Dead Man’s Shoes (2004) Review

When Richard returns to his bleak suburban home town in the North, he has one thing on his mind: revenge.

While he has been away in the army, his vulnerable younger brother Anthony, who has learning difficulties, has suffered at the hands of the local ‘’ard nuts’ who have amused themselves by taunting and torturing him. Richard’s mission is simply to wreak bloody retribution on them all. “God will forgive them,” he says in the opening narration. “I can’t live with that.”

What appears at first to be a simple and quintessentially British tale of vengeance on local criminals – somewhat like Get Carter – becomes so much more as writer/director Shane Meadows weaves together a brilliant film of contradictions. At times funny, at times tragic; packed full of gory brutality, yet with moments of tender emotional communication it borrows widely from other genres yet remains very much its own film.

Richard’s victims bear some resemblance to other British gangster-film ‘wide boys’ – sitting round, doing drugs, talking crap and drinking tea. What is interesting is that many of them are first-time actors and most scenes are improvised, giving them a raw, naturalistic quality. The very English landscape of green fields and derelict farms is filmed as if in an epic Western.

The desolate streets and rundown dumps that the drug-dealing villains inhabit appear like the lawless badlands from a cowboy film. The tension, violence and mysterious past of the killer are Horror/Slasher movie staples but Richard, a self-described ‘monster’, is a character full of depth, thanks largely to the brilliant acting of co-writer Paddy Considine.

His performance drives the whole piece: like Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle or Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name, he creates an anti-hero with a hidden pain in his eyes, someone we cannot help but root for – whatever horrific acts he executes.

Meadows makes sure no shot of his film is wasted or pointless and, considering his extremely low budget, creates a work of art. From the peaceful opening titles, displayed over silent images of Richard and his brother walking in the Peak District intercut with Super-8 glimpses of their happy childhood to the grainy disturbing black and white images of Anthony’s abuse, this is a film of many techniques and styles – all creating a layered tapestry that demands repeat viewing.

Carnage, comedy and character study: Dead Man’s Shoes should be seen by all who can see through the bloodshed to the heart and soul of the story.

Movie Rating:

Dead Man’s Shoes trailer