OUTLAW
UK, 2007, 115 minutes, Colour.
Sean Bean, Danny Dyer, Lenny James, Rupert Friend, Sean Harris, Bob Hoskins, John Standing.
Directed by Nick Love.
The immediate reaction to a film like Outlaw from most people would be to find the plot and some of the brutality repelling. But, there is much more to it than that. It is a film about vigilanteism in contemporary Britain but it is not necessarily advocating it – though some alarmed viewers might think it is.
Rather, it can be seen as a social and moral case study, something of a practical fable whereby audiences can test out their beliefs about law, justice, the ineffectual administration of both, especially when police officials are in league with criminals.
There used to be a device for seminarians studying moral theology, a fictitious case set up with arguments on both sides of an issue so that the students could understand, discuss and draw moral conclusions about the complexities of human behaviour and wrongdoing. This is how Outlaw could work for a thoughtful audience.
Writer-director Nick Love is familiar with this kind of process. His two previous films attempted something like this: The Football Factory and the thuggery among fans; The Business, about gangsters, their setting themselves up in comfortable lives and the inevitable falling out.
Outlaw introduces as to a random group of men who experience violence in today’s London. Danny Dyer (who opens the film with a premonition dream) is bashed in front of his fiancee. Sean Bean is a seasoned military man who returns from service in Afghanistan after a court-martial, finds his wife unfaithful and is consumed by bitterness and his inability to fit in again. His friend (Rupert Friend), son of one of his commanding officers, has been savagely beaten by gangs who have served minimal gaol sentences. Meanwhile, a successful black barrister is threatened by the standover men of a drug-dealing club owner and his pregnant wife is murdered.
By this stage of the film, audience emotion is high. Vengeance, especially in the face of official indifference, leniency and corruption, seems a tantalising option. The atmosphere is powerfully highlighting an eye for an eye. In the background are television broadcasts on the role of the government, the home office, reports of cases and echoes of the situation in Iraq. On the street and in the bars and clubs racism is rampant.
Through a security guard (rejected from the army) (Sean Harris in a chilling performance), all these people come together. The barrister’s chauffeur (Bob Hoskins) resents his treatment by the police after so many years’ service and has access to names and addresses and the authority to collect CCTV surveillance tapes. The army man offers to train the men to fight back.
This is where the screenplay will not be comfortable for those who are vociferous against the victimisers and treat vigilantes as heroes (with the suggestion that this is what the tabloid press tends to do). At first, the men (soon to be referred to as the Outlaws by the media) are hesitant about committing themselves to such brutality. While they are won over (peer pressure, the demands of the leader and the psychopathic rantings of the security guard, who embodies everything that is wrong with vigilanteism), there are still some hesitations.
The film asks us to look closely at the emotional and moral effects of their actions on the group as individuals and as members of society. No matter how urgent the drive for vengeance, it has in itself the power to destroy the vigilante, especially, as happens here, when they take other’s lives into their own hands.
While the final moment of the film might look as if it is ultimately endorsing such violent action, we are left pondering what the consequences will be for the man involved. He has virtually lost everything except his hatred.
This is not so much a film to be enjoyed at a multiplex where indiscriminating audiences might identify with the thuggery and strong arm tactics. It is a film which mirrors within two hours any number of today’s headlines which need well thought out law and justice answers.
1.The films of Nick Love and his presentations of UK violence? Themes of violence, law, justice?
2.The London settings, the detail, the UK countryside? Sense of realism?
3.The visual style, realism, naturalism? Editing and pace? Score?
4.The issues of British law, justice, the courts, sentences, the helpless victims, corrupt police, public anger, individual anger, emotional response, vigilanteism, vigilanteism understandable? The reasons?
5.The film as a moral case, presenting intellectual issues emotionally, the various sides, the various arguments and their strength?
6.The background of contemporary British racism, the language of the bars, the barristers, ordinary people, Simon Hillier as the character expressing racial bigotry?
7.The structure of the film: the introduction to each of the main characters, the situations, their feelings, the links between them, the quest for justice, going into action? The impact of Decker’s dream?
8.Decker, the dream in the prologue, the wedding, his being pursued, bashed? Waking up? Relationship with his fiancée, the preparation for the wedding? The irony of the wreath on the corner in his dream? Frank and his discussing things at work? The repetition of the incident, his being bashed, his contacting Hillier?
9.Bryant and his return from Afghanistan, his military career, court-martial? Arrival at the airport, his inability to fit in, seeing his wife and her infidelity, taking the dingy apartment, Hillier and his surveillance? Watching him, seeing his guns? The proposal about the vigilante squad?
10.Hillier, his lack of a career, his criminal record, his looking weedy, yet frightening, angry, the lack of training, surveillance, going into action, persuasive, racist and ignorant?
11.Cedric Munro, Lewis driving him, his career as a barrister, Lewis driving him, their discussions? His relationship with his wife, her pregnancy? Seeing Grieve at the court? The Manning trial, the standover tactics in the toilet?
12.Bryant going to see Mardell, his friend and the bashing, the injuries, his facial disfigurement? Talking with his father? The military background?
13.Lewis his career in the police, his job as driving, his friendship with Cedric, the antagonism towards Grieves and his wanting to expose him?
14.Grieves, the Manning case, talking to Cedric, his links with Manning, the corruption?
15.Manning, the trial, the standover tactics, owning the club, the drug deals, his henchmen? Furlong and his meeting with Cedric? His attack on Cedric’s wife, the injuries, hospital, her death? The tracking down of Furlong, his being abducted, tortured? Hillier’s reaction in torturing him? His being hanged? Manning and his wink at Cedric after the case? The finale with Decker killing Manning?
16.The gathering, Hillier the link, Bryant in charge, each of them and their relationship with Bryant, his interactions, interviews, training, their reactions? The action and the bashing? The effect on each of them, Hillier enjoying it, the others hesitant? The CCTV footage and their being seen? Lewis and his help with the footage? The effect of the exercising of violence, their angers, surfacing their angers? For and against? The aftermath, the bar and the talk, the racism and the bashing in the bar?
17.Cedric and his wife’s death, Manning’s wink, his committing himself to the group?
18.The BBC, the news reports, the nickname of the Outlaws? The referring to the BBC newscasts? The tabloids and their reporting of the incidents? Public opinion?
19.Lewis, his resentments, the CCTV footage, recovering it, the warnings, the phone calls, giving information, the antagonism with Grieves? His being tracked down, his death?
20.The group leaving London, tracking down Furlong, his torture, the effect of the hanging?
21.Hillier, his character, brutality, Bryant and the antagonism, Bryant asserting his being in charge, killing Hillier?
22.The separation, the information about Manning, the set-up in the countryside, Decker and Frank betraying him, their discussions at the office, Frank and his collecting the money? The tapes and their being replayed in the country mansion? The attack, the shoot-out, the deaths?
23.Bryant, in the countryside, the grocer seeing him identifying him, the TV information, the fight?
24.Cedric’s death, Decker and his escaping, his close-up shooting of Manning?
25.The ending, the experience of watching this film? A moral case study? The varying points of view? Vigilanteism understandable? Going outside the legal system, courts and justice? The destructive effects on each of those participating, their lives being destroyed?
