This month saw the releases of A Working Man, Jason Statham’s latest since last year’s gleeful vengeance fest The Beekeeper, and The Amateur in which Rami Malek is mentored in the art of revenge via the cosmic gravity of Laurence Fishburne who recently performed the same service for Keanu Reeves in the John Wick series of films. It’s safe to say that – unlike the hundreds of henchmen deployed against Wick, the various Liam Neeson personae, or the Peloton-enhanced bodies of everyone from Kevin Costner to Bob Odenkirk – the revenge thriller is alive and thriving. Should we be concerned about a trend celebrating unsanctioned gunplay as a means to catharsis? I’m sure the other trend of theatrical releases for faith-based DTS fare will cleanse our collective souls.
But since society has shown an unending appetite for solitary vigilantes roaming unchecked, and movie history is rife with options from the numerous adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo to the creative mayhem of Park Chan-Wook, Media Magpies will direct the bloodthirst toward the five essential pictures that celebrate our most enduring primal cinematic fantasy. Don’t like our choices? Get your retribution by posting your favorites in the comments.
The Lion King – Several options for this list were chopped at the last moment for skewing “too silly,” such as Lloyd’s laxative-based scheme in Dumb and Dumber. This is a vestigial entry from that lighter draft, but this Disney sorta-MacBeth interpretation is important to include because it’s the introduction for most children to the concept of righting past wrongs with your claws out. Sure, adult Simba is protecting the kingdom from a failure of a ruler. But serving the state is not the dramatic engine that burns here, it’s the memory of mighty Mufasa’s cooling corpse that young Simba snuggled. Learning Scar was the real killer is what gives Simba the strength to finish the fight with his uncle. Plus technically it’s the hyenas that ultimately kill Scar, so Simba has the halo of blamelessness that protects all movie heroes that murder for the right reasons.
In the Bedroom – Doling out extralegal punishment isn’t just for the curiously buff loner. Before chronicling the rise and fall of Lydia TÁR, Todd Field adapted this short story about a pair of grieving parents (Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek, both deservedly nominated for Academy Awards) who seethe while their son’s killer roams free in their coastal town. By making a movie about grief first and revenge second, Field leaves room to contemplate the story in terms of the characters and their choices rather than build a scenario to justify the violence.
Manon of the Spring – In your average revenge flick, young women usually exist only to be rescued by men with a particular set of skills. There’s also a subsection of revenge films, led by the infamous I Spit On Your Grave, that put revenge in the hands of the woman for the mere price of an extreme attack on her body. But what if I told you there’s a movie where a young woman takes revenge that revolves around land and water rights malfeasance? There’s also a corpse to be avenged, and you’ll have to watch the first movie in the two-part series, Jean de Florette, for that information. Fortunately both movies are fantastic, with the treachery of Yves Montand’s César in Florette balancing out his comeuppance at the hands of Manon (Emmanuelle Béart), even if in the end you can’t help feeling some pangs of sympathy for all involved.
The Birds – The novelty of non-humans getting vengeance already makes this a stand-out example. But its greatest contribution to the genre is a tale where the revengers (every wild bird surrounding the tiny seaside community of Bodega Bay) have opaque motivations. Instead, we’re stuck in the perspective of the revengees, a bunch of rich ninnies and growling workers who get caught under the beaks of the aggrieved avians. None of them can imagine what’s upsetting the birds, who they’ve previously described as filthy and ignorant. They casually order roast chicken. They call for every living bird to be shot on sight. What could have changed to make the birds want revenge now when they’ve been nothing but background noise? It doesn’t matter anymore, all the people can do is barricade themselves against the fury.
Munich – At last, an entry with your typical gun-toting male and his well-defined abs righting a wrong committed in the first act. After terrorists kill eleven Isreali athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Avner (Eric Bana) heads an off-the-books Mossad team charged with finding and assassinating an equal number of the Palestinians involved in the slaughter. Often the hero of a revenge movie will feel the cost of the task on their soul – often conveniently after killing their target – but Avner and his team feel the weight almost immediately and it only grows heavier as they make their way down the list. With an all-time cold water bath of a final shot, Munich considers a world where revenge becomes policy.
