Savage

Eagle Entertainment

R4 DVD

When you talk of revenge films, Charles Bronson’s classic Death Wish seems to be the one to come to mind. His character was a little two-dimensional, so the recent Australian film Vigilante was a pleasant improvement. It showed a little more character development in the lead character as he toughened himself up for the revenge showdown. Now the Irish have done it, and even better. This nasty revenge film highlights the psychological changes in the victim and the personality traits he must overcome before he can take his revenge.

Paul is a tabloid photographer, used to photographing the aftermath of the increasing violence on the city streets. He looks rather meek and girly with his out-of-date shoulder length hair and glasses, the sort of person who has “victim” stamped on his forehead. One night he is mugged and castrated in a particularly brutal attack and the shock to his self-esteem and masculinity is more than he can handle. He shaves off his long hair and takes up self-defence classes, but it will take more than a cosmetic makeover to recover his manhood. He takes up bodybuilding and steroids as well and in his new appearance he finds some sort of safety – he now looks more like the thugs who inhabit the streets at night. Under the effect of the steroids he is also becoming less sensitive to violence.

In a trial run of his new persona, however, he tries to face down a street thug but his confidence still isn’t up to it. He buys a knife but isn’t sure if he will be game to use it when the time comes, so he practices by killing and dismembering a sheep. Although Paul is still running in an emotional void and has deep psychological problems he feels he is now ready to make the change from helpless victim to vicious thug and track down and kill his assailants.

Darren Healy as Paul plays the challenging role with skill and sympathy. Although the blood and violence plays an important part in the film, director Brendan Muldowney has kept it in the context of the effects of the crime on the victim. In spite of Paul becoming a psychotic killer himself, as we follow his journey I couldn’t help sympathising with him. He doesn’t enjoy what he is doing but for his own self-respect he has to do it.

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