Payback
USA 1998
Reviewed by Nick Roddick
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Criminals Porter and Resnick rob some Chinese gangsters; Porter's wife Lynn drives the getaway car. But Lynn and Resnick betray and shoot Porter, leaving him for dead. They take off with the $140,00 proceeds. However, Porter survives and decides to get back his share of the money and take revenge on Resnick. His first stop is Lynn, whom he tries to cure of her heroin addiction. But she overdoses on a hidden stash. Porter tracks down the heroin's supplier, Stegman. While confronting Stegman, he attracts the attention of two corrupt cops, Hicks and Leary, who decide to keep tabs on Porter and take the money if he finds it. Porter links up with ex-girlfriend Rosie, a callgirl who works for the same syndicate - "the Outfit" - which Resnick used the money to buy into.
Rosie tells Porter where to find Resnick, which he does, demanding his share of the money. Resnick enlists the help of Outfit boss Carter and alerts the Chinese gangs to Porter's whereabouts through his dominatrix Pearl. Porter is rescued from the Chinese by Hicks and Leary. He eliminates Resnick and Carter, and kidnaps the son of Outfit boss Bronson. Pursued by the Chinese and watched by Hicks and Leary, Porter closes in on his $70,000 against steadily increasing odds.
Review
"Unattractive rehash of Point Blank with much more gratuitous violence." So reads the tenth edition of Halliwell's Film Guide entry on The Outfit, John Flynn's 1973 movie adapted from the novel The Hunter, which had also inspired John's Boorman's 1967 film. Frankly, Payback deserves the same one-line dismissal, even given the talents involved and the handful of gracenotes that make it sporadically watchable. Like its two predecessors, it abandons the novel's title for one which stresses the story's elemental side but without aspiring to any of the metaphyscial trappings that elevate Boorman's movie.
Accompanied by a voiceover that rivals Nick Nolte's in The Thin Red Line for world-weariness, Mel Gibson strides through the bleached-out colours of the all-purpose US city (actually Chicago), meting out his own brand of justice in a series of locations - seedy pool halls, ornate gangster hotels - which belong more to film noir than to reality. If the same could be said of Gibson's character and the handling of the action by director Brian Helgeland, Payback would be a much better film. Both star and director seem to be more interested in playing off perceptions of Gibson's on-screen persona than in actually telling the story, which lurches along from one violent set piece to the next. "No More Mr Nice Guy" is the promotional tag for the film, and Gibson rams the point home in the early scenes, stealing money from a beggar, cigarettes from a waitress and the wherewithal to begin his vendetta from an anonymous passer-by whose pocket he picks.
But that is only the beginning, as Gibson's Porter whacks, slices and drills holes in anyone coming between him and his money, while the Outfit and its thugs reciprocate with a series of even more unpleasant acts (one involves a large hammer and two of Gibson's toes). But while Helgeland helped to write the book as far as post-modernist film noir is concerned (he co-scripted L.A. Confidential with Curtis Hanson), he keeps falling off the log when it comes to balancing violent action with ironic lightness of touch. Even Sergio Leone (scarcely the most understated of directors) did a less heavy-handed job with Henry Fonda's fall from grace in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
All that's left is: a series of occasionally witty one-liners; over-the-top performances by Brian De Palma regular Gregg Henry as a sexually hung-up psychopath and Ally McBeal's Lucy Alexis Liu as his leather-clad dominatrix; a string of character actors either underused (Bill Duke, Deborah Kara Unger) or simply uncredited (James Coburn as an entertainingly epicene mob boss who winces when a cohort spills some of Porter's blood on his suit); some Chinese gangsters midway between the racism of Cimino's Year of the Dragon and the knockabout of Laurel & Hardy; and the running gag of Porter trying to make the Outfit understand that he is only after his share of the loot: $70,000, not the whole $140,000 that Resnick paid them. Imagine Gibson's resigned rolling of the eyes - one of the actor's trademark tics - as yet another hood says "$140,000", add in a lot of heavy-handed gore and you pretty much have Payback. Everyone - including Gibson - deserves better.
Credits
- Producer
- Bruce Davey
- Screenplay
- Brian Helgeland
- Terry Hayes
- Based on novel The Hunter by
- Richard Stark
- [Donald E. Westlake]
- Director of Photography
- Ericson Core
- Editor
- Kevin Stitt
- Production Designer
- Richard Hoover
- Music
- Chris Boardman
- ©Warner Bros.
