RETRIBUTION
Scotland, 2005, 88 minutes, Colour.
Peter Lochbrun, Gavin Marshall, Simon Tait, Aleksandar Mikic.
Directed by Steven Lewis Simpson.
Retribution is a striking small-budget feature, a police detective story as well as a story about gangsters and – retribution.
The film was written and directed by Steven Lewis Simpson, a Scots director who began work as a stockbroker and trader in Britain but moved, when he was young, to Los Angeles to work for Roger Corman. After returning to England when he was in his thirties, he made a feature called Ties. He also made a feature about gangsters called The Ticking Man. In some ways, Retribution is a sequel to The Ticking Man though it stands alone as a feature and story.
The film opens with a glimpses of the drab life of a detective, Stan Miller. There has been a gun massacre in his town. It is a shoot-out to protect a drug dealer who is in custody, Barry Irwin. There are two eyewitnesses, a young couple who have survived the shoot-out and are being sheltered in a safe house.
The film also involves Irwin’s seedy lawyer, the hiring of a Serbian hit man to eliminate the witnesses. The film is something of a cat-and-mouse story, the confrontations between Miller and Irwin in the interrogation room, the surly and cheeky contempt that Irwin shows to Miller. It also shows the devious actions of the Serbian hit man, his befriending a young pregnant woman, his ability to infiltrate buildings. While he is not immediately successful in eliminating the witnesses, he finally gets into the safe house and is successful in eliminating them.
The film is interesting insofar as Miller then is able to outwit the Serbian killer as well as outwit Irwin who has been released for lack of evidence. There is a violent confrontation with Miller finally successful.
The film is sharply written, indicates Simpson’s training from Corman, a low-budget film-maker who is a skilful storyteller. The film has atmosphere, has significant parallels with American films which work to its advantage, was filmed with a digital camera.
1. Small-budget video production? Quality?
2. The Scottish settings, the city of Edinburgh, ordinary life, public life? The surrounding hills?
3. The director and his work, production and writing, music composition?
4. A police story, a murder mystery? Investigation? The realism of the film, toughness? The world of drugs and hitmen? Callous murders – and the brutal presentation? The police, ordinary, skills? Forensic information? The authorities – and political pressure? The strong individuals?
5. The title, the reference to Stan, to the drug dealer?
6. The opening killings, the visual impact, the brutality, the range of victims?
7. The introduction to Stan, getting up, the toilet, playing patience, the doorbell, the phone, his frustration? At work, his relationship with his staff? With the authorities and the political pressures? The protection of the witnesses, his visiting the house? The tailing of the lawyer, the tunnel? The speculation, the use of camera footage, the working out of what had happened? The middle of the night, the news of the witnesses being murdered? The interrogation of Irwin? His getting off? His forensic friends, his being suspended, the friends and their tailing the criminal and the lawyer? His gathering information? His confrontations with the lawyer? Meeting the hitman at the end of the tunnel? Following the lawyer, the hill, finding the money, the gun and the drugs? His taking the money, the bullets from the gun? His getting the forensic evidence, checking the bullets? Finding the arm – and the macabre use of the arm?
8. The killer, in prison, the drug lord? His being bashed – and not ready for the line-up? Relationship with his lawyer, pressure on him to avoid the line-up? His angers, deals, the hiring of the hitman? His complacency in getting out? His girlfriend, at home? His confrontation with the killer in the tunnel? The killer and his threats? The killer getting into the house, potentially killing him? His going to the mountains, the drugs and the money, the money missing? Taking the gun? The set-up with the lawyer, their meeting, the killer and his arrival, killing the lawyer, paralysing the drug lord? His being taken by Stan – and his future?
9. The portrait of the lawyer, corrupt, the meetings in the prison, the deals, hiring the hitman? His wife, infidelity? His wife’s death? The meetings with Stan, Stan’s bluff and doing the deal? His death?
10. The hitman, Serbia, the contacts? Meeting in the tunnel? His contact for getting the guns, following the young woman with the baby – and the return to the building, eluding the police following him by going into the apartment, threatening her boyfriend? His following the witness, unable to kill her? His skill in getting into the house, lowering himself, hiding? The murder of the man? The pursuit of the woman – and catching and killing her? His skills? The meeting in the tunnel, disguised as a jogger, meeting with Stan? The double-cross, his threatening the drug lord, getting into his house, almost killing him? The final meeting, the rifle and getting it from the dealer? His shooting at Stan, killing the lawyer? Paralysing the drug lord? Stan outsmarting him with the false arm?
11. The background of police work, the patient detail, speculation, collaboration? Political pressure with serial killers and the chief and his suspending Stan?
12. The rugged individual, using his wits, common sense, solving the crime?
