Rating of
3.5/4
The best British revenge drama
Matthew Brady - wrote on 05/28/15
Richard: [narrating] "God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that".
the story to Dead Man's Shoes is about Richard has he 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 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.
"Revenge is best served cold", that's what they say and Dead Man's Shoes is that cold dish of revenge.
Shane Meadows the director of this movie who later on did This is England. In this movie I felt that Shane Meadows was building up to this big finale of Richard's vengeance over those who messed with him. Richard feelings and emotion really sticks to the screen without him saying anything, and all that storytelling was told only by it's tone and cinematography that really set's up the cold killing that's going to happen and Shane Meadows really mixed the tone of this movie perfectly to the point where it actually came off effective. Shane Meadows is a excellent director and Dead Man's Shoes and This is England are the perfect films to show off he's skills and talent at film making. Nicely done Shane Meadows.
In my opinion Paddy Considine gave probably the best performance of 2004 and in his career. He made his character Richard a interesting and understandable anti-hero. Him going out for revenge and him slowly tasting them at getting them one at a time is simply revenge story classic right here. You see Richard a lot but he doesn't talk all that much, yeah he talked a couple of times in the movie and towards the end of the film. I always like it when a hero or anti-hero never talks in film, it gives a character a deep edge to them and making them look like a complete bad-ass, and that's why Paddy Considine gave a stunning performance because he did all that and it's him simply at his best.
The cinematography in the movie really does set the tone of the film really well has the movie has that clean open environment but it also has that revenge looking tone that really fitted the movie perfectly.
The writing was good, the acting from everyone was brilliant, the director of the movie did a awesome job directing the movie and the movie's ending which I'm not going to spoil it but let me tell you it's really sad and quite moving.
For problems with the movie I have none to be honest, but the reason why I'm not giving it the full perfect rating is that I don't it's quite on the level of 5/5 star's and yes this did happen before with one of my reviews as I brought up that it's not quite on that level on a high rating, if you understand that. But I will totally recommend seeing Dead Man's Shoes because it is the best British revenge drama that we ever got.
