The Best Films of the Zeroes: 17

DEAD MAN’S SHOES. (2004)
Directed by Shane Meadows

The best British film of the decade, DEAD MAN’S SHOES also has the best performance from our best actor of the zeroes, Paddy Considine, against some fairly stiff competition. Considine plays Richard, a man who returns to the town in which he grew up to take revenge against those who have bullied his brother (a stunning performance from Toby Kebbell).

Meadows’ fourth film was a tricky proposition. After two critically acclaimed movies (TWENTYFOURSEVEN and A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS), his third (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE MIDLANDS) had been less well-received. DEAD MAN’S SHOES, though, found the filmmaker back on tip-top form. Taking inspiration from a number of genres, though a thriller in its purest sense, through and through, this is a bravura piece of filmmaking from arguably our most accomplished young filmmaker (an argument re-enforced by his subsequent films THIS IS ENGLAND and SOMERS TOWN).

At its centre is the astonishing turn from Considine, playing a character with echoes of his small-town bully from A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS. It’s a simply incredible performance, one bristling with barely contained menace, and bubbling rage. His Richard is, in equal measures, hero and anti-hero, and a lesser actor couldn’t manage to elicit our sympathy while on a murderous spree. This is a million miles more sophisticated than the revenge wank-fests that Michael Winner was responsible for in the 1980s.

As a man brought up in the East Midlands, I feel an affinity for Meadows’ films. They’re set in believable towns, with characters that aren’t a million miles away from people I’ve known. There’s a degree of authenticity to Meadows’ work that other filmmakers spend a lifetime trying to achieve. His knowledge of the background that he shares with most of his characters is palpable throughout each of his films, he doesn’t want to move, or make films about lives he doesn’t understand. DEAD MAN’S SHOES is a shining example of this, the bullies are fleshed out more than you might expect, they have the personas of real people, and you can easily imagine the incidents that Richard is trying to avenge.

Meadows’ brand of realism could see him compared to Ken Loach or Mike Leigh, but he’s not as political as the former, and far more astute than the latter. The real influences on Meadows appear to have come from a variety of different sources. He obviously admires the kitchen sink dramas of the 1960s – The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is an influence on TWENTYFOURSEVEN, for example, while here, he shows his appreciation for some of Hollywood’s best horror movies, and a Leone western.

One further note in the film’s credit is the outstanding soundtrack, particularly the use of (smog) over the opening. With a devastating ending, this is genre filmmaking at its very best, and a shot in the eye of anyone who doubts the potential within the British film industry.