Dir.
Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark, 2005, 96 mins
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Leif Sylvester Petersen, Anne Sorensen, Ojvind Hagen-Traberg
Just in case there was any doubt, I'm not a sociologist and I've never been to Denmark. In other words I'm not equipped to say whether Pusher 2 with its grainy air of authenticity is in fact a credible portrayal of organised crime in its country of origin.
Voyeurism may be inherent in cinema but less inevitable and perhaps more regrettable is the posturing of those, critics included, who somehow feel that they've experienced violence through watching a movie. They've received a figurative blooding at the hands of the filmmaker and are disposed to praise the film as a result. You'll see them swaggering from the cinema like hoods.
Pusher 2 offers more than cheap thrills for jaded middle-class sensibilities. I cannot say whether it earns its realism through a fidelity to real people, environments or events but I can say that as a film it feels emotionally true. It makes for extremely uncomfortable viewing. Violence is for the most part threatened rather than delivered creating an ominous sense of dread that permeates every scene.
Not so much thrilling as chastening, at the epicentre of this tough but depressing drama from director Nicolas Winding Refn is a terrific performance from Mads Mikkelsen as Tonny, the central character. Returning home from prison Tonny attempts to regain the respect of his father Smeden, a vicious Copenhagen gangster. Tonny wants to be like his father but his feckless bravado serves to earn Smeden's contempt.
Tonny is a few cards short of a full deck. He lives a bleak reality yet he still worships the gangster myth of respect. He passes his time watching porn, failing to screw prostitutes and taking cocaine. Then he learns that he is a father. With no money does Tonny, this well-meaning but moronic thug, have anything else to give his son? Or is Tonny's son doomed to repeat his father's miserable trajectory through life?
Pusher 2 is preoccupied with the sins of the father and provides an unflinching depiction of the ways in which criminal culture perpetuates itself. Beyond that the film succeeds because it focuses upon the human element. Refn has said, 'I don't have any interest in crime or drugs or anything in that matter whatsoever, but I do find it interesting dealing with people under pressure'. Tonny continually puts himself under pressure through his own stupid mistakes. He's brutal yet bewildered.
In the prologue a prison inmate tells Tonny that he must act without fear to earn the fear of others. Whether Tonny achieves such an act, or respect through other means, is debatable. Like the moviegoer hooked on the silver screen he is ensnared by semi-conscious fantasies and half-lived desires. The cocaine keeps him and those around him going. It seems too much to hope that he will emerge blinking into the light. With its industrial setting and soundtrack Pusher 2 makes for an uncompromising statement of a life lived in darkness.
Peter Fraser
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