About the writer
C. D. Ploughman
The weary Ploughman is a writer and filmmaker, focusing these days on documentary and educational projects. He obsesses over movies with his very patient wife and children.
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Department of
Conversation
What Did We Watch?
Doctor Who, “The Well” – I like this show when it’s in scary spaceship mode. This episode directly references Aliens and The Thing as well as having some Event Horizon vibes at times and I’m very much into all of that. It’s also a sequel to another episode that I only half remember because I’m a pretty casual fan of this show and also my brain is bad. Still always kinda packs a punch when the Doctor realises he’s facing a familiar evil though, especially when it’s a lesser-revisited one. But yeah, a pretty good episode.
I rewatched “Midnight” after watching this one and there’s not a lot of plot stuff you missed by not remembering it, though it is a great Tenant episode with also some The Thing vibes.
Moral of the story: Doctor Who
should keep adapting The Thing vibes/ Who Goes There
I considered revisiting it too – maybe I still will. Although there are scary spaceship / planet episodes I’m more keen to revisit if I do get nostalgic, I remember loving that Satan Pit two-parter
M*A*S*H, Season One, Episode Twenty-One, “Sticky Wicket”
This is a weak episode plotwise; Hawkeye humiliates Frank over his skills again, only for a patient to turn critical for no clear reason, causing Hawk to pull back from everyone. This reveals that Hawkeye and M*A*S*H have exactly the same major character flaw: a tendency to mope. This will become more obvious with time after a while, but it’s funny to see that already, as well as the fact that it gets around this with the constant jokes that make it feel lively (“I’m not doing anything!” / “Well you can do that anywhere, can’t ya?”). In fact, I’m deeply amused at how baked-in its quipping is as a basic building block, as well as the kind of jokes it tells.
There’s two interesting elements here. The less interesting is that this is effectively a mystery with the solution closed off from the audience, but the medicine makes that feel much less of a cheat than in your usual unsolvable mystery; whether or not the medicine is accurate (and it probably is), it feels accurate. The second is that when Hawkeye snaps out of it – having realised the solution – he almost turns into a sloppier version of Margaret, immediately berating people and pushing them around thoughtlessly.
This definitely has McLean Stevenson (whose name I’ve been misspelling) as an MVP; he performs some classic eyemask comedy (with the dumbest-looking eyemask possible) and also gets to be the one who drops homespun wisdom on Hawkeye near the end; he’s a competent doctor and insightful when he wants to be, he just hates being in authority because he wants everyone to like him. The Nietzschean concept of a place that brings out our natural good qualities vs a place that doesn’t is a fascinating one.
We’ve talked about characters targeted by the narrative, and Frank Burns must be the ultimate example; carefully calibrated to be genuinely awful, but also the narrative recognises how shitty it must be to wake up and be Frank Burns every day, and is equally understanding of the qualities that would lead to a Frank Burns being created, so the sympathy and lack thereof are both intentional and part of the appeal of the character. I wonder – I suspect this show’s talent is for intensely memorable emotional setpieces (the jokes, the sad situations) and the work is on the vivid and human characters. Just like Hawkeye, when it falters, it falters towards emotion that doesn’t go anywhere.
Kojak, “Where Do You Go When You Have No Place to Go?” – A clunky title for a clunky episode. A Mohawk steelworker goes to beg a former boss for his job back, accidentally kills the boss, and discovers the guy had a suitcase of diamonds. Unsurprisingly, any attempt to depict Mohawk culture falls flat (though at least we don’t get fake Native American mythology), and the plot is basically “Kojak knows the guy did it, and tries to guilt trip him into confessing.” And that is just boring even if the idea is not a bad one. Stephen Macht (Gabriel’s dad) plays the killer, with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. His girlfriend – played by Blair Brown – is named Stella. You cna guess what Macht does late in the episode. The best thing I can say about this is that most of it was filmed in Brooklyn, including at the Gowanus Canal, and those scenes are well composed. Plus we have a remnant of the summer of ’76 as Kojak stands near a lamppost with a flier for “protests at the Democratic Convention.”
