Dead Man's Shoes - The most violent and gripping revenge story not to have come out of Hollywood.

Introduction - A sinister Paddy Considine takes ruthless revenge on a small time Derbyshire drug gang - and you are rooting for him all the way.

Name of film: Dead Man's Shoes

Director: Shane Meadows

Year: 2004

Official Poster

Trailer

Review

Local drug dealers use and abuse a simple-minded young man in a bleak Midlands town and subsequently face the wrath of his brother Richard, a returning soldier played with powerful conviction by actor-screenwriter and co writer, Paddy Considine. As Richard begins to take revenge, the story of Anthony's life is revealed through flashback. Made on a shoestring, Dead Man's Shoes has become an absolute cult classic. And it is not without humour. The gang drive around in silly cars and are kind of dumb or naive enough to think they might actually get the better of the soldier.
Seventies revenge movies are hard to beat for thrills. The violence of films like Death Wish, Death Weekend, Straw Dogs or Deliverance are still talked about. In each of these, one ordinary person is driven to extremes by attacks on their homes, friends, family or themselves.
Variety called Michael Winner's Death Wish a, 'poisonous incitement to do-it-yourself law enforcement,' condemned Deliverance for 'wallowing in deadly beauty'. Film critic Pauline Kael called Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, 'a fascist work of art'.
Dead Man's Shoes revisits the visceral thrills of these films in a more gripping psychological, simplistic and blunt way.
Using his military training to turn the tables on the gang, Richard turns domestic settings into a bloody battlefield - he repaints a toilet red, finds a use for a suitcase in a death scene and gives the gang a brutal psychotic trip to remember. Does that sound lightweight? It isn't. This reviewer wont tell you more.
Shot with a compact crew, Considine and Meadows finally got the chance to make a movie for themselves, to create something which would, 'provoke a love it or hate it reaction'.
Meadows said at the time, 'I know there'll be some disapproval, but I've lived in the real world, and there are two kinds of law - the law of the land and human law. The thing I remember about Death Wish, was the fact that Charles Bronson used such low-tech weaponry, like coins in a sock. I don't know why, but we respond to those kind of things - I tried to do something similar with the violence in this film.'
Meadows doesn't seem to be campaigning for vigilante violence and Dead Man's Shoes'retribution is finally and tragically destructive.
So will it end on a note of redemption for Richard? The viewer will want it to.
If there is a better, more gripping thriller actually made in England...or America, the Stick up Boys want to know about it. Impossible to forget.

The film won these awards -

Achievement in Production.
Best Actor. Paddy Considine.
Best British Independent Film.
Best Director. Shane Meadows.
Most Promising Newcomer. Toby Kebbell.
Best Screenplay. Paddy Considine / Shane Meadows.
Best Supporting Actor / Actress. Gary Stretch.
Best Technical Achievement. Chris Wyatt / Lucas Roche.
British Independent Film Awards

My favourite scene

A seriously sinister Paddy Considine gets the better of tough guy gang leader, Sonny. Actor Gary Stretch is equally brilliant here, playing half tough, half scared.

Number of SUBs out of 10 - 10 out of 10

If you want to find out more about us click here - https://linktr.ee/StickUpBoys or give our main account a follow @stickupboys on hive!

Thanks for reading my review, always up for comments and a chat about films and TV.