Director Report Card: Tony Scott (1990) - Part One

4. Revenge

In 1979, author John Harrison would publish the collection “Legends of the Fall.” Included inside was the simply-entitled novella “Revenge.” The film rights were purchased shortly after the book came out, with “Revenge” becoming a hot property in Hollywood. A series of different directors and leading men became attached to the project. John Huston was going to make it, with Jack Nicholson starring. Walter Hill did a pass on the material, envisioning Jeff Bridges in the lead. At different points, Orson Welles or Jonathan Demme were going to direct. Eventually, the book passed across the desk of Kevin Costner, who wanted to both star and direct. When producers deemed Costner too inexperienced as a director, Tony Scott would come aboard. “Revenge's” convoluted path to the screen would conclude in 1990.

Jay Cochran has just retired after twelve years in the Air Force. One of his parting gifts is a set of rifles sent by his old friend, Tibey Mendez... Who is also a Mexican crime lord. Cochran goes to work for Tibey on his compound, which is where he meets Miryea, the gangster's much younger wife. It's not long before Cochran and Miryea have fallen in love, escaping to a cabin to spend a lusty weekend together. Yet Tibey is aware of the affair. He sells Miryea into prostitution and beats Cochran nearly to death. Left to rot in the desert, Cochran instead survives and begins to plot his revenge. 

Tony Scott clearly shared his brother's love of classic noir storytelling. "Revenge" utilizes the harshest archetypes of the noir genre. This film is about a good man's heart being hardened by the desire for revenge. About an honest person who gets in over-his-head and is forever changed, exposed to the darkness of the world. It's about women being treated cruelly, sold into sexual slavery by a man who only sees her as an object. Friendships are betrayed and relationships are destroyed. By taking the tropes of noir to their most pitch-black conclusions, "Revenge" creates a bracingly nihilistic atmosphere. 

If the film is a neo-noir, it's also something of a neo-western. The story is set in the modern day, not the far-off frontier era. Yet the visual language is often that of the western. The endless, flat landscape of the Mexican desert is often highlighted. Horses appear as often as cars or airplanes. Small, Mexican villages, that seem untouched by the modern world, are the main location. A chapel and saloons out in appearances. The story – of betrayal in the south-west, of men fighting over a woman – could be told more-or-less the same if you dropped it backwards in time. "Revenge" feels like a uniquely American fusion of noir and western.

The film also sees Tony Scott returning to the soft-focus eroticism of "The Hunger." The tension between Cochran and Miryea builds from the minute they lay eyes on each other. They draw closer throughout the day, most notably during an amusing scene where they attempt to make margaritas together. Finally, they meet in a pool house and consummate their passion. All the billowing curtains, softcore groping, and wet kisses displayed in "The Hunger" return. For a solid half-hour, "Revenge" rarely slows down with the sex. Cochran and Miryea acrobatically coupling in the pool, by the fireplace, and most improbably, while he's driving a Jeep. What keeps it from sleazy or cheap is the passion on display in these scenes. "Revenge" conveys a sense of genuine eroticism, because Scott's camera so lovingly glides over all the scenery and naked body parts.

Of course, it's not just the fucking that looks stylish and sensual. The entire movie is gorgeous. You can tell Scott loves to shoot the green oases, yellow hills, and orange landscapes of these locations. Individual images linger in the memory. Like a woman walking a horse through a fog-strewn grove. Or a burning cabin reflected in the lens of a man's sunglasses, the fire almost seeming to form words. Of course, those sexy night shoots are full of deep blues and purples, extending the sensuous feeling even to the cinematography. The desert sky rolling over an unconscious body or a chapel silhouetted behind a sunset are beautiful images the film just can't resist. 

No matter how photogenic "Revenge" is, the events within are far from it. Matching the brutality of the story is an uncompromising approach to violence. Oh sure, there's some of that stylized Tony Scott bloodshed. Like when a rival gangster is shot in the head, and blood splatters in slow-mo on a near-by white lampshade. Yet most of the violence in "Revenge" feels grittier than that. Kevin Costner is beaten to a pulp and spends weeks recovering, fingers smashed and face swollen. Miryea's face is sliced and the resulting scar is ugly and hard to ignore. When Cochran gets a chance at his revenge, the stabbing is furious and bloody. There's little cinematic catharsis in this violence. It leaves the audience feeling as hollow and sullied as it does the characters.