Frasier, “A Lilith Christmas” – The Cranes decamp to Boston as Lilith has gotten a last minute meeting with the headmaster of a school both want to get Frederick into. Naturally, they manage to do everything wrong, ruining the headmaster’s day so badly he ends up letting Frederick in on the condition that he never sees Frasier and Lilith again. This is very reminiscent of the Cheers episode with John Cleese, but cross off “marriage counseling” and write in “prep school.” Meanwhile, Martin tries to play with Frederick and only learns that the kid is very much Frasier’s son and Niles’s nephew; and Niles makes the turkey and gets progressively drunker. This one works mainly for the character play, and the only really funny bits are with Niles.
NBA playoffs, GSW vs HOU – The Warriors apparently left their game in San Francisco. I don’t think I have seen as good a defense as Houston had in 30 years. And somehow it was physical without being chippy.
The Righteous Gemstones, “The Righteous Gemstones”
Arriving to the party years late on this one, despite having wanted to see it for a long time. It’s already living up to my expectations, with a banger of a pilot that quickly establishes everyone and escalates immediately: Jesse, uh, demonstrating how skillfully he can drive a car in reverse was a jaw-dropping comedic and dramatic highlight. Already incredibly funny, with fantastic timing, bite, and a willingness to have characters throw down some great gauntlets (“Not as many as you used to have. Gideon ran away”). And this also appeals to my soft gooey center, as the characters obviously have emotional connections to each other even when they’d occasionally rather not: both Kelvin having an epiphany while playing Double Dragon and Eli watching the tape of him and Aimee-Leigh really worked for me. There’s an acute awareness of all the bullshit here, but the presentation (and even satirical judgment) of it comes without contempt.
Sinners – A great time at the theater, went to an iMax showing and it used the screen wonderfully, even pulling the “slowly expand the aspect ratio at a key moment” trick which I’m a sucker for. Pretty decent crowd for a Wednesday night, Delroy Lindo absolutely killed with the audience. Maybe others too, but the volume was so loud I couldn’t always tell. Maybe a little too loud, but on the other hand the synchronized stomps felt like they were beating my heart for me, I was transported during each of the extraordinary music sequences.
Which gets me to my chief complaint – I’m not at all into vampire stuff as a rule, so take this with a grain of garlic. But everything leading up to the (advertised) shift in genre is so great – the period setting, the music, the characters – that I was actively disappointed to know this was heading for more traditional horror territory. I would have been more than satisfied with a battle against a straight-up gangster antagonist or even the Klansmen glimpses early on. But horror gets people in the seats, and if there’s a unifying element to Coogler, it’s his ability to take a proven, even hoary concept (superhero, legacy sequel boxing movie) and give you 50% more than full expectations. That’s how you rule the box office and make people happy you’re doing it. This movie gives and gives all the way up to and literally past the end.
Honestly I loved the horror stuff in part because I was so impressed by how much Coogler pulled off the tension and fear, especially the glow of the eyes and one smash cut Tristan and I both gabbed about.
I’m being kind of hard on the horror side of it, which is done fine. It’s more that I was so into everything up to that point, especially the glorious dance halls scenes which are easily going to be best-of-the-year material, that even “well done somewhat traditional horror” feels like quite a dip (and then it picks up again, may have to go see this again to dial in an opinion).
Yeah, I know someone who recommended skipping the first part of the movie and coming in later, because she felt the beginning with them setting up the juke joint dragged, and I couldn’t understand that at all. The horror worked for me, especially with the sheer near-apocalyptic grandeur of it, but there was no point of this movie where I was sitting around wondering when they were going to get to the vampire factory.
Andor
Season 2, Episode 4. “Ever Been to Ghorman?”. First time.
We skip another year. There is, I think, a delicate balance to jumping from one timeframe to another and letting character interactions and context catch up us to speed without tedious exposition, and this show has consistently been very good about that.
Andor and Bix trying to have a normal life in between their missions for the rebels is an interesting area to explore. Andor as a person has always been at his most interesting and engaging when his pushed to act on or defend his beliefs and commitment to the cause, and Bix indeed pushes him on that front on this episode. She’s having a rough time too but you can tell why they’re together on this.
