Dead Man's Shoes

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Dead Man's Shoes

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Dead Man's Shoes

Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell, Stuart Wolfenden, Neil Bell

Richard has always protected his simple-minded little brother Anthony. When Richard leaves the rural village where they have grown up to join the army, Anthony is taken in by Sonny, a controlling and ...( read more  read more... )vicious local drug dealer and his gang of lads. Anthony becomes the gang's pet and plaything. Seven years later, Richard returns to settle the score. One by one, he hunts down each member of the gang and executes them in increasingly elaborate ways as flashbacks reveal the extent to which his brother suffered at their hands. "Dead Man's Shoes" is a genre-defying film blending horror, supernatural elements, comedy, and social realism. Set in a Midlands village, it explores the underbelly of contemporary rural Britain in communities where crime is unchecked and drugs, intimidation, and power games are blandly accepted as the fabric of daily life.

Id: 3533591

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Dead Man's Shoes Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 24, 2009
    SirPant
    The best British film in years and probably in my top 20 favourite of all time! "What you looking at"......."You ya CUNT"!
  • PvtCaboose91
    September 12, 2008
    PvtCaboose91
    "God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that."


    English filmmaker Shane Meadows shrugs off the cynical, bittersweet working class standpoint evident in his preceding films, such as Once Upon a Time in the Midlands

    ...( read more)>, and interchanges it with a savage, gripping, genre-defying, sinister contemporary tale of violence and retribution: an austere examination of small-town revenge.
    Very rarely do modern filmmakers challenge a mainstream genre. In this day and age, we feel as if we've seen it all. Director Shane Meadows develops adequate courage to craft a crime/thriller/horror/slasher flick as a social commentary. Dead Man's Shoes blends riveting horror, supernatural elements, dark comedy and social realism in relation to modern-day England. Rarely has director Meadow displayed a darker side in his filmmaking. Here he gives full vent to the potentially violent compulsions that lurk within all of us. Dead Man's Shoes is a superlatively efficient, brutal, hard-hitting, stripped-down creation of vigilante cinema.

    The story is extraordinarily straightforward, yet this simple plot is conveyed in a gut-wrenchingly effective manner. Richard (Considine) has spent much of his life looking after his mentally-challenged brother Anthony (Kebbell) in the Midlands in England. Richard then joins the army and is shipped away for several years of service. Years later, Richard is a disaffected soldier who returns to his homeland. Revenge is the sole thought on his mind. He wants to dish out vengeance to a local group of druggies who abused his brother. At first Richard wishes to scare the miscreants by stealing their possessions and utilising paint for a laugh. Following these harmless warnings, Richard starts to get serious. He begins to elaborately and gruesomely execute these local tough guys as flashbacks reveal the full extent of his Anthony's mistreatment.

    Dead Man's Shoes contains little in the way of director Meadows' trademark provincial humour; nevertheless the film embraces his distinctive signature. This isn't an Americanised version of Britain, occupied with hard-nut gangsters pretending to be Goodfellas. Instead the hustlers presents are benefit-scammers and dole moles that live in semi-detached houses, flick through grotty magazines, dress improperly and flog poor quality gear.
    The depiction of contemporary England pulls no punches. It's a grotty, uncompromising picture with a depressing atmosphere. This raw revenge flick is essentially a slasher that revolutionises the genre. No longer do we have brainless Friday the 13th-style deaths with impeccable timing and helpless victims...we see the film prominently from the killer's perspective. Meadows humanises the victims and the killer who's pursuing them: there are palpable motives and realistic character depictions.

    Meadows aimed to convey a point regarding revenge and the futility of counter-violence. Giving the killer a deep persona helps personify this message. As Richard implements his bloody revenge, he's shown searching for reason and resolution in an endeavour to obtain a spiritual counter-weight. Actor Considine, who also co-wrote the script with Meadows, manages to express this maelstrom of internal conflict with a razor-raw edge; his agitation rankles like a wound that won't close.
    Furthermore, the killings are done extremely effectively. Instead of dwelling on the gore, ala Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, the gore is used sparingly. Meadows relies on suspense and realistic acting instead of gory deaths that look stupid but reward the gore-hounds. If you're searching for a gory flick, look elsewhere. This is an innovative slasher that disregards the clichés and creates a provocative social commentary. The result is a thoughtful, possibly controversial horror film unlike anything preceding it.

