100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 73: Dead Man's Shoes

Director: Shane Meadows

Genre: Thriller/ Drama/ Crime

Runtime: 90 minutes

Year: 2004

Starring: Paddy Considine, Toby Kebbell, Gary Stretch, Jo Hartley, Seamus O’Neill, Stuart Wolfenden, Paul Sadot, Paul Hurtsfield, Emily Aston, George Newton, Neil Bell, Craig Considine, Matt Considine, Andrew Shim, Arthur Meadows

Description: Disaffected soldier Richard (Paddy Considine) returns to his hometown to get even with the thugs who brutalized his mentally-challenged brother Anthony (Toby Kebbell) years ago.

Review: “Dead Man’s Shoes” is a collaboration between director Shane Meadows and leading actor and co-screenwriter Paddy Considine. Considine plays Richard, a soldier who visits his hometown. He is on a mission: take down the people who terrorized his mentally challenged brother Anthony. His retaliation is brutal. Cold as Lee Marvin in “Point Blank” and psychotic as Robert De Niro in “Taxi Driver”.

But “Dead Man’s Shoes” is not just a revenge movie. It’s a lively and authentic portret od the daily life in the English province. The characters, the realistic dialogue, every day locations, it’s social realism at its best. This is how director Meadows states it himself: ‘It’s part kitchen-sink drama, part Terminator’.

“Dead Man’s Shoes” is a raw British movie, that we don’t get enough of lately. I think it has a specific audience, because it’s an overlooked movie. If it got more attention when it came out, more people would know about it. And love it.

Rating: 4,5/ 5