Speaking of having to act on their beliefs, that montage of Mon Mothma being swatted away by her fellow senators is so well done, and just as enervating as real life politics. She’s as persuasive and righteous as she can be but she just can’t overcome the relativists and cowards she works with. Meanwhile, things inside the ISB are getting politicized too and ironically Luthen’s mole is the only one who seems to have the favor of the entire room. But of course there’s a limit to how good he can be at his job and I don’t think things will play out well for him.
I didn’t think Syril would have it in him to play the Ghormans that well, but I underestimated him. No doubt Dedra has shaped him well. And his conversation with him mother is even funnier in retrospect after we know what’s really going on.
Also, that Ghorman big shot is the German soldier the Basterds interrogate first in Inglourious Basterds. Very pointed piece of casting.
Good to have Saw Gerrera back, unless you’re Wilmon.
This isn’t the first time the ISB goes to great efforts to find Andor only to have him under their noses the whole time, or the first time that Imperial officers’ own worst enemies are inside their own house, but that stuff is always great to watch.
Also, very pointed that even the Ghorman senator can’t work out the nerve to defend the Ghorman people against the Emperor.
Season 2, Episode 5. “I Have Friends Everywhere”. First time.
Unbelievable payoff to Syril’s con work in his big scene with Dedra’s superior. What a guy.
Syril also acts the hell out of that sissy fit in his office.
Speaking of which, Saw really is a lunatic. But he seems to make it work for him. I thought he’d made up the thing about the mole but it seems like he didn’t, he’s just a creep the way he goes about it.
This was probably Luna’s single best episode so far. Love how he slips in and out of his cover, and unfortunately he’s right about the Ghorman rebels.
I’m worried for Bix, though even in her state she can still hold her own to Luthen in their conversation.
Live music — the mighty Bell Rays blew the roof off the joint, local openers the Downhauls and Muck and the Mires set the stage nicely but god damn, what a show. The band is basically “what if Aretha Franklin fronted the Stooges” and Lisa Kekaula’s vocals absolutely merit that comparison, but so does her stage presence. She gave it all and demanded we do the same because “THIS IS A ROCK SHOW!” It sure as fuck was, they are not optional if they’re in your town, perhaps more to come.
Hell yeah to all of this.
Wooooooo live music!!
Hacks, S1E3 and 4 – Commits to drama – everyone, even Marty the rich casino owner (“You did the best you could”) and his ridiculously young girlfriend, is a person, and the jokes are actually still funny. I laughed way too hard at the Weinstein rib at Ava. We also see more of Debra’s selfishness and selflessness – there’s a beat in 4 about DJ that is devastating and beautifully understated by Smart – and how her comedy is less “degrading” and more catharsis, something Ava can’t quite process (yet). Paul W. Downs was funny on Broad City as the Namaste spouting gym trainer and also funny as Ava’s long-suffering manager. (“I already have a dog and he hates me.”)
Thinking of interesting additions to this list without just going for straight-up vengeance is proving a little difficult. I do love how Pig manages to take the John Wick “someone has endangered my animal” formula and find ways to subvert the expected violence while still delivering an exquisite feeling of justice.
Oh, I’ll also throw in The Dressmaker. If Pig is a film that appears to be a straightforward revenge movie and then subverts the formula, The Dressmaker is a film that does not appear to be a revenge movie at all and gains power from revealing its true colours.
Pig is a good one, although it’s probably more of a rescue mission than a revenge one. Same with Taken if Neeson didn’t very famously inform the kidnappers over the phone that he would kill them (I often wonder if the filmmakers had any inkling when they filmed that scene that it would become the iconic monologue of the decade. Every filmmaker probably thinks that every film.)
Pig was great; I would still love to see Nic Cage making a John Wick movie about a chef who lost his truffle pig.
