Review of Payback (1999) by Em F — 31 Oct 2009

Seeing the Directors Cut has added this a star. In fact, there should be an option to review them seperately as they are 2 very different films.

Gone is the clunky"hard-boiled" voice over, the horrible oh-so-90s bleach-bypass look and the 3rd act is completely different.

There was nothing wrong persay with Mel's Christian Bale-style V/O but it really didn't need one and the movie breathes more without it.

As for the look of the film, the theatrical version was so overly but hamfistedly stylised that it looked like someone had rammped the colour and contrast down on your tv and hidden the remote. The D/C version (and watch it on Bluray if you can) looks amazing. The contrast has been significantly lifted so you can actually see what's going on in a scene and the colour has returned too. It now has a crisper, sharper, fresher look whilst still having the quality seen in the likes of Serpico, Taxi Driver or The French Connection.

Act 3 of the theatrical version utilised rewrites, re-shoots and the hiring of actors not previously on the project. Kris Kristofferson is not in the D/C.

In this new (although, more acurately, old) version his role was originally conceived as a facless, female voice on the end of a phone. SO what we don't get now is the the bullshit kidknapping plot, the hammering of the toes or the explosion at the climax.

Helgeland's original 3rd act is superior on every level, still violent (more so in a colder way) and far, far more satisfying. Oh, and they also kill the dog in the D/C!

Having watched Helgelands original vision I immediately went back and watched the Theatrical Cut and I can easily state that in this case, the Directors Cut is no cynical studio ploy to wring a few extra bucks out of the public; it is as different as chalk & cheese and all the better for it.