra’s claims that this is a true story based on his own life and encounters, only for such an assertion to prove undoubtedly false and highlight the sheer fantastical elements of a film where it needs to be seen as anything but. De Niro and Hoffman give reliable support and, Jason Patric aside as the lead role that works against the film, the three adult male characters excel. It’s a slow burning, tragic drama well worth a watch but nowhere near the classic of any genre that it would like to think it is!

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Avenger:
Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones), a ranch foreman out on the majestic border country of the United States.
Target:
A bigoted border-patrol-officer (Barry Pepper)
Why:
When Perkins friend and co-worker, Melquiades Estrada, is shot dead – at the hands of the trigger-happy, bigoted border-patrol-officer – and his murder passed over, Perkins watches as his friend is buried in a shallow grave in the desert and the local police make no attempt to solve the crime and transfer the body to a pauper’s grave instead. Driven by a promise he made to Melquiades before his death, Perkins tracks down the patrol officer, digs up his friend’s corpse and forces the man responsible for Melquiades’ death to transport the body across the desert and be given the burial he deserves.
This is one of the most powerful, compelling and exceptional modern entries into the Western genre. It’s exceptionally moving, surprisingly funny and downright beautiful at the same time. Tommy Lee Jones directs a screenplay by Guillermo Arriago, who was responsible for Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel. Seeing his work here, you can understand why he fell out with the director of those movies who constantly sought out shared-acclaim for the screenplays that Arriago wrote. Here, on his own, Arriago delivers not only the best screenplay he has ever written (which says something about the brilliance of this piece when you look at the bibliography it comes from!) but one of the best, full stop. This landed in my top five movies of last year and it grows on me with every viewing. It is a film that shows the hunger for but inevitable emptiness of revenge in a manner never portrayed so well before. Buy it! See it! Fall in love with it!

And in my crappy, snap-shut, Warner Bros. cardboard cover range (or poorly constructed, fragile collector’s edition cover in the case of one of the titles), we have the following:

Get Carter
Avenger:
London hardman, and legendary gangster’s heavy-for-hire Jack Carter (Michael Caine)
Target:
The flesh-peddling ringleader (John Osborne) of an underground crime and pornography ring.
Why:
Jack’s brother is dead and Jack has travelled out of his London-based comfort zone and up to the grim, grey streets of Newcastle to find out why and who is responsible.
Obviously I’m biased as hell about this film seeing as I come from Newcastle and those ‘cool’ ‘iconic’ locations are something that I have grew up around and with (come visit, just don’t ever fall into the trap of taking one of those god-awful “Get Carter” tours!). I also grew up hating Michael Caine and not being a fan at all but then somebody thrust copies of both Get Carter and Zulu my way and I was kind of converted to his ‘early’ charm. This is a cold-hearted, hard-boiled revenge flick. A genuine vintage classic. The Stallone remake failed, not because it was god-awful (although it was!), but because from the script right through to the actual production and by way of the enormous amount of reshoots and drastic reshaping, the remake completely missed it’s point – Carter was a man who was just as ice cold and psychopathic as the very people he was going up against. He was a bad-ass at the best of times, but he was an unstoppable nightmare when you messed with his family. Worst of all though, he was human. He was real. He was the guy you looked across the bar from here in Newcastle and could readily see sat in the corner, scanning the place with his eyes. He wasn’t some left-over from the monosyllabic 80s action era. And, in that ending, you have one of the best gut-punches to come from a film of this type – the first time Jack actually gives enough of a shit to let things get personal is the last time, when he pays the ultimate price. It can’t be equalled by him just sliding off into the distance or finding a surrogate family in his brother’s left-over wife and daughter. Hence, the remake was doomed from the start: It was completely on the wrong track to what the source material required from the very beginning!

Once Upon a Time In The West
Avenger:
A mysterious stranger known only as “Harmonica” (Charles Bronson)
Target:
The cold-blooded cowboy known as Frank (Henry Fonda)
Why:
Seriously – I’m not saying a word. In its extended 159 minute format, the revelation is as much the soul of the film as anything else.
Here are my top five reasons for why you have just GOT to see this film at least once before you die. 5. Ennio Morricone’s absolutely fantastic, timeless score featuring distinct themes for each of the four main characters (tuneless harmonica for “Harmonica”, electric guitar for Frank, humorous banjo for Jason Robards’ turn as Cheyenne, the charming outlaw and a lush, romantic piano led score for Claudia Cardinale’s gorgeous Jill McBain). 4. Claudia Cardinale – and her two front pillows! 3. The flashback revelation as to why “Harmonica” wants to come face to face with Frank. 2. Henry Fonda’s first turn as the evil Frank – seeing America’s favourite hero (he played Abraham Lincoln for Gawd’s Sake!) gun down a child is a rip-roaring, visual smack to the face of any viewer! 1. That opening sequence. It’s as deserving of every inch of its acclaim that it’s received. It unfolds slowly and deliberately, as we linger on the behaviour of Frank’s three hired killers who await the arrival of “the man” (Bronson’s “Harmonica”) at the only train station in the entire town. It’s all in the perfectly realised details of the scene – the iconic dustcoats billowing in the wind, water dripping from one killer’s bald head, another trying to shoo a fly and the third cracking his knuckles repeatedly – bringing a sense of immediate life to the scene and creating an unbearable sense of anticipation and tension. Believe me, it doesn’t let up from there!

The Outlaw Josey Wales
Avenger:
Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood), a lowly Missouri farmer
Target:
Terrill (Bill McKinney), and his fellow Union soldiers.
Why:
Terrill and his men burn Josey’s farm to the ground and brutally murder his family. Josey escapes with his life, teams up with the Confederates and spends years in battle, eventually refusing to surrender over to the Union guerrillas, because it would involve bowing to the very man who took his family from him. Teaming up with a wounded Union rebel (Sam Bottoms), two Cherokees (Chief Dan George and Geraldine Keams), a stray dog, an old lady (Paula Trueman) and her granddaughter (Sondra Locke), Josey tries to make peace with himself and his loss, until Terill and his men come calling and Josey decides to seek his revenge!
To be absolutely honest with you, I saw this flick back when I was doing a Film Studies module on Westerns and I didn’t like it that much, so much so that I opted to study Unforgiven against The Searchers rather than The Outlaw Josey Wales against Stagecoach. I’d never seen this since then but then a girlfriend I was dating many moons ago started going on and on about how she loved this movie growing up and she used to watch it with her dad all the time. She bought me a copy and we watched it together and I still thought there were far better films of this type then this particular one. We broke up and I got left with it and I haven’t really checked it out since. I know there’s a whole host of people out there who worship the ground that this film exists on and I think I must be missing something with this film. I really do keep meaning to go back and check it out again. I’m going to put it on my “To Do List” right now in fact!

And that’s it folks, we’re done for another week! Is anyone still out there? Is anyone still reading this far? Any feedback you want to offer on how I can entice more people to read these things or what sort of slant you’d like me to go down then – along with the opportunity to praise or flame away – use the ATBs below. That’s what they’re there for!

Posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 3:03 pm under Off The Shelf by Gazz.
Tags:Off The Shelf

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