| Pusher | |
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Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Nicolas Winding Refn |
| Produced by | Martin Abildgaard Henrik Danstrup Teddy Gerberg Peter Aalbæk Jensen |
| Screenplay by | Jens Dahl Nicolas Winding Refn |
| Story by | Nicolas Winding Refn |
| Starring | Kim Bodnia Zlatko Burić Laura Drasbæk Slavko Labović Mads Mikkelsen Vanja Bajičić Peter Andersson |
| Music by | Povl Kristian Peter Peter |
| Cinematography | Morten Søborg |
| Editing by | Anne Østerud |
| Studio | Balboa Entertainment |
| Distributed by | RCV Film Distribution (Denmark) Magnolia Pictures (United States) |
| Release date(s) | 30 August 1996 (Denmark) August 18, 2006 (US) |
| Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | Denmark |
| Language | Danish Swedish |
| Budget | 6.000.000 DKK |
Pusher is a 1996 Danish crime film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. The film was not only a huge success in Denmark, but also in many other European countries. It was the film that launched Winding Refn's career. It became the first of a trilogy. A Hindi remake of the film was released in 2007 directed by Assad Raja.
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The film begins in Copenhagen with Frank, a mid-level drug dealer, going to a heroin deal with his sidekick Tonny. The pair only manage to sell some of their product, and then waste time about town. Frank then visits his friend Vic, a prostitute who holds some of Frank's stash for a fee. Vic wants to have a serious relationship with Frank, but Frank prefers to keep it purely sexual.
Frank is visited by a former cellmate, a Swede named Hasse, and the pair set up a large drug deal. Frank visits his supplier, the Serb drug lord Milo to get the heroin. Already owing Milo some money, Frank cannot cover the cost of the heroin, but Milo allows him to take the drugs provided that he immediately returns with the money.
The deal goes bad, however, when police arrive. In the process of evading the police, Frank dumps the heroin in a pond. At the station, police officers convince Frank that Tonny has delivered a confession that implicates Frank, but he still does not admit to anything. When Frank is released after 24 hours he returns to Milo to explain how he lost the money and the drugs. Milo does not believe Frank's story and demands that he pay back even more than he already owes. Frank then immediately seeks Tonny out and savagely beats him with a baseball bat.
Milo's cynical henchman Radovan accompanies Frank to help him collect on some of his own debts to use toward his debt with Milo. The pair have a friendly conversation and Radovan shares his secret desire to open a restaurant. However, when Radovan tries to force an addict customer of Frank's to rob a bank to cover his debt, the addict commits suicide. As Frank makes other disastrous attempts to earn money, Vic becomes increasingly insistent that they behave as a couple. He takes her to several clubs and makes plans to drive her to the veterinarian to see her sick dog.
Frank finally makes a deal, but his drug mule betrays him and switches the heroin for baking soda. Radovan drops his friendly demeanor and begins threatening Frank with serious injury should he fail to pay up soon. Frank goes on a desperate rampage, stealing some money and drugs from a gym of drug-dealing bodybuilders, but he is soon picked up by Radovan and tortured. Frank manages to escape and makes plans to flee with Vic to Spain. After successfully making his final deal in Copenhagen, Frank receives a call from Milo, who promises to accept a token payment to put an end to their feud. When Frank bluntly informs Vic that he will not be going away with her, she steals his stash of money and flees.
The film ends with Frank grimly catching his breath as his enemies throughout the city prepare to strike.
The movie began as a five-minute short that director Winding Refn made as an application to the Danish film school. After failing to get accepted, Winding Refn decided to turn Pusher into a feature length independent film funded purely by himself and his family. He planned to shoot the film in black-and-white and cast his friends. However, Winding Refn eventually managed to acquire $1 million to make the movie traditionally. At the same time he received his funding, he was accepted into film school. Winding Refn passed on going to film school to make Pusher despite his inexperience and lack of filmmaking education. Winding Refn claims to be the only Dane to ever drop out of film school.
Winding Refn partnered with film student Jens Dahl to write the film's screenplay. His goal was to tell the story of a man under pressure, without glamorizing the lifestyle of a drug-dealer. Winding Refn organized the plot's events by days of the week in his notes, and this carried over into the final product.
During rehearsal, Winding Refn became dissatisfied with the actor he had cast as Frank, thinking him too placid and boring. Two weeks before shooting was to begin, Winding Refn fired the actor without a replacement in line. Winding Refn approached Kim Bodnia, who was an established actor at the time, and Bodnia accepted. Though the other primary roles were mostly filled with experienced actors, many of the minor roles were filled by Winding Refn's friends or people accustomed to the street life.
Bodnia brought a greater degree of intensity and aggressiveness to the part that some actors were not prepared for. Winding Refn claimed that the surprised reactions of some actors are genuine, as they had not rehearsed with Bodnia beforehand and were expecting the previous actor's more sedate performances.
Slavko Labović, who played the Serbian thug Radovan, was a friend of Željko Ražnatović. He provided a poster of Ražnatović to use as a prop in Milo's headquarters. The actor playing Milo, Zlatko Burić, is actually a Croat. Winding Refn became concerned when violence flared between Serbs and Croats during filming, but the events did not cause problems on set.
The film was shot using Danish union rules, which allowed no more than 8 hours of filming per day, and no filming on weekends. The rules, combined with the high cost of filming permits, caused time and budget constraints. The film was shot entirely using hand-held cameras. Winding Refn wanted to capture a realistic, documentary feel to the film. This caused problems with the time constraints of the shooting schedule and Winding Refn's desire to keep the film shadowy. Actors are often backlit or difficult to see due to insufficient lighting.
The film was shot almost completely in chronological order. Winding Refn later admitted that shooting scenes out of order was confusing to him. However, some scenes were reshot or added later. The scene in which Frank shoots at Milo's thugs was originally filmed without special effects, but Winding Refn was unsatisfied with the results and reshot the scene using squibs. The scene with the junkie was shot after shooting had completed to replace a previous scene that Refn discarded because it dealt with an outdated vision of Frank's character.
The film was considered the first Danish-language gangster film and became a break-through success for Winding Refn and several of the lead actors. Winding Refn claimed that the film inspired cults of highly dedicated fans and influenced Danish fashion to emulate certain costumes worn by the characters. Kim Bodnia launched a very successful career as a leading man in Danish cinema largely due to the success of the movie. Zlatko Buric was given a Bodil Award for his performance as Milo.
The film inspired two sequels focusing on different characters in the same underworld of Copenhagen. Pusher II follows Frank's former partner Tonny as he struggles with his relationship with his father and as well as the prospect of becoming a father himself. Pusher 3 follows the drug lord Milo through a hectic day as he struggles with his drug-addiction, a series of bad deals, and his daughter's birthday celebration.
Each movie in the trilogy opens with a montage of the film's characters set to pounding rock music. Each character is harshly lit from above, staring into the camera as their name is displayed.
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