Revenge (1990)

[7]

[This review is of the Director’s Cut of the film, not the original theatrical release.]

Kevin Costner falls in love with his boss’s wife and lives to suffer the consequences in this brutal but stylish action/drama from director Tony Scott (True Romance, Top Gun). The script sets up a friendly, almost father-and-son relationship between Costner and his boss, played by Anthony Quinn. The relationship between the two men is more grounded than the one between Costner and Madeleine Stowe, who plays Quinn’s wife. I found it hard to sympathize with Costner early in the film. But once Quinn finds out what’s going on, the film goes out of its way to make sure you know who the bad guy is. Quinn unleashes fire, death, and mutilation upon the illicit lovers in an act of vengeance almost unparalleled in Hollywood studio movies.

On one hand, I love that Quinn is a sympathetic character up to a point. I just wish I sympathized with Costner and Stowe more. But after that ‘act of vengeance’, the movie really finds its stride. It becomes a seek and destroy mission for Costner and anyone who will help him get back on his legs, find his love (if she’s still alive), and kill her husband. Some great actors join him on his journey, including James Gammon, Sally Kirkland, Miguel Ferrer, and John Leguizamo. This is a quintessential Tony Scott film, an action-oriented exercise in style. The sex and the violence are ratcheted up to the max, but so is the visceral and emotional impact. To put it another way: I wasn’t quite prepared for this movie.