Review #783: 'Dead Man's Shoes' (2004)

The revenge thriller is a rather tired old goat. Man is wronged, man changes, man gets revenge. That's how it usually plays out. But every now and then a film will come out of the blue, subverting or at least twisting our premature expectations, while still delivering the same thrills we know from the very best of the genre. Positioned somewhere between revenge horror and kitchen-sink drama, Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes is a dark, violent, yet often very funny story of an ex-soldier out to get the group of low-lives who bullied his mentally retarded brother, anchored by two outstanding performances from Paddy Considine and Toby Kebbell.

Richard (Considine) is not a traditional hero. His intentions aren't to use stealth and mystery to confuse and take down his targets; the gang, headed by drug-dealer Sonny (Gary Stretch), figure out who he is straight away, and don't take long to cross his path. Richard tells them to watch out and that he's coming for them, and tells them where to find him. His aggression, combined with Considine's imposing performance, makes for a terrifying character. Richard has shacked up in a nearby farm with his brother Anthony (Kebbell), the victim of Sonny and the gang's cruel sadism. Most of the action stays away from Richard, and we spend most of the time with Herbie (Stuart Wolfenden), Soz (Neil Bell) and Tuff (Paul Sadot), Sonny's low-level drug dealers.

It's in these scenes where Meadows' skill for dialogue and working realism into his actors performances really shines. The gang, with the exception of Sonny, become rather likeable, their idiocy and incompetence making for several laugh-out-loud moments, causing Richard's evolution into the beast of the story more convincing and effective. The rural town in the Peak District in which the film is set plays like a character in itself. At first glance it's an idyllic retreat, a perfect setting for a show like Midsomer Murders, but the film opens it up and reveals it's underlying ugliness, much like the monster surfacing from it's protagonist. It has it's flaws - often the film's budgetary constraints lead to unconvincing moments - but Dead Man's Shoes is raw, unflinching. sad, and, in the end, shocking.


Directed by: Shane Meadows
Starring: Paddy Considine , Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell, Stuart Wolfenden, Neil Bell, Paul Sadot
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #761: 'This Is England' (2006)

Shane Meadows' This is England, like the title suggests, is a bare-knuckled, fearlessly honest depiction of England. This isn't any old England, but Thatcher's angry, graffiti-ridden, skinheaded England, a time of needless war, poverty, and, key to the film, racial intolerance. Meadows' loosely autobiographical film lays it's anger out for all to see from the off, as the camera lingers on a council-estate wall scrawled with 'Maggie is a twat'. But there's humour here also, and heart.

We witness the majority of the film through the eyes of Shaun Fields (Thomas Turgoose - his character's name a thinly-disguised spin on that of the director's), a ragged, bullied loner, who lives alone with his mother after his father is killed in the Falklands. Walking home one evening from school, he is pitied by Woody (Joseph Gilgun), a Dr. Martens-wearing skinhead who, along with his friends, enjoys some harmless vandalism taken out on derelict properties. Woody takes him under his wing, even buying him a Ben Sherman and braces, and shaving his head. His mum doesn't approve, but at least he's being looked after. All is rosy until Woody's old friend Combo (Stephen Graham) is released from prison.

His time in prison taught Combo that England is no longer what it once was, and is now overrun by immigrants taking away jobs from honest folk like himself and his bare-chested, meat-head friend Banjo (George Newton). He draws a line for Woody's gang - those who want to join him on his crusade to help restore England to it's glory days, and those who don't. Woody quickly points out that Combo is out of line, especially in the presence of his Jamaican friend Milky (Andrew Shim). But when Woody leaves, Shaun stays, and is sucked in by Combo's charisma, attending right-wing rallies in countryside pubs and smashing up the local shop owned by a Pakistani man.

Like Elem Klimov's Come and See (1985), the child protagonist does the remarkable thing of ageing throughout. Not a physical transformation like Florya, but in presence. He evolves effortlessly from a boy whining at his mum in a shoe shop for not buying him a pair of Dr. Martens, to a foul-mouthed, brainless thug gobbling up everything that is fed to him by those around him. Meadows makes it clear that there are two types of skin-heads - those who embrace the style and image influenced by black music such as ska, and those bigoted, entitled types, channelling anger simply because it's there. Combo is obviously the second kind, but he has own dimensions too.

Stephen Graham's performance is spectacular and genuinely terrifying. Anyone who has grown up in England will know the type; the type thankfully I've only ever come across when they get on a train and quickly draw attention to themselves. His words fly like scouse venom, his every line punctured by a swear word. But his protection of Shaun and his occasional child-like vulnerability means that there's sympathy to be given somewhere. Like all great child performances, Turgoose remains a child throughout, avoiding precociousness even in his most emotional scenes. And it's 12 year-old Shaun that remains the film's anchor, our wide-eyed window into innocence manipulated.


Directed by: Shane Meadows
Starring: Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim, Joseph Gilgun, Vicky McClure
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie