ANY SUGGESTIONS OF FILMS WITH THEMES OF REVENGE?
Revanche (I know, that’s way too obvious)
And for some reason, Charley Varrick popped into my head, even though it’s not necessarily revenge.
Heat is a good one. Also, Michael Madsen’s character in the remake of The Getaway.
Revanche
HA! Great minds think alike, Fredo :o)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is my favorite revenge flick.
And oh, I have forgotten Youth of the Beast, even though it is misogynistic, hence, not in my favorites :P.
The revenge plot can generally be found in many Japanese films which has various traditional and cultural reasons, a lot of samurai and yakuza films as well as the whole Japanese horror genre are basically about vengeance, though directors like Kurosawa were also heavily influenced by Shakespeare´s revenge dramas. Some fine examples would be:
Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi) – a father takes revenge for the forced suicide of his son due to the samurai honor codex
The Bad Sleep Well (Akira Kurosawa) – a son takes revenge for the murder of his father in a Hamlet-like depiction of the business life
Vengeance is Mine (Shohei Imamura) – a serial killer sets out in order to take his revenge on society
Kuroneko (Kaneto Shindo) – the spirits of two women take revenge for having been raped and murdered
Audition (Takashi Miike) – a woman who takes revenge for having been raped as a young girl
Irreversible
@Fredo
Revenge was hardly the theme or the point of Irreversible
Woman got raped and the boyfriend kills the dude who did it. How is that not revenge? Am I missing something?
In Heat, Waynegrow screws up the job in the beginning and by the end Neil kills him in the hotel. Seems pretty straightforward to me.
Try the westerns made by Anthony Mann with James Stewart in the lead – the best is probably The Man from Laramie. All of the six films have plots that involve revenge.
I don’t agree with you on that one, Michel. He was so hell bent on revenge that logic didn’t have time to enter his mind, leading to him killing the wrong man. It’s not the main theme, but it’s a theme of the film nonetheless.
Fredo , do you remember the movie? the guy who did it did not die and the boyfriend did not do the killing. Revenge was indeed present in the movie but that was hardly the theme.
well i guess you are right Glemaud. But watching the film it felt like revenge was the last thing Noe was concerned about. I know it’s in the movie but it felt very minimal
Ugh, back to semantics.
I’m mentioning movies that have revenge in them and I apologize if that intention isnt’t abundantly clear. If you want to nitpick and argue over main themes, go for it.
Here’s a couple other films dealing with revenge – Unforgiven and Gran Torino. It’s definitely a topic Eastwood is interested in.
Fredo,No need to get snippy. it felt like the op was asking for revenge has the central theme. All the aformentioned movies certainly do
The fact that is started with revenge is probably what made you put in the back of your mind for the latter part of the film. Really once “the scene” happens, all that happened before is really in vain, because that’s what will stick with you for the rest of the film.
Now, I’d hate for this topic to turn into another Irreversible discusso, so let us change the topic.
Did anyone mention The Virgin Spring?
The Lion King
Cutter’s Way
Point Blank
The Searchers
Mad Max
The Bride Wore Black
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
The Hit
A Better Tomorrow
A Better Tomorrow 2
Zatoichi
Man on Fire
Cape Fear
Basket Case
Changing Lanes
Seven Men from Now
The Crossing Guard
Johnny Handsome
The Devil-Doll
The tip of the iceberg.
Thanks for the suggestions. Now I am more eager to watch those westerns starring James Stewart and BASKET CASE :D. And Kuroneko seems intriguing.
And I forgot that The Devil-Doll has that guy who crossdressed having revenge on his co-workers. Nice choice.
@ Michel: (about your comment in Irreversible although I haven’t watched it yet because I am sure I’ll just be disappointed) In Ms. 45, the heroine didn’t get to kill the man who raped her but she does get to kill both innocent men and plain assholes for what has been done to her so does that mean that this film does not have themes of revenge? Of course it still does. But I do hate it when they don’t get to have sweet revenge because they do deserve to have it. Whether they do have the revenge on the person or people who deserve it or not is not important.
Irréversible is not about revenge. When you see the film the first time you have no context for Marcus’ actions. It’s only when you see the rest of the film that you realize the reasons Marcus is acting so animalistic. Contextualizing events into a forward narrative after you see them doesn’t make the film about revenge.
Harakiri is the best film I’ve ever seen about revenge.
Vengeance is Mine is a close second.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned “Memento.”
“Revenge is best served after being fermented in an earthenware pot for 15 years.”
— Park Chan-wook
Point Blank (1967) and the Mel Gibson remake Payback (1998) make good bookends around the theme of revenge. Point Blank was years ahead of its time, one of Lee Marvin’s best films, and heralded director John Boorman as a cool cat to watch. It was also the first film to be shot on location at Alcatraz, about 4 years after that notorious island prison was shut down.
I mention Payback mainly in the interest of completeness.
Cheers,
Steve
CinemaUprising.Blogspot.com
25 posts and no love for Once Upon a Time in the West?
I second Neil on The Devil Doll
One thing I’ve learned from reading this thread is that the Japanese own this theme like no one else’s business. Did I miss it, or has no one mentioned The Searchers yet? It’s a complex movie, but revenge is one of a number of things that the film explores. Remember John Wayne shooting out the eyes of a dead Indian? That’s some cold revenge.
I second Cutter’s Way and Point Blank
I’ll second AN ACTOR’S REVENGE.
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.
scorpiorising
I think I have a bizaare fascination with films that have themes of revenge.
Great films that come to mind are Insiang, An Actor’s Revenge, Ms. 45 (although I do think that she should have gotten away with it all), Kind Hearts and Coronets, and Lady Snowblood. Any other great suggestions?
They don’t have to be action/thriller/horror flicks. They can even be westerns, drama, comedy, exploitation flicks, etc. if there are any. And hopefully, you can suggest films in which the heroes/heroines get away with their plots of revenge.
Obvious films don’t need to be repeated all over and over again: Kill Bill, The Bride Wore Black, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, I Spit on Your Grave, etc.