Dead Man's Shoes (2004 film)
| Dead Man's Shoes | |
|---|---|
| File:Dead Man's Shoes DVD.jpg UK DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Shane Meadows |
| Written by | Shane Meadows Paddy Considine Paul Fraser |
| Produced by | Mark Herbert |
| Starring | Paddy Considine |
| Cinematography | Danny Cohen |
| Edited by | Celia Haining, Lucas Roche, Chris Wyatt |
| Distributed by | Optimum Releasing |
Release dates |  October 1, 2004 |
Running time | 86 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Dead Man's Shoes (2004) is a British thriller directed by Shane Meadows and written by Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine.
As with all of Meadows' work, Dead Man's Shoes is based in the Midlands, with the film being shot in Matlock, Derbyshire. The film stars Paddy Considine, who went on to win an Empire Award for his performance, and Toby Kebbell who was nominated for a Most Promising Newcomer Award. Featuring many first-time and non-professional actors, such as Kebbell, Considine's two nephews also feature. It garnered mostly positive reviews, but did not attain any sizeable commercial success.
This movie was dedicated to the memory of Paddy Considine's father.
Plot
The story revolves around the character of Richard (Paddy Considine), a Paratrooper returning to his small home town of Matlock in the Peak District. Richard has returned home to exact revenge on his mentally disabled younger brother Anthony's (Toby Kebbell) tormentors. In the opening line of the film, Richard narrates: "God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that."
Richard and Anthony camp at an abandoned farm near the town, their reminiscences of childhood interspersed with flashbacks to Anthony's ordeal at the hands of the gang youth, and Richard's subsequent revenge. This revenge starts when the gang and their leader Sonny find out about his presence. He confronts Richard in a failed attempt to intimidate him. Richard's revenge begins with the older members of the gang. While they are asleep he sneaks into their house, wearing a green boiler suit and a gas mask. He spray paints one of the two men's hair multi-coloured and paints a target on the back of the other's suit. On the same evening he enters Sonny's house and applies make up to Sonny's face.
However things soon turn nasty as Richard sneaks into a club where the gang are hiding out and playing cards and kills one of their members with an axe, using his blood to scribble the words "One Down" on the wall. The gang take their Citroën 2CV and go to the farm where Richard is staying with Anthony. Sending in Al (one of their members) to draw Richard out, Sonny prepares to shoot him with a rifle. However, he misses and kills Al. With no bullets remaining in the gun he decides to quickly retreat and return back to town.
The surviving members return to a local petrol station where Tuff runs off, scared of Richard's revenge. The other three return home, they search the house expecting Richard to be there. However while they are upstairs Richard laces their kettle with a sizable amount of drugs taken from the gang earlier in the film. The three members become too high to be aware that Richard is in the house and he kills them one by one. He shoots Sonny in the head, palm-strikes Soz at such an angle that he is killed, and finally stabs Herbie. Before killing Herbie, he reveals having already killed Tuff, producing his corpse in a suitcase, although it is not revealed how.
With one member of the original gang left - a reformed character with a wife and children - Richard abducts him and takes him to an old outbuilding. It is now revealed that Anthony died long ago, hanging himself after the gang abandoned him with a noose around his neck. The Anthony that is seen with Richard throughout the film is, in fact, a hallucination. During this confrontation, Richard confesses to his henious crimes, describing the blood on his hands, saying " Now I'm the monster...", and "You were supposed to be the monster...now I'm the fucking beast." he says that the crimes he's commited and is unsure of what else he's capable of doing, he also says that all he wants is to lie down with his brother, and demands the final gang member kill him, which he does, after Richard tells him to think of his children (implying he may kill them) and begging him to kill him. The gang member is then shown distraught, with a body to hide and his hands covered in blood. He then leaves and the camera then pans across the landscape.
Cast
- Paddy Considine as Richard
- Toby Kebbell as Anthony
- Gary Stretch as Sonny
- Emily Aston as Patti
- Neil Bell as Soz
- Jo Hartley as Jo
- Seamus O'Neil as Big Al
- Stuart Wolfenden as Herbie
- Paul Sadot as Tuff
- Paul Hurstfield as Mark
- George Newton as Gypsy John
- Craig Considine as Craig
- Matt Considine as Matt
Trivia
Paddy Considine and co-star Toby Kebbell have both played the character of Rob Gretton in other films. Considine plays the Joy Division/New Order manager in 24 Hour Party People and Kebbell plays the same character in the later of the two films, Control.
Awards and critical acclaim
- The film was placed no.180 in Empire magazine's "201 Greatest Movies Of All Time" feature in the March 2006 issue, a surprising occurrence, considering the film's relatively recent release. It placed higher than films such as The Birds and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
- Paddy Considine won "Best British Actor" at the 2005 Empire Awards, beating, amongst others, Simon Pegg for Shaun of the Dead and Daniel Craig for Layer Cake.
- Toby Kebbell was nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards.