Revolver (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Revolver | |
|---|---|
 "Your mind will not accept a game this big." |
|
| Directed by | Guy Ritchie |
| Produced by | Luc Besson Virginie Silla |
| Written by | Guy Ritchie |
| Starring | Jason Statham Ray Liotta Vincent Pastore Andre Benjamin Mark Strong Terrence Maynard Francesca Annis |
| Music by | Nathaniel Mechaly |
| Cinematography | Tim Maurice Jones |
| Editing by | James Herbert Ian Differ Romesh Aluwihare |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | Sep. 22 2005 (U.K.), 2006 (U.S.) |
| Running time | 110 mins |
| Country | UK/France/IOM |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Revolver is a 2005 movie, written and directed by Guy Ritchie.
The film stars Jason Statham as Jake Green, Ray Liotta as Dorothy Macha, and André Benjamin (a.k.a. "André 3000") as Avi. It centers around a revenge-seeking confidence trickster whose weapon is a universal Formula that guarantees victory to its user, when applied to any game or confidence trick. This is the third in what could be seen as Guy Ritchie's 'crime trilogy', or the fourth (including Matthew Vaughn's Layer Cake) in a potential 'crime tetralogy'.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
[edit] Outline
After spending seven years in solitary confinement and having his sister-in-law murdered, confidence trickster Jake Green (Jason Statham) is out to get revenge on Dorothy Macha (Ray Liotta).
[edit] The Formula
"The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look." - Julius Caesar, 75 B.C.
Jake Green is a hotshot con artist who has acquired a specific strategy (referred to as "the Formula"), that is supposed to lead its user to win every game, during his seven-year stint imprisoned in solitary confinement. The Formula itself was discovered by two unnamed men in adjacent cells either side of Jake's own. During the first five years of his seven-year sentence, the three men communicated their thoughts on confidence tricks and chess moves via messages hidden inside provisional books, such as 'The Mathematics of Quantum Mechanics: Part 4'.
They plan to leave their cells simultaneously, but end up leaving Jake behind, who ends up serving the remaining two years. Upon release, he finds that all of his possessions and money have been taken by the two men with whom he had shared everything but, having the two men's Formula, he went about making a lot of money at various casinos. Two years later, Jake has garnered a reputation that leads many casinos to fear his freakishly good 'luck'.
The Formula is seen to apply to any game, and is often exemplified by his apparent mastery of chess.
The story revolves around Jake's epiphanic awakening, as he learns how to apply the Formula to the 'game' of life.
[edit] The Score
"The only way to get smarter is by playing a smarter opponent." - Fundamentals Of Chess, 1883
Jake goes to prison for seven years after a gunfight breaks out during an illegally-organised card game that Dorothy Macha forces Jake to play by his three goons - The Three Eddies - threatening the life of his brother (Billy), his sister-in-law, and their child. Jake refused to drop Macha's name and, in an accidental mishap, one of the Three Eddies kills Jake's sister-in-law.
After his release, his first port of call is to get revenge on the Three Eddies. He offers them a high rate of return on any monthly investment they make in him. Jake does this through the application of his Formula (see above) at casinos with their money. Jake delivers every month and, very soon, the Three Eddies find themselves borrowing money of Dorothy Macha to maximse their profits from this mystery investment. One day, after having collected a huge sum of money from the Three Eddies (that they had obtained from Macha), Jake disappears on holiday for three months. In that time, Macha demands his money back from the Three Eddies, subjecting them to torture in an attempt to extract a name from where he might regain his money. They drop Jake's name, but Macha refuses to believe this, and the Three Eddies die at the hands of Macha's right-hand man, French Paul (Terence Maynard).
The Three Eddies are dead from torture and Jake is now wealthier than ever, being the owner of a chain of hotels and a large sum of money. His last act of retribution will be targeted at Dorothy Macha himself.
[edit] Mr. D
"First rule of business: protect your investment." - Etiquette Of The Banker, 1775
Approximately two years after his prison release, Jake, Billy and their other brother Joe walk into one of Macha's casinos. "All the tables are closed" to Jake and company, and are promptly called up to a private area of Macha's casino where a high rollers' game is currently taking place. Jake bets Macha a fortune on a chip toss, and wins. This hurts Macha. As Jake says "nothing hurts more than humiliation and a little money loss". Macha suspects that Jake, who seems unafraid of him, will be out for more revenge. Jake and his brothers leave the casino, and Macha puts out the order for a hit on Jake. Jake arrives home, without Billy, to be welcomed by one of Macha's hits. Jake is the only one who survives, being rescued by a mysterious individual called Zach (Vincent Pastore). Zach introduces him to his partner, Avi (André Benjamin). Jake finds out that he has only three days to live, and that Macha is after him. Avi says that only he and Zach can protect him and that, in return, Jake must give them his money to fund their loan shark enterprise.
[edit] Sam Gold
"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of your enemy." - Niccolo Machiavelli, 1502
Sam Gold is seen to be the 'king' in this chess game of gang warfare. He is the ultimate figure that all men are supposedly aspiring to be. Sam Gold is revealed to be an ultimately powerless cipher, whose power is granted only by those who invest in him. He represents ego and self-investment. He is the personification of greed. It is revealed that Avi and Zach were Jake's neighbours during his years of incarceration. They have forced Jake to "induce head pain" and "engage the enemy" by making him give his money away under the principle that "nothing hurts more than humiliation and a little money loss". They are inflicting this form of 'premature enlightenment' upon Jake because, according to them, he was not ready to hear how hard this process of liberation was going to be while in prison. It was because of this that they left without him.
According to Avi, "the greatest trick that [Sam Gold] ever pulled was making you believe that he is you". This is seen to be the 'ultimate con', in that no-one wants to sever their connection with Sam Gold, because they refuse to challenge their own life-long investment in him. In the end, Jake also steps off the proverbial chess board by making a conscious effort to reverse everything that his nature (Sam Gold) tells him to do. This is seen to be the truest and most fundamental application of the Formula.
The characters of Jake, Zach, Avi and Sorter (Mark Strong) are seen to ultimately reject Gold's 'rules'. The character of Dorothy Macha is seen to succumb to them, and his committing suicide is the result of his being defeated by Gold.
[edit] Kabbalic and Numerological References
Guy Ritchie was, during the time of conceiving and executing the film, known to be involved in the philosophy and practice of a form of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah.[2] The film itself is laced with references to Kabbalic ideas, symbols and numerological references.[1]
The trinity of Zach, Jake and Avi are representative of Kabbalic right, center and left pillar energies, respectively. Avi is a Black man who is somewhat effeminate in his physical appearance, clothing and mannerisms. The 'left pillar' or 'left column' in Kabbalic traditions is often associated with 'the feminine' and with the colour black. Jake's surname is "Green", and the colour green is associated with the central column or pillar in Kabbalic traditions. Zach is a hefty, gargantuan, White man who 'dresses down' in a very archetypically 'masculine' way. Both masculinity and the colour white are associated with right column or right pillar energies in Kabbalic traditions.[2][3]
It may also be of interest to note that the trinity characters are named after the Patriarchs. Avi [short for Abraham], Zach [short for Isaac] and Jake [short for Jacob]
The number 32 comes up repeatedly. "The chess game has many mystical meanings. The Temple of Solomon was chequered like a chess board, which has 64 squares and 32 pieces."[4] Indeed, the elevator that Jake enters near the end of the movie is seen to have 32 floors. This, incidentally, is the same number of vertabrae in the human spinal column, and the total number of teeth in a human mouth. In numerology, its 'opposite' is said to be the number 23, which is commonly associated with 'The 23 Enigma' (this is the idea that everything in the observed universe is somehow related to the number 23).[5]
[edit] Music
According to director Guy Ritchie, the music for the film was initially intended to follow in a similar vein to his previous crime movies, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, in that it was to be primarily source-based (i.e. using non-original music). Those source tracks would all have been classical in nature. However, some time into the prodiction process, Ritchie changed his mind and decided to score a majority of the film with original music, leaving only some small sections to non-original music tracks (e.g. the restaurant shoot out during Lord John's attempted assassination of Dorothy Maccha). The composer Ritchie had selected for the film score was Nathaniel Mechaly.[6]
The music itself works as a experimental fusion piece, melding acid jazz, synth rock and contemporary classical music.
The original soundtrack is available from Licensed To Recall Music For Films.
[edit] O.S.T. Track Listing
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'Revolver' (03:58)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'Later That Night' (02:02)
- Electrelane - 'Atom's Tomb' (02:11)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'The Heist' (02:52)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'Fear Me' (03:42)
- 2Raumwhonung - 'Mucchio Selvaggio' (05:06)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'Chess Room' (02:03)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'Sorter Shoot Out' (01:56)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'Purple Requiem' (04:00)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - '3 Eddie Story' (02:40)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'End Casino' (02:50)
- Emmanuel Santarromana & Orfeo - 'Opera' (04:03)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'Casino' (01:54)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'Jack Accident' (02:02)
- David Axelrod - 'The Mental Traveler' (04:08)
- Nathaniel Mechaly - 'To Never Miss' (01:18)
- Plastikman - 'Ask Yourself' (08:51)
- Erik Satie - 'Gnossienne No. 1' (04:18)
[edit] DVD
The DVD menus 'revolve' along the X and Y axis, reflecting the paradigm-shifting themes of the film.
Extra Features:
- Feature length audio commentary between Lance Lochner and director Guy Ritchie.
- The Concept: an interview with director Guy Ritchie and editor James Herbert on the subject of the film's conceptual and editorial development.
- The Game: The Making Of Revolver
Jake applies the Formula to the game of chess. "You only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent." - Stills gallery (over 100 stills against film soundtrack).
- 7 deleted scenes with director's commentary.
- Outtakes
- Music Trailer
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1
- DTS Digital Surround 5.1
Aspect Ratio:
- 2.35 Widescreen / Colour
[edit] Reception
[edit] Critical Reactions
The film was generally panned by critics: for example, it has been criticised on grounds of pretension and having an over-complicated plot by critics such as Mark Kermode. Reviews were so poor in the UK that The Guardian ran a story ("How to flog a turkey" [3]) on how the distributor was able to attribute a quote to The Sun saying that the director was "back to his best".
(The quote came from a section of the Sun Online website created by a PR agency on behalf of the film's distributors.)
There were, however, some positive reviews as well. Mark R. Leeper conceded that it was "a film for a narrow audience", but said that he personally rather "liked it" and gave it a score of 7/10.[4] According to Brian Orndorf, Revolver "is the perfect movie for those who like to crack things open and dig around the innards", even saying that it "reminded [him] quite a bit of Richard Kelly’s near-masterpiece, Donnie Darko". He goes on to explain that "both films have a taste for the deliberately confusing, sharing scripts that take the viewer on a ride that requires much more than one simple viewing."[5]
[edit] Cult Status
Despite a generally poor critical reception, the film itself has garnered something of a cult status away from mainstream opinion.[6].
[edit] References
- ^ "As early as 2003 Ritchie encountered trouble finding a studio to support Revolver. References to Kabbalah in the script made studios like Sony back off. Kabbalah has a reputation as a cult, they feared..." - Mark Webster [1]
- ^ Kabbalah
- ^ "Blood is red, and blood belongs next to black. So, there's three columns: green is central column, white is right column, black is left column. Everything manifests in processes of three, so you've got: proton, neutron, electron; Sun, Earth, Moon; masculine, feminine, child. Wherever you're going to go, you're going to see a manifestation of '3'. So you've got Zach (or "Isaac"), Avi and Jake: a process of three. They represent positive, negative and fillament, where Jake is the central column. Blood is red, which belongs to the left column, black is extreme left column. So it's the idea that white blood cells are 'mercy', and red blood cells are 'judgement'. Right is positive and left is negative." - Guy Ritchie, 'Revolver' DVD commentary.
- ^ Guy Ritchie, Revolver DVD Commentary
- ^ "32 floors: 32 vertabrae in your back, 32 teeth in your mouth, 32 chess pieces on a chess board." - Guy Ritchie, 'Revolver' DVD commentary.
- ^ See Revolver: Making The Music by Jesse Salto.
[edit] External links
- OhmyNews Review
- Revolver at the Internet Movie Database
- "How to flog a turkey" - The Guardian, October 3, 2005, on Revolver's UK poster quotes
- Revolver Webpage
The Hard Case (1995, short) • Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) • Snatch (2000) • Swept Away (2002) • Revolver (2005)