The film is no less savage in its treatment of women. While Cochran is recovering from his wounds, we see Miryea's hellish experience in a brothel. She's beaten and repeatedly raped. She's hooked on heroin, to make her compliant. Throughout it all, she holds onto Cochran's dog tags, never loosing hope that they'll be reunited someday. It's hard to excuse a movie heaping so much misery on its lead female character just to teach the male protagonist a lesson about the uselessness of vengeance. Scott directs Miryea's brutal treatment with the same stylized touch as the rest of the movie. Those billowing curtains return during a rape scene, which feels like it must be an ironic contrast. I'm not saying any of this okay but, if you're willing to accept the amoral world "Revenge" takes place in, it makes sense. Everyone is treated equally harshly in this story.

Such brutality, naturally, proceeds a downbeat ending. Incoming spoiler alert for a thirty-one year old movie: Cochran does find Miryea but it's too late. She is dying of AIDS. He carries her into the sunset, holds her in his arms, and she dies. In less adapt hands, this ending would've been a massive disappointment. The characters suffer through all of this, only for her to die literally minutes after they are reunited? Yet, somehow, it works. Cochran's roaring rampage of revenge being futile certainly creates a message about how vengeance itself is a self-destructive desire. Moreover, a tearful ending fits "Revenge's" hopeless world. Like I said, a woman -- still looking gorgeous even as she's ravaged by a horrible disease -- existing primarily to be abused by men and die in her boyfriend's arms is probably sexist. Yet, in the brutally nasty noir neither world of "Revenge," it all fits. There's no other way this story could end.

There's certainly plenty of evidence to suggest that a lot of thought was put into this ending as well. Before sealing Miryea's fate, Cochran has his confrontation with Tibey. Instead of the righteously violent shootout you'd probably expect from a Tony Scoot, the climax is contemplative. These men were once the best of friends. Both feel a massive amount of regret for what they've done to each other. Both have lost everything, in their quest to visit revenge on each other. It makes a violent ending unnecessary, as they've both already taken what they love most from each other. It doesn't change "Revenge's" status as a movie about manly men and their manly feelings. Yet it continues the idea that revenge is pointless. The audience is denied all absolution in this story.

Even though Kevin Costner's passion for the novel is ultimately what got "Revenge" made, he ends up being the weak link in the film. It's a little hard to accept wholesome, all-American Kevin Costner as a man whose heart is blackened by his all-consuming desire for revenge. Even as a guy who would sleep with his best friend's wife, he's a little less than believable. Costner double-downs on the hard-boiled act for most of the movie, trying to sell himself as a bad-ass who has seen some shit. There's something in his delivery that feels ingenuine. I don't even think Costner is a bad actor and he does his best here, even working pretty well in a few scenes. (Like the deliberate, drawn-out throat slashing scene.) I just think he was miscast. 

The rest of the cast might make up for it. Madeleine Stowe is gorgeous as Miryea and the story doesn't really require her to be much more, other than heartbreakingly fragile. Anthony Quinn, as Tibey, is more subdued than you'd expect for a great actor that was long into the hammiest portion of his career by this point. One of the most enjoyable things about "Revenge" is how colorful characters weave in and out of its story. Such as James Gammon, as a mysterious fellow known only as the Texan, who appears for a string of funny and memorable moments before dropping out of the story. Miguel Ferrer and John Leguizamo show up near the end as a pair of hardened bandits who help Cochran out, both being perfectly deployed. Even Sally Kirkland, showing up as a loud-mouthed woman who attempts to pick up Costner at a bar, provides some much needed comic relief in her handful of scenes. I've got to respect a movie that makes room for colorful character actors in its story, let's the, do their thing, and then happily moves on. 

"Revenge" was not all that well received in 1990. Reviews were largely negative, some accusing the film of being a vanity project for Costner or that Tony Scott was still all style, no substance. The box office was also underwhelming. Yet, in time, the film would attract some defenders. John Harrison found the film so close to what he envisioned in his novel that he was supposedly moved to tears. Quentin Tarantino is, famously, a big proponent of the movie. By 2007, "Revenge" had acquired enough of a following for Tony Scott to create a director's cut for the Blu-Ray release. Proving Tony is the more considerate of the Scott brothers, the director's cut is actually twenty minutes shorter than the theatrical version. While Costner's off-tone performance keeps "Revenge" from being perfect, it is a compellingly cynical motion picture, stylishly directed and with an unforgettable mean streak that leaves a real impact on the viewer. [Grade: B+]