Revenge (1990) – Review

To say that Tony Scott had an eclectic filmography is something of an understatement. Kicking off his feature career with goth vampire arthouse flick, The Hunger and then somehow pivoting to be the glossy face of the 80’s blockbuster with films such as Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop II, he went into the 90’s bouncing from throwback, Shane Black scripted action, to quirky, Quentin Tarantino scripted thriller before settling on becoming a frequent collaborator with Denzel Washington before his untimely death in 2012. To make my point more clear, thanks to the wide variety of genres and tones, it’s pretty tough to select a movie of his that sticks out as being abnormal when compared to the rest of his filmography – however, for better or worse, Revenge somehow manages it.
A steamy, violent thriller set south of the border, the movie has since undergone the director’s cut treatment since it’s first release in 1990, but interestingly enough, where most post release tinkered films grow longer, Scott shaved a whopping twenty minutes out of it in back 2007 to offer up a very different (read: steamier and more violent) experience.

Retiring pilot Michael J. Cochran is giving up the U.S. Navy and fighter jets to chill out with his dog, but a gift of twin, Beretta shotguns from an old friend convinces him to take some time and visit his buddy in his lavish hacienda in Mexico. Quite how a fighter pilot and notorious crime boss, Tiburon Mendez become such fast friends is sort of left up to the imagination (I’m guessing Cochran once flew for him, maybe?), but after arriving, Michael is shown every courtesy by his host even if the brash pilot doesn’t always play nice with his friend’s criminal cohorts.
However, matters are made infinitely more complicated – not to mention fucking dangerous – when Cochran’s eye is caught by Tiburon’s impressively hot, young wife Miryea, and thanks to his glances being reciprocated, the two soon embark on a torrid and surprisingly spicy fling that really can only end one way. Inevitably, the pair are caught as they spend an illicit weekend in Cochran’s cabin and both pay terrible prices. While Cochran is beaten half to death and left in a bloody heap to expire either in the heat of his blazing cabin or under the punishing Mexican sun, Miryea has her face slashed and is sent to spend the rest of her days as a heroin addicted sex slave in a brothel. However, with the aid of a local who has prior beef with the crime lord, Cochran is eventually nursed back to health and vows to track down Miryea and save her from her terrible fate.
However, what actually goes down is something a lot more sedate. While a lot of other movies would have our hero tool up and instantly take that revenge that’s so handily suggested in the title, he goes on more of an odyssey as he has to painstakingly has to heal like an actual human and work out where his lady love is being kept which takes time she might not have considering her clientele.

I have to admit, I’ve never seen the theatrical, two hour plus version of Revenge, but judging by the far more direct version given to us by the director’s cut, I figure it might have been rather interminable. Even in its pared down version, Scott’s morally compromised thriller takes a surprisingly long time to get going and anyone expecting a rip roaring, excessive quest for justice in the vein of a 80’s John Wick might very well be bamboozled by the path that Scott takes. While he takes a lot of time focusing on the unlikely bromance between a crime lord and a fighter pilot (?), he also manages to draw the actual revenge out to the point where you’d swear that Cochran is taking his damn time as he has to locate his lover from scratch. While more typical revenge movies usually involve the hero beating literally every snippet of information he needs out of some henchman and then getting straight to business, Scott’s Revenge is deliberately more ambiguous than than that as Cochran’s path to payback proves to be morally compromised at very turn.
That’s right, even with cinema’s boy scout, Kevin Costner, involved, Revenge turns out to be a film that doesn’t shy away from the fact that our leads all do pretty, shitty things. Anthony Quinn’s Tiburon may be a tyrannical crime lord – but he does genuinely love Cochran like a son and even though his retaliation is brutal and terrible (Madeleine Stowe’s Miryea certainly gets the rougher end of the stick and no mistake), he has actually been wronged by two people he trusts. As a result, we’re supposed to work out who actually is getting the revenge of the title – is it Costner who really did bring this on himself by not being able to keep it in his pants, or is it a murderous, jealous old man who is genuinely hurt at this betrayal?

However, due to its rather sprawling story, passionate affairs and ambiguous morals, Tony Scott seems to have somehow possibly either made the world’s nastiest Mexican telenovela, or he’s given us what the music video for Enrique Iglesias’ Hero could have looked like if it had been directed by Walter Hill. To be fair, the whole rambling telenovela feel is actually the main thing that ultimately drew me to the movie as it not only makes it quite unpredictable (it certainly has a downbeat ending, that’s for sure), but weird as fuck. There’s literally no need for Cochran to get sidetracked by hanging out with James Gammon’s ailing Texan horse seller, or spend so much time with Miguel Ferrer’s helpful thug, especially as Miryea’s life is literally in the toilet, but it gives the film a weird, almost surreal feel.
OK, so compared to a lot of the director’s other works, Revenge ends up being a lesser effort from Scott no matter which version you watch, but I have to say, it certainly held my attention and while it’s cruel tone won’t be to everyone’s tastes, it’s shot with that luscious eye that graces all of the auteur’s work. Just look at how many unnecessary candles are burning away in virtually every location and tell me that Scott isn’t trying to make the movie sizzle even before Costner and Stowe engage in some surprisingly graphic serial chicanery that makes Kev’s back-of-a-limo fumblings with Sean Young in No Way Out look positively chaste in comparison. However, while I did find watching this version of Revenge utterly fascinating as a Tony Scott fan, his first attempt at approaching non-populist fare since the disastrous reception offered to The Hunger proves to be more of a beguiling oddity that treats its more ludicrous elements with stone cold seriousness that just makes things even weirder. It’s no surprise that that he immediately retreated back into more openly gaudy fare with Days Of Thunder and The Last Boy Scout.

Long term Scottheads (as his fans have never once been referred to before now) will no doubt spot many similarities with 2004’s Man On Fire, the other film Scott made concerning kidnapping, murder and revenge that probably proved to be a gargantuan pain for the Mexican tourist board – but even beyond seeing the director dive headlong into morally ambiguous thrillers and the sight of Costner and Stowe go at it like frenzied teens, Revenge proves both to be a confounding disappointment and a genuinely intriguing, gritty and insanely horny take on south of the border soap operas.
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