DeadMansShoes

Dead Man’s Shoes (2004)

Anthony is mentally challenged. Not in a Sherpa-looking Corky kind of way, but more like Forrest Gump without the power to defend himself. He has been hanging around drug dealing thugs in his hometown while his older brother is away serving military duties in the army. On one horrible afternoon the thugs torture Anthony, physically and emotionally. Years pass and Anthony is never the same again.

The good news is Anthony’s brother, Richard, has just been discharged from his stint with the military and is returning home. The bad news is he’s the angriest motherfucker to ever walk the face of the Earth. He’s looking for hardcore vengeance against the seven punks who befriended then brutalized his brother. He makes his presence known around town just to show he’s not afraid of the small-time hoods. He spray paints the words “Cheyne Stoking” on the wall of the men’s apartment, which is the name of a breathing pattern in sick patients that is a sign of certain death. Then, one-by-one, Richard violently performs his retribution. The acts the men did to Anthony are shown in flashback and they did do terrible and unforgivable things. However, I found the actions that Richard performs in the film far more disturbing, which included terrorizing three men in the midst of an overdose and you begin to question his motive. Is he any better than these thugs? Is he far, far worse for the viciousness of his proceedings? In the end, we finally find out how Richard truly felt of his handicapped brother and director Shane Meadows unapologetically ends the film the only way it could.

Dead Man's Shoes is a great tribute to the late 70’s/early 80’s exploitation films that I used to love discovering on video in my youth. Angel, Vice Squad, The Exterminator, Ruckus, Death Wish and First Blood came to mind upon finishing it. Taxi Driver would also be a fair comparison.

The opening titles show Super 8 family films of the brothers as infants enjoying their youth before they became know around town as the scary brother and the stupid brother. It's cut with footage of Anthony and Richard walking into the unnamed Midland town in England upon the soldier’s return. The great music of Smog’s “Vessel In Vain” is playing behind these images and the main titles. From this picture I just painted, to the intense ending, the film is, for my tastes, almost 90% flawless.

Hatred is usually an emotion that only men can relate to with Shakespearian proportions. It comes with the testicles. A woman is not capable of harnessing the possible level of evil that comes with these feelings and I have yet to see a film that brilliantly captures this fact. For now this one will have to do. Lead actor Paddy Considine was familiar to me from playing the father in the film In America. In that film he was a take-no-shit immigrant father of two young girls illegally staying in the city of New York with aspirations of becoming an actor. It was a brilliant portrayal of what a parent is supposed to be like. His rendering of Richard is the polar opposite of that character and solidifies the fact that not only is he the best actor out of the U.K., but is simply one of the best working in film period.

I have heard opinions that this film will only gratify people with a sadist mentality and that could very well be the case. I absolutely love finding a picture that stirs up emotions I rarely use and it is what separates a “film” from a “movie”. I love movies, but a true film will stay in your head weeks after you’ve seen it. Dead Man’s Shoes is not for everybody. I found it to be one of the greatest DVD experiences in many years and it inspired me to blow the dust off of stories I had been meaning to put to film sixteen years ago. That’s what films do. Movies send you home with less money and a smile on your face. Films cause you to think and they inspire you to take filmmaking into your own hands.

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by Bryan Layne