Vengeful shepherds do battle in ‘Bring Them Down’
It’s hard to tell if “Bring Them Down” is a movie title or a mission statement crafted by rookie writer-director Chris Andrews. For there is no joy where we lay our scene, only misery born of moral and financial bankruptcy. Yet, the story is timeless. Strip away the presence of cell phones, motorized vehicles, and computers and the events we witness in a secluded Irish hamlet could be occurring at any time or place within the past hundreds of years.
That’s sheep country for you. It never changes. Neither do its inhabitants, a collection of embittered, vengeful individuals with an unbending allegiance to God and the Old Testament principle of an eye for an eye. Even the slightest of injuries shall be retaliated against twofold. Kids today would call it “going all gangsta.” Certainly not the behavior of the shepherds heralded in scripture. Here, thy rod and thy staff are sources of discomfort, possibly even weapons. But what is it that stirs such hostilities?
In this case, it was a highly preventable car accident that took place some 20 years earlier on a winding rural lane. At the wheel was Michael (Christopher Abbott), an excitable boy whose response to the news of his mam’s plans to leave his da was to apply pedal to the metal. Never mind that his beloved mother was in the passenger seat and his lovely lass, Caroline (Nora-Jane Noone), directly behind her. They were all going to crash together.
I suspect what Michael was driving toward was death for all three, but only Ma met her end. A far worse fate awaited Michael and the forever physically scarred Caroline. For them, the wreckage is permanent. And it’s only gotten worse as their lives collide again courtesy of Caroline’s troubled adult son, Jack (Barry Keoghan), who like Michael 20 years earlier, isn’t cool with the idea of his mam ditching da, Gary (Paul Ready). And like his mam’s ex, he goes off the rails. But instead of crashing a car, he opts for something far less extreme, like rustling two of Michael’s prized rams.
Unfortunately for Jack, his raid sets ablaze a conflagration that threatens to consume everyone in its path, including Michael’s irascible, browbeating Da, Ray (Colm Meaney), whose unfettered resentment toward his son has literally left him wobbly kneed. Will sanity ever prevail? Don’t count on it.
The carnage that ensues strongly suggests a Peckinpah influence, the Yank filmmaker who found his niche directing nihilistic masterpieces such as “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” and “The Wild Bunch.” But I’m convinced it’s Peckinpah’s ultra-violent “Straw Dogs” from which Andrews draws major inspiration. Both dramas leave the bucolic Irish countryside splashed with blood, and much like Dustin Hoffman’s milquetoast character, Abbott’s Gaelic-speaking Michael is driven to commit acts seemingly antithetical to his nature.
It makes for compelling cinema, but I must caution you that the film’s most savage acts are inflicted upon the most innocent – the sheep. If you’re an animal lover, you may wish to steer clear. And by all means, don’t get too attached to Michael’s sweet and loyal herding pup. It can be very difficult to watch. But there’s a deeper significance to these sacrificial lambs. After all, isn’t it often the most guileless who end up the unwitting victims of unchecked male aggression?
Andrews makes his points competently and succinctly, but I’m not a fan of his approach to telling the story twice, once from Michael’s perspective and later from Jack’s vantage point. It’s interesting to experience the variation in empathy, but it’s more often repetitive and disrupts the movie’s otherwise brisk pacing. It does, however, solidify the message Andrews is conveying about the lethality of toxic masculinity, as well as the bitterness and abuse handed down from generation to generation.
It’s the latter that rings truest in a film that ironically makes its plea for peace with displays of cruelty against man and beast. There are no heroes or villains, just desperate people caught in dire economic and familial straits. It’s wild and wool-ly and sure to provoke anxiety in you and ewe.
Movie review
Bring Them Down
Rated: R for violent content, brief drug use, some grisly images, language throughout
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Barry Keoghan, Nora-Jane Noone, Colm Meaney and Paul Ready
Director: Chris Andrews
Writer: Chris Andrews and Jonathan Hourigan
Runtime: 106 minutes
Where: In theaters Feb. 7 (limited)
Grade: B
