The reality of rural life in England - specifically, in the flat, depressed fenlands left behind by the eighties - is presented in this everyday story of abbatoir folk. It's a film about the small-mindedness and meanness of spirit always lurking in the background; about youngsters trying to carve out an identity with recourse only to such culture as has somehow fallen their way (naming one of them Elvis was a masterstroke). Better and purer than Straw Dogs, though similar in some ways - Stan is not a yuppie incomer on a house-trade; the actor neither star nor pretty-boy - the film leaves us with the uneasy feeling that it is impossible to sympathise with or like any of these people. A very powerful drama about memory and the true price of living in those close-knit rural communities. Tempted to sigh nostalgically for paradise? Watch this instead.
2 Reviews
Redeems Itself As A Black Comedy
Theo Robertson5 August 2004
This was heavily hyped as a " dark , disturbing drama " before it was broadcast on BBC 2 in 1991 . It`s dark alright since most of the scenes are set during the night . Drama ? Hmmm . I can`t help thinking someone is having a joke somewhere
Tom Courteney plays Stan Peachey a man who has served 16 years in the big house for murdering two children and we`re shown " in graphic detail " how and why he killed them . " Right " says Stan in a heavy West country brogue to two children stealing apples " what have I told you ? I told you never to come in here again " Stan pulls out a shotgun and blows one of the little kiddies away while the other gives a totally disintrested look . BANG .Two dead kiddies and judging by their wooden vacant expressions you might be forgiven for thinking they were playing corpses before the off screen shots were fired . If anyone deserved to meet the business end of a shotgun it was the drama teacher who taught these two children how to act . They`re so wooden Stan must have thought he was felling a couple of trees
That scene must have been the source of REDMPTION`s reputation as a dark disturbing drama because there`s very little else that you wouldn`t see in an episode of EMMERDALE FARM . Okay it`s foul mouthed with everyone saying the " F " word in a West country accent ( An accent that`s difficult to understand ) , it contains a sex scene of a school girl selling her body to a man in his 40s and a scene with an attempted murder but none of this is at all convincing . Neither is the dialogue . Take this snippet when Stan`s brother ( Who works in the local slaughter house ) tells him what happened when the workers demanded a pay rise :
" They wouldn`t give us more money , but they gave us more meat . They gave us more meat "
Anyone else feel that William Goldman didn`t write this script ? I`m still trying to work out if it`s the dialogue that`s to blame or if it`s the actors who all act in a ridiculously OTT parody of inbred rural country folks . It`s probably the director`s fault but since it`s so stylised I can`t help thinking he`s winding up the audience who are too stupid to realise this is more of a black comedy than a dark disturbing drama
Tom Courteney plays Stan Peachey a man who has served 16 years in the big house for murdering two children and we`re shown " in graphic detail " how and why he killed them . " Right " says Stan in a heavy West country brogue to two children stealing apples " what have I told you ? I told you never to come in here again " Stan pulls out a shotgun and blows one of the little kiddies away while the other gives a totally disintrested look . BANG .Two dead kiddies and judging by their wooden vacant expressions you might be forgiven for thinking they were playing corpses before the off screen shots were fired . If anyone deserved to meet the business end of a shotgun it was the drama teacher who taught these two children how to act . They`re so wooden Stan must have thought he was felling a couple of trees
That scene must have been the source of REDMPTION`s reputation as a dark disturbing drama because there`s very little else that you wouldn`t see in an episode of EMMERDALE FARM . Okay it`s foul mouthed with everyone saying the " F " word in a West country accent ( An accent that`s difficult to understand ) , it contains a sex scene of a school girl selling her body to a man in his 40s and a scene with an attempted murder but none of this is at all convincing . Neither is the dialogue . Take this snippet when Stan`s brother ( Who works in the local slaughter house ) tells him what happened when the workers demanded a pay rise :
" They wouldn`t give us more money , but they gave us more meat . They gave us more meat "
Anyone else feel that William Goldman didn`t write this script ? I`m still trying to work out if it`s the dialogue that`s to blame or if it`s the actors who all act in a ridiculously OTT parody of inbred rural country folks . It`s probably the director`s fault but since it`s so stylised I can`t help thinking he`s winding up the audience who are too stupid to realise this is more of a black comedy than a dark disturbing drama
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