by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org
"But there is still too much violence on our nation's screens, large and small. Too many creators and purveyors of violence say there is nothing they can do about it. And there are still too many vulnerable children who are steeped in this culture of violence, becoming increasingly desensitized to it and to its consequences and, therefore, as studies show, hundreds of them more liable to commit violence themselves." President Bill Clinton
They had the White House Conference of Youth Violence yesterday, or maybe it was the Summit on School Safety, I forget. Lots of blather and well-meaning phrases thrown around by a bucketful of sanctimonious do-gooding hypocrites, stuffed to bursting with self-regard. It was all over the media, of course, plenty of pictures of the Clintons getting all misty over the thought of the threat posed to America's children by violent video games and movies. All sorts of deep-thinking, sensitive quotes like the one above. Rubbish.
Payback is not a perfect movie, but it is the perfect antidote to the current political and social climate. In a world where violent movies are reviled and blamed for the ills of our nation's youth, it's refreshing to see a movie that is unapologetic for its content, straightforward in its delivery of action and mayhem, courageous in its utter lack of regard for the effect of the culture of violence on American children. Payback is a throwback, a gritty, thoroughly amoral action movie that celebrates all that is violent and dangerous and mean-spirited. It celebrates only the manliest of virtues -- self-reliance, grit, determination, stubbornness, courage, fortitude, and sheer cussedness -- and presents the back of its hand to sensitivity, gentleness and wimpishness. It has no redeeming social value, no higher message, no spirit of goodness or decency or honor.
I loved it.
The moral tone of Payback is set in the first few minutes. The first words in the screenplay are "G-S-W. Gun Shot Wound," and there are bunches of them. We see people drinking and smoking cigarettes and eating red meat and not wearing seat belts and all the other things that real Americans used to do. (Payback does demonstrate why you should wear your seat belt, though.) Things go downhill from there, morally speaking, with murder and mayhem and torture and sudden violent death.
Payback is not a film for everybody. There will be plenty of people, I'm sure, who will bemoan the level of violence in this movie and wring their hands over the constant insensitivity and moral deafness of the characters. I have a message for these people: stay home. Or go watch Notting Hill or rent Sleepless in Seattle or watch Lifetime. Payback is a man's movie, chock-full of action and grit and double-crossing and plot twists and pain and everything that makes a movie enjoyable. It is not pretty, it is not socially redeeming, it is not politically correct, but it is a hell of a ride.
Payback is Mel Gibson's movie, and Mel makes the movie tick along like the engine in a 70's muscle car at high rev. Mel plays Porter, a professional thief trying to settle a score with his former partner, who stole Porter's fair share of a heist. Along the way, Porter runs afoul of the Chinese Mafia, two crooked cops, his wife, his girlfriend, a sadistic prostitute, and an assortment of mob bosses, all of whom stand in Porter's way... but not for long.
What makes Payback work is the innate coolness of Porter. Porter is the coolest bad guy since Samuel L. Jackson in Jackie Brown (or Pulp Fiction, take your pick), but with a more laconic, brutal attitude than Jackson's smooth jive talk. Porter is so cool that he makes Fonzie look like Bill Gates. .
Coolness is like the Supreme Court's definition of pornography: difficult to define, but we know it when we see it. Take this scene: a group of mob bosses are staking out Porter's motel room in a big, flashy car. Porter sneaks under the car, cuts the gas line, and then stands behind the car just long enough for the mob driver to see him. And then slowly, he drops his lit cigarette... which falls in a pool of gasoline... which leads back to the car... which goes kaboom! And we see Porter, through the smoke, staring at the wreckage. It's a cool moment in a cool movie, and it's absolutely silent. (Except for the kaboom.) Gibson doesn't have to say anything, not even a Schwarzeneggerian one-liner. His cool is intact.
To make things even better, Payback is a movie where uncommon coolness is a common virtue. Maria Bello is supercool as Porter's hooker girlfriend, but she's easily outstripped (chuckle) by Lucy Alexis Liu's sadomasochistic hooker-with-a heart-of-barbed-wire. The gangsters are just as cool, with William Devane, James Coburn, and Kris Kristofferson all contributing to the movie's ice-cold spirit.
The only real drawback to Payback was the two girls who sat behind me and related plot points to each other the whole way through the movie. I am pleased to say that I resisted temptation and let this antisocial behavior pass without resorting to violence or even an unkind word or two. I hope, however, that the Presidential Summit to Prevent Unnecessary Talking In Movie Theaters gets underway soon. It's time for Washington to lay off the entertainment business for awhile and take an interest in the real problems our country faces.
Grade: A-
-- Curtis D. Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org
"First, you show up. Then you see what happens."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews