Where would American culture be without revenge? The desire for retribution runs like a bloody stream through that nation's drama, fiction and cinema. Feuds powered the works of William Faulkner and Mark Twain. Films such as Rolling Thunder, Point Blank and The Big Heat brought violent revenge to the big screen. Maybe it's an Old Testament thing.
A word-of-mouth smash at last year's Cannes, Jeremy Saulnier's crowd-funded feature proves a distinguished addition to the canon of unstoppable vengeance. Though coloured by indie sensibilities, Blue Ruin offers the momentum of hard-edged pulp and the viscera of full-on exploitation cinema. Please make it a hit.
We begin by following a homeless man called Dwight (the purposefully blank Macon Blair) as he goes through his largely harmless daily rituals. It seems as if Dwight has gotten into the habit of breaking into homes to use the bathroom, but he doesn’t steal anything of value. Most of the time, Dwight lives miserably in his decayed car.
The story properly kicks off when a police officer informs him that a significant individual is about to be released from prison. Dwight takes a knife and journeys forth in search of unholy retribution.
By this point, the audience will have assembled most elements in Dwight's backstory. Wade Cleland, the liberated convict, was convicted of killing our hero's family and is, it seems, ultimately responsible for propelling him into vagrancy. Following s bloody encounter in a lavatory, Dwight soon has the entire Cleland clan on his back.
Blue Ruin is peppered by a series of nicely disgusting set-pieces (Dwight's hopeless attempt to remove an arrow from his leg is blackly hilarious) and distinguished by a steady, unremitting accumulation of tension. Saulnier's own glassy cinematography does much to convey the damp fug of the American south. There are amusing, telling asides concerning the promiscuous availability of guns in the US.
What sets the film apart, however, is Macon Blair’s hopeless, pathetic performance. Dwight is no ruthless avenger. The film concerns a very ordinary, very fragile human being driven nearly crazy by the demands of being human. We’re still telling Old Testament tales.