    Dead Man's Shoes is a naturalistic horror/thriller with much of Meadows' customary techniques in evidence. At times there is improvised dialogue to further solidify the film's realism. It almost feels like documentary footage as it oozes haunting pragmatism in the compelling images. It's a low-budget feature and by golly it does feel like it at times. The audio mix in particular sounds so naturalistic that it sometimes never feels like an official movie. Meadows' approach, which was to make the film outside a studio system, allows him freedom to do what he wants. He doesn't have studio heads hovering around him, paranoid about a scene and begging him to remove it. On top of this, the confronting flick is blessed with a melancholy and atmospheric score. It's overbearing at times, but this increases the film's emotive qualities. Throughout the entire film, the music sets the tone. The music is particularly moving and effective during the flashbacks or at the mere mention of Anthony's name.
    It's truly a knockout movie that will stun you with its unfathomable power.

    Perhaps Meadows' sole mistake was that the improvised dialogue occasionally felt quite awkward and unbelievable. However, whenever Considine appears he forms a magnetic centre around which the others can happily orbit. The acting skills exhibited by Considine are amazing. He made his searing film debut in the 1999 Shane Meadows film A Room for Romeo Brass. Since then, he's reached the status of one of England's best actors. His performance here is just amazing. Never does he tread a wrong foot or strike a false note. In a sense, his character is England's answer to De Niro in Taxi Driver.
    Toby Kebbell's character is subject to some confusion. Many features relating to Kebbell as the mentally-challenged brother are open for interpretation. Perhaps in a slasher this is slightly out of place. Still, Kebbell's performance is impeccable.
    The rest of the supporting cast carry out their duties. While being stalked by Considine's Richard, their fear is palpable. They are realistic characters that are played extraordinarily well by a capable cast of relative unknowns.

    Overall, Dead Man's Shoes is proof that the British film industry is still alive and thriving. The film was literally made on a zero-dollar budget. With talent like this behind the camera making films on a budget like this, there's a bright future for both contemporary cinema and British filmmaking. The film may occasionally seem generic and predictable; nevertheless the film cleverly transcends its genre and it emerges as one of 2004's best movies. It's powerful, intense, thrilling and unbelievably riveting.
  • garyX
    August 20, 2008
    garyX
    This bleak tale of revenge set in a small English town sees Paddy Considine leaving the army and returning home to extract brutal revenge on a group of small time drug dealers who abused his retarded younger brother while he was away. This is an unusual revenge thriller as it oft...( read more)en looks more like a slasher flick; Considine is obviously an unstable murderer who has been trained to kill and he systematically executes each of his victims in a very horror film style way. Except in this case his victims are a bunch of unsympathetic scum bags who you can't help feeling probably deserve their fate. In this way the film throws up many mixed emotions as you're never quite sure who you are supposed to be rooting for! But the real kick in the gut is provided by Shane Meadows; he directs very much like a documentary photographer cataloging the grim reality of working class small town life. The actors involved are ugly. They have bad hair and cheap clothes. In other words they look like REAL people, not Hollywood's glamorized, sanitized version of them. As such you feel you are right there in the thick of it, actually witnessing these gruesome events rather than just watching a piece of entertainment. It won't be to everyone's tastes as it's quite a tough movie to sit through because of its extremely grim subject matter, but ultimately it's a very powerful piece of work.
  • EarthlyAlien
    March 9, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    Sonny: "You're making me very nervous, Richard.
    Richard: Well you should be. If I were you, I'd get in that fuckin' car and I'd get out of here man. I'd gather them goonies and get whatever you've got comin' mate... 'cause I'm gonna fucking hit you all.
    Sonny: I ...( read more)don't like being threatened, Rich'.
    Richard: I'm not threatening you mate. It's beyond fucking words. I watched over you when you were asleep and I looked at your fucking neck and I was that far away from slicing it.
    [opens up his right hand and points towards his palm] You're fucking there mate!
    [clenches his hand]
    So get in that car... and FUCK OFF!    "

    Photobucket

    Mike Hodges' Get Carter set the bar 37 years ago as the ultimate in brother revenge sagas, where honourable intentions are carried out with extreme measures of violence. Shane Meadows has, with his fourth film Dead Man's Shoe, muscled into the heavyweight division of that sub-sub-genre with a highly unnerving and unsettling tale of justice and revenge.

    In a story that is simple but told in a gut-wrenchingly effective way, Paddy Considine (a personal, old friend of Meadows' who shares the screenplay credit) stars as Richard, a disaffected soldier who returns to his Midlands hometown of Derbyshire intent on avenging a terrible deed committed upon his mentally-challenged brother Anthony (an excellent Toby Kebbell). Those responsible for the crime are a bunch of petty drug dealers, grown men who have never left town and are big fish in a small pond. Starting off quietly, Richard taunts, stares and occasionally explodes in short verbal assaults. He haunts them, appearing in their houses with uncanny ease, and gradually gets his retribution in several shocking ways.

