I thought this article was interesting as it sheds some light on the film and a couple scenes in particular. From the Toronto International Film Festival website: http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2005/film ... hed&id=222
Production Company: EuropaCorp/Revolver Pictures Co.
Executive Producer: Steve Christian
Producer: Luc Besson, Pierre Spengler, Virginie Silla-Besson
Screenplay: Guy Ritchie
Cinematography: Tim Maurice Jones
Editor: James Herbert, Ian Differ, Romesh Aluwihare
Production Designer: Eve Stewart
Sound: Simon Hayes
Music: Marco Beltrami
Principal Cast: Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Vincent Pastore, Andre Benjamin, Terrence Maynard
“The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look.”
- Julius Caesar, quoted in Revolver
Guy Ritchie is back with Revolver, a ferocious new crime thriller set in a high-stakes world where everything is a game and winner takes all. But just who is playing whom?
Jake Green (Ritchie mainstay Jason Statham) lives one long sting. After seven years of incarceration with a chess master in one neighbouring cell and a top con artist in the other, Jake has learned all the secrets of manipulation, graft and deceit. Now he is out and gunning for Macha (a seething Ray Liotta), the most ruthless gangster in town - and the man who killed Jake’s sister-in-law and sent him up the river. Jake draws first blood, humiliating Macha at the casino tables. Macha retaliates by putting a hit out on Jake, but he is twice saved by a mysterious duo who soon identify themselves as Avi (Andre Benjamin) and Zach (Vincent Pastore). Somehow, they seem to hold Jake’s life in their hands, for good or for ill. Are they friend, foe or simply sent to control Jake’s prodigious abilities?
Ritchie’s film is carried by Jake’s brooding inner monologue, which we soon learn cannot always be trusted. Is Jake who he thinks he is, or is he trapped in a game far more perilous than he ever thought possible? And who is this mythic master criminal Sam Gold, rumoured to be capable of controlling people’s thoughts?
With its many twists and turns, this arresting mind game riffs relentlessly on fascinating existential themes. It is also packed with inventive, dynamic visual treats: a car accident plays itself out backwards in slow-motion, while a bravura set piece involving Jake, Avi and Zach intercepting a drug deal is rendered with animation and wildly inventive editing. Ritchie’s stupefying house of mirrors constantly surprises, pulling the rug out from under you time after time until the credits roll.
Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield in Hertfordshire, England. He started his career making music videos and commercials before directing his first feature, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (98), which followed the short The Hard Case (95). He went on to direct the video for Madonna’s “What It Feels Like for a Girl,” the short film Star (01) and the features Snatch (01) and Swept Away (02). Revolver (05) is his fourth feature film.
Associated with European Film Promotion,
an initiative supported by the
European Union’s MEDIA Programme.
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