- Production Companies
- Paramount Pictures presents an Icon production
- Executive Producer
- Stephen McEveety
- Production Co-ordinator
- Gregg Edler
- Production Manager
- New York:
- Pamela Thur
- Unit Production Manager
- Jim Lemley
- Location Manager
- Andrew L. Ullman
- 2cd Unit Director
- Mic Rodgers
- Assistant Directors
- Mark Cotone
- Laura Nisbet
- Chicago:
- Jayson Merrill
- Franklyn Gottbetter
- 2nd Unit:
- Forrest L. Futrell
- Jennifer D'Angelo Kircher
- Script Supervisors
- P.R. Tooke
- Chicago:
- Sioux Richards-McLane
- Casting
- Marion Dougherty
- Additional:
- Jane Alderman Casting
- Associate:
- Douglas Wright
- Camera Operators
- Mark O'Kane
- Malcolm M. Brown
- Steadicam Operator
- Mark O'Kane
- Digital Effects
- P.O.P. Film
- Special Effects
- Supervisor:
- Bob Stoker
- Technicians:
- Blair L. Foord
- Mario Vanillo
- Chicago Technicians:
- Frank Krenmuller
- Mike Ahasay
- Art Directors
- Troy Sizemore
- Chicago:
- Caty Maxey
- Set Designers
- Adam Scher
- Gina B. Cranham
- Set Decorators
- Sandy Struth
- Chicago:
- Daniel B. Clancy
- Costume Designer
- Ha Nguyen
- Costume Supervisor
- Kimberly Guenther
- Make-up
- The Beauty Bucket
- Julie Hewett
- Medusah
- Mindy Hall
- Jennifer Bell
- Special Prosthetics
- Matthew W. Mungle
- Titles/Opticals
- Pacific Title/Mirage
- Musicians
- Guitar Solos:
- John Goux
- Sophistifunk Band:
- Greg Bissonette
- Mendel Baylitz
- Luis Conte
- Steve Forman
- Neal Stubenhaus
- Orchestrations
- Chris Boardman
- William Ross
- Executive in Charge of Music for Icon Productions
- David Culiner
- Music Editors
- Supervisors:
- Jim Harrison
- Michael T. Ryan
- Additional:
- Jeanette Surga
- Scoring Mixers
- Frank Wolf
- Tom Vicari
- John Richards
- Soundtrack
- "Anniversary Song" by Al Jolson, Saul Chaplin, performed by Chris Boardman; "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown, Betty Newsome, performed by James Brown; "Sway" by Pablo Beltrán, Norman Gimbel, performed by Dean Martin; "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" by Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern, performed by Vic Damone; "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" by James Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn, performed by Dean Martin; "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" by/performed by Jimi Hendrix; "The Thrill Is Gone" by Rick Darnell, Roy Hawkins, performed by B.B. King; "Luck Be a Lady" by Frank Loesser, performed by Michael Civisca; "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" by James Cavanaugh, Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, performed by Dean Martin; "If I Had My Life to Live Over" by Moe Jaffe, Henry Tobias, Larry Vincent, performed by Lou Rawls
- Sound Design
- Fury & Grace Digital
- Sound Supervisors
- Jon Johnson
- Bruce Stubblefield
- Production Sound Mixer
- Geoffrey Lucius Patterson
- Narration Mixer
- Dean Drabin
- Re-recording Mixers
- Chris Carpenter
- Rick Kline
- Bill W. Benton
- Recordists
- Tim Webb
- Bill Meadows
- Re-recording Stage Engineer
- Dave Bergstrom
- Sound Editors
- Michael Chandler
- Ben Wilkins
- Miguel Rivera
- Keith Bilderbeck
- John K. Adams
- Dialogue Editors
- Robert Troy
- Trip Brock
- Beth Bergeron
- Stephanie Flack
- Bobbi Banks
- Solange Schwalbe
- ADR
- Group Co-ordinator:
- Burton Sharp
- Recordist:
- Carolyn Sauer
- Mixer:
- Wheldon Brown
- Foley
- Artists:
- Ed Steidele
- Dominique Decaudain
- Mixer:
- Kyle Rochlin
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Mic Rodgers
- Animal Handlers
- Birds and Animals Unlimited
- Helicopter Pilot
- Al Cerullo
- Film Extract
- The Devil's Advocate
(1997)- Cast
- Mel Gibson
- Porter
- Gregg Henry
- Val Resnick
- Maria Bello
- Rosie
- David Paymer
- Stegman
- Bill Duke
- Detective Hicks
- Deborah Kara Unger
- Lynn Porter
- John Glover
- Phil
- William Devane
- Mr Carter
- Lucy Alexis Liu
- Pearl
- Jack Conley
- Detective Leary
- Kris Kristofferson
- Bronson
- Mark Alfa
- Johnny's friend 2
- Kwame Amoaku
- radioman
- Justin Ashforth
- Michael, the bartender
- Len Bajenski
- Fairfax bodyguard 1
- Kate Buddeke
- counter girl
- Price Carson
- Bronson's heavy 1
- Roddy Chiong
- Chow's thug 2
- Art Cohan
- Bronson's heavy 2
- Andrew Cooper
- whipping boy
- James Deuter
- tailor
- Doc Duhame
- fatboy
- David Dunard
- doctor
- Nathan Effron
- Johnny's friend
- Tom Equin
- razor clean 1
- Brian Heinberg
- bartender 2
- Alex Henteloff
- Varrick's manager
- Jeff Imada
- Chow's bodyguard
- Michael Ingram
- Chow's thug 1
- Robert Kim
- Chow's courier
- Robert Kurcz
- Oakwood arms manager
- Turk Muller
- black suit
- Chet Nichols
- Oakwood arms tough 1
- George O'Mara
- driver
- Yasen Peyankov
- panhandler
- Ed Pfeifer
- Ed Johnson
- Katrina Phillips
- teller
- Freddy Rodriguez
- punk messenger
- Michael Skewes
- Fairfax bodyguard 2
- Alex Skuby
- Oakwood arms tough 2
- Trevor St. John
- Johnny Bronson
- Lee Stepp
- bar patron
- Daniel Patrick Sullivan
- razor clean 2
- Tedd Taskey
- waiter
- Manu Tupou
- pawnbroker
- Marc Vann
- Gray
- [uncredited]
- James Coburn
- Justin Fairfax
- Certificate
- 18
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors (UK)
- 9,099 feet
- 101 minutes 6 seconds
- (7 seconds cut)
- Dolby digital
- Colour by
- DeLuxe
- Super 35 [1:2.35]