Out of the Furnace

 Out of the Furnace 2013

Director: Scott Cooper

• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Willem DaFoe, Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard, Forest Whittaker
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Christian Bale – The Dark Knight Rises, Public Enemies, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Batman Begins, Equilibrium, American Psycho, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Velvet Goldmine, Prince of Jutland, Swing Kids, Henry V
• Casey Affleck – Light of My Life, Manchester by the Sea, Interstellar, Gone Baby Gone, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Lonesome Jim, Hamlet, Good Will Hunting
• Woody Harrelson – Zombieland 1&2, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Glass Castle, Hunger Games 1-4, 2012, Battle in Seattle, No Country for Old Men, A Scanner Darkly, Prairie Home Companion, North Country, EDtv, White Men Can’t Jump
• Willem Dafoe – The Lighthouse, Murder on the Orient Express, The Fault in Our Stars, Fireflies in the Garden, Paris je t’aime, Manderlay, the Aviator, Once upon a Time in Mexico, American Psycho, eXistenZ, Lulu on the Bridge, The English Patient, Wild at Heart, Cry-Baby, Born on the Fourth of July, Mississippi Is Burning, The Last Temptation of Christ, Platoon, Streets of Fire
• Zoe Saldana – Guardians of the Galaxy, Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl
• Sam Shepard – August Osage County, Hamlet, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Pelican Brief, Steel Magnolias, Frances
• Forest Whittaker – Black Panther, Rogue One, Arrival, The Butler, Repo Men, The Great Debaters, The Last King of Scotland, Smoke, The Crying Game, Bird, Good Morning Vietnam, Platoon, Fast Times at Ridgmont High
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 3 August 2022      

       Russell (Bale) is released from prison and starts working in an Appalachian steel mill. His brother Rodney (Affleck) has done four tours in Iraq and is now bitter, angry, unemployed and in debt. Their father has died, and Russell’s girlfriend Lena (Saldana) is now together with police chief Wesley Barnes (Whitaker).

       Rodney tries to deal with his debts by knuckle fighting and gets into trouble with vicious sadistic Harlan’s (Harrelson).

       It’s a classic story of brothers, both caught in the bottom ranks of a rotting economic system, one trying to survive with dignity, the other fighting back knowing he will lose.

       It’s a grim and bleak look at how masculinity and poverty destroys men. The vigilante hero theme diminishes the political strength of the film and the gun chase ending detracts from the taut psychological drama. Despite the good performances of the cast, it doesn’t reach as high as it should have. 

3 ½* of 5