FREE FIRE

UK, 2016, 91 minutes, Colour.
Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copley, Brie Larson, Sam Riley, Noah Taylor, Jack Reynor, Enzo Cilenti, Babou Ceesay.
Directed by Ben Wheatley.

If ever there was a film with a free-for-all shootout, a long free fire, then this is that film.

Someone, with a penchant for rhetoric, instead of asking “why?� used to ask “to what purpose?�. This particular question arises often during the film? Why? To what purpose?

The director has a strong reputation for small budget films with intense characters and has a different perspective on violence: Kill List, Sightseers, High Rise. There is no doubting his skills as a director, working with his wife, Amy Jump, on screenplay as well is with editing. All in all, the film has a great many admirers, critics, fans of offbeat cinema, and it is a piece of bravura filmmaking.

The film runs for only 90 minutes but, with so much of the action taking up in the incessant shooting, it often seems a long 90 minutes.

The director has assembled a very strong cast. First of all there are the Americans (the setting is said to be Boston 1978) who are the arms dealers. Over them all is a quietly suave Ord (Armie Hammer with a beard and penchant for marijuana) who has to keep in control the bizarre and and chattering dealer, Vern (Sharlto Copley with his strikingly disturbing South African accent). They have two drivers, Gordon and Harry (Noah Taylor and Jack Reynor). Then there are the buyers, with Frank the go-between (Michael Smiley), a man with a machine to count the transaction money (Babou Ceesay) and the only woman in the deal, Justine (Brie Larson who won the Oscar as Best Actress for Room). They also have two drivers, Stevo and Bernie (Sam Riley in possibly the most intense performance amongst other intense performances, and Enzo Cilenti).

Stevo has been bashed the night before and is complaining – only to find as the deal is drawing to a close, the money counted, the crates lifted, that Harry recognises him as having attacked his sister leading to the fight and the bashing. Harry pulls a gun, fires at Stevo – and for the duration we have everybody taking cover, everybody firing, some woundings, some attempted bargaining, the case with the money out there in the open, and, surprisingly, two outsiders coming into the warehouse with rifles.

While there are many eventual casualties, everybody firing the shots tends either to miss or to wound rather than to kill – prolonging the free fire.

The only concession to audiences who might not like violence is the playing of several John Denver songs!
The dramatic question, of course is, who will survive and, although this is a spoiler, only one does. Who?

1. The title? Literal shooting?

2. The director, his career, small-budget films, his interests, characters and violence?

3. The purpose of the film? Bravura filmmaking? A cinema exercise? The impact of the content? Dramatic but, basically, slight?

4. The situation, arms dealers, IRA buyers? The types, moral stances, doublecrossing?

5. The initial focus on Steve and Bernie, Steve being bashed, his memories, the drive, the introduction to the situation?

6. The warehouse, dark, dingy, interiors?

7. The alternate drivers, Harry and Gordon, their talk, the bashing, the reasons? Playing John Denver songs?

8. Justine and group waiting outside, the arrivals, the plan, going into the warehouse, the setting up of the deal, Martin, the counting of the money – and the contract with extra shooters?

9. The arms, the crates? Ord, in charge, his character? The discussions, the deal, the money? His laid-back character?

10. Frank, the negotiator? Chris, the Irish background? The attraction to Justine and the offer of dinner?

11. The deals, secured, the payment, the cases, the counting of the money?

12. Harry and his reaction to Stevo, the night before, pulling the gun, starting the shooting?

13. The long sequences of the shooting, various people being wounded, not initial deaths, everybody taking cover, the fights?

14. The outsiders coming in, the rifles, shooting, their deaths, Ord knowing the shooter? The contract with Martin?

15. Martin, the wound to the head, blood, standing, getting the case with the money, his being shot?

16. The response, trying to get to the phone, Frank, Vern, the phone calls, the blaze and Vern being burnt, shooting Frank?

17. Justine, the group allowing her to leave, crawling across the floor, the wound? Getting out?

18. The confrontation between Ward and Harry, Harry and the car, the music, the John Denver songs, Stevo attacking him, the mutual fight and shots?

19. Chris getting to the phone, trying to get help, his ally coming in, big, brutal, the fight and his death?

20. Chris and Ord remaining, Justine shooting them? Her stopping and then the police arriving?