One of the great benefits of having a Region Free DVD player is
catching
imports that might not see the light of day here in the States. I
watched
this movie about a month ago, and then I watched it again last night
with
Mrs. Rock. Last night’s viewing pretty much sent my head spinning.
Maybe it
was because I was seeing the movie again, or that I was seeing it with
someone who hadn’t seen it yet, but this movie really moved me. Dead
Man’s
Shoes is a straight revenge film, but revenge has never been done like
this.
Or at least with this much sheer tragedy mixed in with copious amounts
of
brutality and unforgiving rage.
The story’s about these two brothers returning to their small English
village to get revenge on a group of small-town drug dealers and
screw-ups.
The one brother, the vengeful, ex-military brother is played by Paddy
Considine.
(You might remember Paddy from In America, 24 Hour Party People, and
even
this year’s Cinderella Man.)
Paddy’s a terrific actor. In this movie he’s absolutely terrifying.
Denzel
was a bad-ass in Man on Fire, but I feel like even John Creasy would
get the
shakes staring down this dude. This guy’s not just a tough bastard he’s
also
borderline psychotic. We don’t know what these local hoods did to his
younger, retarded brother, but we can guess it wasn’t pleasant because
of
the degree of rage and pure viciousness big brother levels at these
men.
This is one revenge flick that wanders the border between revenge and
horror. Some of the shit he does is scary, some funny, and some of it
would
be considered immeasurably cruel, and we’re hoping that these guys did
something to deserve what they’re getting, because if they didn’t,
Paddy’s
one seriously f*cked up dude.
I urge you to see the DVD. This is really a
terrific
film, and it has a damn fine acoustic guitar soundtrack to compliment
the
movie. In fact the soundtrack is astonishing. If you’re a fan of movies
about people getting even, really, really even, hunt this movie down
and
watch it. People talk alot about Old Boy. And even I liked Old Boy
quite a
bit, but that movie has nothing on this one. I’ve never seen anything
this
powerful in any revenge movie before this.