"God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that."

The story to Dead Man's Shoes is about Richard has he always protected his simple-minded little brother Anthony. When Richard leaves the rural village where they have grown up to join the army, Anthony is taken in by Sonny, a controlling and vicious local drug dealer and his gang of lads. Anthony becomes the gang's pet and plaything. Seven years later, Richard returns to settle the score. One by one, he hunts down each member of the gang and executes them in increasingly elaborate ways as flashbacks reveal the extent to which his brother suffered at their hands. "Dead Man's Shoes" is a genre-defying film blending horror, supernatural elements, comedy, and social realism. Set in a Midlands village, it explores the underbelly of contemporary rural Britain in communities where crime is unchecked and drugs, intimidation, and power games are blandly accepted as the fabric of daily life.

"Revenge is best served cold", that's what they say and Dead Man's Shoes is that cold dish.

Shane Meadows the director of this movie who later on did "This is England". In this movie, I felt that Shane Meadows was building up to this big finale of Richard's vengeance over those who messed with him. Richard feelings and emotion really sticks to the screen without him saying anything. It's all through visual storytelling that was told only by it's tone and cinematography that really set's up the cold killing that's going to happen and Shane Meadows really mixed the tone of this movie perfectly to the point where it actually came off effective. Shane Meadows is an excellent director and "Dead Man's Shoes" and "This is England" are the perfect films to show off his skills and talent at film making.

Paddy Considine gave probably the best performance of 2004 and in his career (In my opinion). He made his character Richard a interesting and understandable anti-hero. Him going out for revenge and him slowly tasting them at getting them one at a time is simply revenge story here. You see Richard a lot but he doesn't talk all that much, yeah he talked a couple of times in the movie and towards the end of the film. I always like it when a hero or anti-hero who never talks much in film. It gives a character a deep edge to them and makes them more mysterious. That's why Paddy Considine gave a stunning performance.

The cinematography in the movie really does set the tone of the film really well, as the movie has that clean open environment but it also has that revenge looking tone that really fitted the movie perfectly.

The writing was good, the acting from everyone was brilliant, the director of the movie did a awesome job directing and the movie's ending (which I'm not going to spoil) is really sad and quite moving.

Now the reason why I'm not giving it perfect rating is that I don't think quite on the level of 5/5 star's. And yes, this did happen before with one of my reviews as I brought up that it's not quite on that level on a high rating.

But I can say that "Dead Man's Shoes" is the best British revenge drama that we ever got.

‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ is the fourth full-length feature film directed and written by Shane Meadows in 2004. Starring Paddy Considine, it tells the story of an ex-soldier who returns home to a small town in the Midlands seeking revenge on a group of thugs who have terrorised his younger brother. The film, at first, embraces the ultimate act of revenge with dark humour and disturbing violence, but soon turns out to criticise what effect vengeance has on the protagonist.

The film questions the role of masculinity in British working-class society by having very different male stereotypes thrown together in a very isolated environment. Not only does the film make a statement about gender roles, but more importantly, it tackles the issue of honour and justice. The audience’s allegiances sway dramatically throughout the film as Richard (Considine) becomes more brutal in his execution styles. A similar British film that challenges the audience’s perception of who is right is Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’.

On simple viewing of this film, you could say that it is a revenge slasher-flick with plenty of gore; however, I feel that this film is a powerful piece of cinema that is a statement for the immorality of British society and the ideologies it imposes but it also uses Uttoxeter to show the corruption of human nature.

★★★★★