Dead Man’s Shoes is made by Warp films. It shows from the soundtrack. It is quite possible that the company also imparted a touch of a minimalist attitude to this stripped down production too. Shane Meadows had vanished into an almost twee parody of himself in Once Upon A Time In The Midlands. In Dead Man’s Shoes he finally fulfills a lot of that promise, with what is a simple, grubby, nasty revenge film.
Yes, I was not that keen on seeing a revenge film. But cleverly Meadows manages to get us to find the bad guys, those upon whom revenge is taken, amusing and human. Admittedly in a rubbish smalltown inept gangster way. But it is getting them to display their fearful fumblings alongside the flashback of their crime that manags to get these otherwise identikit wide boys a personality.
Of course there is something quite nice about seeing rubbish characters who would otherwise be lauded in a Guy Ritchie film, get picked off. There is almost a suggestion that this is all there is at the heart of the film, so it is nice to see in the final third the film examine its own morality. A nasty revenge film that is both hilarious and deeply moral. Whodathunkit?