Kill Bill. Straightforward and also a little messed with without falling into a straight-up subversion of the genre – it simultaneously convinces me that Bill’s a bad guy a needs to die at the Bride’s hand and also makes me immensely sad that he needs to die. And one of the most meaningful scenes in the film is when the Bride tells the daughter of her first (cinematically) victim that, if she grows up still feeling raw, she’ll be waiting. The cycle of violence continues.
Maybe not surprising given his tastes, nearly the whole Tarantino filmography could be included. I considered Death Proof because 1) I love the final “You wanna go get him?” sequence and 2) the movie feels structures like a revenge pic on behalf of all the women unceremoniously murdered in grindhouse films. But in addition to the more straightforward Kill Bill, he’s done that larger-picture revenge his last three movies, so it felt weird to include DP and not the more obvious choices.
You referring to the article that kicks off with The Lion King?
Heh. “It would be weird to pick just one Tarantino, so let’s make room for the Lion King” does describe the ethos behind the All-Time Top Five pretty well.
“Kirk, old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb, ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’?”
The original title of Wrath of Khan was “Vengeance of Khan,” and while I would not say it’s strictly a revenge movie since the good guy is the subject of the vengeance, it’s the driving force of the action. And it’s a very Trek approach in that Khan seeking revenge is Not a Good Thing. Which sort of makes Picard chasing revenge on the Borg in Frist Contact all the more interesting since he’s the good guy but as lost in his hate as Khan. (The writers of WoK were angry that First Contact was also referencing Moby-Dick, but this does many for a good conversation within the franchise.)
PS: No, I don’t know why Khan knows what a Klingon is, let alone about Klingon proverbs. I guess the reading material he perused in Space Seed included The Klingon Dictionary.
It makes as much sense as a Klingon proverb being in The Godfather.
My all-time favorite revenge story, if not movie, is Sweeney Todd. “To seek revenge may lead to hell/but everyone does it and seldom as well, as Sweeney…”
Year of the Month update!
May’s year will be 1962, so you can write about any of these movies, albums, books, et al!
May 2nd: Gillian Rose Nelson: Moon Pilot
May 9th: Gillian Rose Nelson: Bon Voyage!
May 15th: John Bruni: L’Eclisse/Il Sorpasso
May 16th: Gillian Rose Nelson: Big Red
May 23rd: Gillian Rose Nelson: Almost Angels
May 30th: Gillian Rose Nelson: In Search of the Castaways
And coming in June, we’ll be moving on to 1983, including all these movies, albums, books, et al!
Jun. 9th: Sam Scott: El Sur
Jun. 23rd: Sam Scott: Codex Seraphianus
I’ll take Legendary Hearts for June 24th.
Virgin Spring (aka The Last House On The Left) – Is it the first rape-revenge fantasy? It’s ninety-minutes are pretty harrowing. It’s both artistically beautiful and horrific. Bergman has a bleak and pessimistic view of humanity.
Bleak movie. I can’t think of an earlier example, but there may be some buried in subtext during/before the Hays Code.
Fantastic list, perfect Top Five work (although no Rocky VII?). Lions and birds have me wondering if an all-animal version is possible, does Phase IV count?
And those French flicks look very good, they seem like a vengeance-conscious people. Coup de Torchon might fit and in a really grim way, what about The Vanishing? Vengeance would probably be healthier than the route that takes. But for straight vengeance I will throw out my beloved Avengement, the real deal action-wise and theme-wise when it comes to that glut of jacked guys justifying their carnage.
Jean de Flourette / Manon of the Spring are great! The first is probably the best because it has Gerard Depardieu as an optimistic hunchback doofus. No, wait, the second is the best because it trades Depardieu for Emmanuelle Beart.
“Gerard Depardieu as an optimistic hunchback doofus” is possibly the most “ahhhhhhhhh, the French” phrase imaginable.
This is the movie an American who always wondered “what’s the deal with Depardieu?” could watch and understand.
Rocky VII? You mean Creed?
Important context!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QEGwKTQrqmQ
Since it’s Star Wars week here, I’ll add A New Hope to this list. Luke wants revenge on the Empire for killing his aunt and uncle. In the end he murders thousands of people on the Death Star.
And yet people say Rian Johnson’s take on Luke was too far.