Dead Man's Shoes

Title: Dead Man's Shoes
Rating: 4.5/5
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Starring: Paddy Considine, Toby Kebbell

A break from the modern horror theme I going with now, now I come with a recommendation of this film, "Dead Man's Shoes" by director and co-writer "Shane Meadows". The film was greatly directed, greatly acted (Paddy Considine who played the main role of "Richard" also co-wrote the film), and greatly written. This is the story of "Richard" whom after returning from the army sees all the atrocities done to his brother, then decides to take his brother for with him to take revenge. This appears as your casual revenge movie, but it's far from being casual and silly.
I saw "I spit on Your Grave" a while ago, another revenge film, and it was utterly stupid. "Dead Man's Shoes" is what a revenge film should be, something beyond just "revenge".

"Meadows" did a classy job with direction. He brought us a fine portrayal of the psychology of the avenger, avenged, and victimizer. No character was presented in a tacky manner, for instance the victimizers weren't presented as the all-tough group who shall annihilate any opposition, but on the contrary, normal people who after finding out that "Richard" is there for them their guilt psychology start to gradually rise, so does fear. At some points, we even sympathize for them. Not just the representation of the characters that I thoroughly enjoyed, but also the style of narration with flash backs used. Set in the present, we are carefully told the story of "Anthony" through black and white flashbacks. There wasn't any ambiguity in telling the story, yet it wasn't blatantly told. "Meadows" has an uncanny ability to change what would be a boring scene to something aesthetic. I am no British, and I have never been to the UK, but I can honestly say the film realistically depicted the setting it was filmed at. The choice of music he used was suiting, ranging from country songs that gave serenity, even though the characters weren't serene, to choral work near the end, which gave it a splendid feeling of sadness and awe, which worked brilliantly with what was going on. The narration was minimum, which lets us focus more on the feeling and what's going on with the characters, and it's helped add beauty to certain scenes, as well as tension and horror to others. Each of these aspects needs to be discussed more, but I don't want to turn this to a boring essay.

If we noticed the script and writing, we'd notice it's not the most technical and demanding piece of work ever written, but a really elegant work and also smart in dealing with the psychology of the characters. It didn't turn out idiotic like many films with "revenge" one of its main themes, but something that we feel similar to a Shakespearean tragedy. Some moments really touch us. Another good thing about the writing here is that there is no stalling or wasting time, on the contrary, it was properly done to let us convey all the films message without straying far from it. I was really close to giving the film a "perfect", but after some good consideration, I felt that there are some small things that could have been handled better, like the "pranks" or "Richard" and how they were unlikely to have been done while the others were still asleep. Regardless, the writers executed it well.

After seeing this, I will certainly check more films by "Meadows". He really is underrated, and I am sure not many here have heard of him. But this will certainly please all. This proves you don't have to have the big budget, all-star cast to make a film great. The film is well done to an extinct that it's hard to find flaws into. A really good psychological film this is, and near the ending leaves us at awe. I can easily add it to my favorite films list after seeing it.