22 BULLETS comes to DVD & BLU-RAY : 31.01.2011
Genre movies have a their fan bases because fans love to spot the repetition, stylistic tropes and plot devices that set the rules for whatever film niche they enjoy. This isn’t to run genre movies down… When it comes to movies I love a trawl through my favourite cinematic devices. Let’s face it, half the reason why Slasher movies work so well is that you can set your watch to the sleazy point of view camera work, shower scenes and summer camp skinny dipping. Slasher fans aren’t after originality, they want the genre tropes honed into a perfect, efficient fear machine.
The world of organized crime movies has it’s own style pointers and story rules and 22 BULLETS revels in many of them. Some viewers might hanker after a fresh new, hyper-realistic take on the everyday lives of small town hoods. People, let me guide you to Donnie Brasco, the ‘Blue Collar Joe’ of mob flicks. Personally, when I sit down to watch a tale of crime and criminals I want it to be operatically tragic. This is rule number one.
Gangster moves need revenge as a motivator, an older boss who doesn’t like the drug trade but risks his position because of this with younger, rising members of the organization. I need betrayal and conversations about honour among thieves and I want a cop on the trail with a grudging respect for his or her foes.
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I want a execution after a fine meal, so that the victim expires into his soup. I want one guy left alive to deliver a message. I want interrogations where the captive is tied to a chair and has a burlap sack over his head. I want everyone on the side of wrong to uphold the code of OmertÃ
The gangsters in my film think of their crimes as ‘The Work’ and their wives fool themselves into thinking their husbands are business men. At some point in the movie, will will visit a drug dealer who spends all day on the couch in his underwear and a silk kimono, scratching himself with the barrel of a gun.
At a given point in the movie, we get to the ‘everybody gets wacked’ montage, where various bodies will be shown in ditches and meat lockers while a plaintive song tinkles in the background. This will be especially tragic when we see the decaying body of the guy who was ‘getting out after one last job’.
When it comes time for the bosses reign to come to an end, his most trusted ally and friend since childhood, when they ran wild and loose on the streets together, will be the one who betrays him. When revenge comes, it will be swift and bloody, except for the guy tied to a chair with the burlap sack on his head… For him it’ll be slow and bloody.
22 Bullets: Interviews
22 BULLETS: Like Leon or Not?
22 BULLETS: Press Release
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