Review of Pusher III (2005) by Aaron & — 02 Mar 2009

Milo is your god. You must worship him.

Well, no. But he is clearly as fascinating a lead as Tonny from part two. Zlatko Buric is a such a chilling villain in part one because it's such an about face. In the beginning, when Frank's doing good business with him, his Milo presents a charming, almost fatherly figure. But when Frank borrows from him, gets a run of bad luck and can't pay up, Milo puts the the screws to him in the worst way. And that's a horror we can all relate to, and from both perspectives: the horror of a friend turning on us when it suits him, and the necessity of turning on a friend when it is what we have to do.

Part 3 lets us into that second perspective, into Milo's world. The plot mirrors aspects of the stories from the first two films. Like Frank, Milo finds himself under the ax when a deal goes awry and he can't pay his suppliers. and Like Tonny, he sees in his circumstances a shot of redemption, a chance of becoming a better man. But Milo's curse is that he can only bring himself to do the smart thing, to look out for #1 no matter how brutal he has to be. And what's worse is, in the end he knows his days are numbered. His trade is all he knows, and as he grows older, he will grow weaker and his friends will grow fewer. There is doom in his future.