    There is a creepy, but oh-so-cool hint of Michael Myers about Richard in his suit. Not only frightening to look at, his eyes genuinely scare the shit out of you. With all the skill and calculation of a chess grand master, he orchestrates every move before eliminating obstacles in his way. To say too much would be to spoil the occasion, but there are twists, turns and horrific bloody scenes of carnage. Told through a series of flashbacks, Anthony's ordeal is eventually made clear and the motivations for Richard's spiteful acts of revenge become more understandable. This is the film's strength, the slow unravelling of past events crossing the path of the present.

    Much of Meadows' trademark style is in evidence, notably the almost-improvised dialogue that peppers his script. It's an excellent cast, made up largely of local actors, but it's Considine who shines and makes the film. One of - if not - the most talented young actor in British film today, the fact that, in other roles, he so often conjures up empathetic, humorous (24 Hour Party People) and even endearing (In America) characters works all the better here, once the viewer's got used to the bleakness. His Richard is devastatingly menacing and utterly insane, but entirely credible, sudden acts of pitiless violence and all. When Meadows refers to Considine as the Robert DeNiro to his Scorsese, he's only half-joking. They're most definitely a partnership to watch.

    What makes this so special are the elements you're not expecting at all, being a violent revenge flick: the nimble switching from terror to laughter; the deeply surreal flourishes; and the quite spectacular cinematography. Meadows has a knack for making his comedic moments blacker than black and revels in life's little absurdities, such as the sight of the hard men of town travelling around in a battered Citroën 2CV. There are several jarring visuals, notably the sight of Considine in a gas mask and, while the film does have its edgy moments of blood and guts, the skill is in the way it is portrayed, where anticipation builds up the tension several levels. The use of a hand-picked melancholic and atmospheric soundtrack and 'period' flashback footage is immensely effective, and the emotional after-effects on the viewer of the whole film are uncommonly powerful.

    It's a film that stays with you. Meadows is slowly becoming an expert at taking well-worn film scenarios, eradicating them from Hollywood, and transposing them into his own backyard. In many ways, his debut TwentyFourSeven was a distant cousin of Rocky or The Karate Kid, whereas Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, as the title suggests, played out classic Western situations in modern day Britain. Dead Man's Shoes obviously has one eye on bygone revenge films of the likes of the mentioned Get Carter and Straw Dogs, but again, goes about it in the uniquely Shane Meadows setting. If one day I had the opportunity to talk to Meadows I would immediately ask when is he planning on making a film about hooliganism. I always had the feeling that he would do wonders with it. I'm sure the thought has crossed his mind.

    Perhaps in some ways, despite all this, it remains a low-fi assemblage of terrific elements rather than an entirely satisfying, original whole, but that's almost shallow nip-picking, which isn't something I do. It's a fascinating work by a potentially tremendous filmmaker. Meadows' best, it seems certain, is still yet to come. For now, Dead Man's Shoes remains a must-watch for anyone who wishes - and I strongly encourage you - to discover this new exciting and endlessly talented British filmmaker. Terrific stuff.
  • rubystevens
    November 30, 2007
    rubystevens
    one helluva revenge flick. paddy considine gives a career making performance
  • StewartMc
    December 10, 2009
    StewartMc
    Rather dark revenge tale, anchored by a knockout performance from Paddy Considine. Hard to watch at times.
  • Pritdbat
    December 9, 2009
    Pritdbat
    I'd heard great words about works of shane Meadows & Paddy Considine from a friend,who's a big fan of both & WHAT A FILM IT WAS!

    Initially I thought it to be a slasher film or more of a revenge film.But it was really a powerful film that left me without words as the movie en...( read more)ded.

    Paddy Considine delievers a performance which seemed scarily realistic & during the flashbacks the abusive members torturing Tony was really disturbing.

    Really a good film to watch with superb performances & excellent direction.....kudos to Shane Meadows.Now I'm eager to see This is England!

    & just forgot to mention how good the background score was...great soundtrack!
  • Lilbrowncat
    November 5, 2009
    Lilbrowncat
    Shattering revenge flick makes all the right moves and presses all the right buttons. Great twist at the end....The jerk who made "Hannibal Rising" should have watched this before he sat in the director's chair. This is how you do a revenge film!!
  • clynch
    October 27, 2009
    clynch
    Gritty Britty, real feckin hardman
  • michaeljones
    September 11, 2009
    michaeljones
    One of the best films I've ever seen
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