From Deseret News archives:

Society's fears fuel return of revenge movies

Genre had its last heyday in the 1970s and '80s

Published: Friday, Aug. 31, 2007 12:31 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
LOS ANGELES — "Everybody thinks they're right in a war," Aisha Tyler's police detective warns Kevin Bacon's insurance man turned vigilante in "Death Sentence," a blood-spattering, stylized new revenge thriller from 20th Century Fox. "But everybody dies in the end."

It's a line full of meaning for Bacon's character, who witnessed his son's brutal murder and now is intent on wiping out the urban gang that did it.

But its allusion to warfare may also be a clue — subtle as a shotgun blast to the face — as to why revenge movies are making a comeback this season, as politics bleeds over into another film genre.

On Aug. 10, City Lights Pictures, a microdistributor in Manhattan, released the indie feature "Descent," in which Rosario Dawson plays a date-rape victim who exacts her own harrowing retribution. That film opened only on two screens, in New York and Los Angeles. But Fox takes the theme to cineplexes nationwide today, with "Death Sentence," directed by James Wan, who created the "Saw" franchise and now brings his trademark gruesomeness to a different genre.

And on Sept. 14, Warner Brothers follows with a slick New York vigilante thriller, "The Brave One," directed by Neil Jordan, in which Jodie Foster stars as a Central Park Jogger-like victim who is radicalized into a latter-day Bernhard H. Goetz.

Story continues below
The new movies signal a resurgence of interest in a genre that had its last heyday in the 1970s and '80s. The same production company that made "Death Sentence," for example, is also developing a remake for Fox of "The Star Chamber," the 1983 film in which Michael Douglas played a judge, frustrated by criminals' being let go because of legal loopholes, who joins a shadowy group offering a faster form of justice.

And a tangled web of copyright holders appears to be the only obstacle to a remake of "Death Wish," the 1974 Charles Bronson hit that spawned four sequels, according to Brian Garfield, who wrote the book on which the original was based.

The genre is also finding new audiences overseas. One of the most successful, and controversial, British films of the year so far was "Outlaw," which critics likened to both "Death Wish" and "Falling Down." It stars Sean Bean as a returning Iraq veteran who forms a gang that metes out deadly justice in a country plagued by violence and crippling political correctness. "Where we are in London I think is where New York was in the late '80s," said the film's director, Nick Love, by phone from a boat off Sardinia. "There's lots of gangs and shootings. It didn't use to happen in England. People are feeling impotent. There is a feeling of like, 'Someone, do something about this."'

Recent comments

Face it, they're making these movies for two reasons. To make money,...

Same Old Stuff | Sept. 2, 2007 at 9:05 p.m.

Image
Abbot Genser, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Jodie Foster stars as a victim who turns vigilante in 'The Brave One,' which will be released Sept. 14.

previousnext

Latest comments

TCU creams U.

BYU is undefeated on the road this season, including a win at Oklahoma, which...

"Scoreless but entertaining"? You've got to know a lot more about the game...

Elk Ridge trims health benefits

Something to ponder while in church today for the Elk Ridge Boys: "Do not...

Off we go to Seattle next week to support RSL!

I know the guys who did this, and they're very intent on welcoming all clubs...

BYU rushing did much better than the Utes top rusher....... Hum? Maybe...

Like we care what you think. TCU, BYU and Utah continue to be great programs....

Good grief Tom! What are you doing reading the Deseret Morning News? The...

Then why do you even read the articles? You must be pretty stupid to spend...

RSL heads to MLS title game

WHAT A AWESOME GAME!

Advertisements
Advertisement