''Revolver'' is a 2005 film, written and directed by Guy Ritchie.
The film stars Jason Statham as Jake Green, Ray Liotta as Dorothy Macha, and André Benjamin (a.k.a. "André 3000") as Avi. It centers on a revenge-seeking confidence trickster whose weapon is a universal formula that guarantees victory to its user, when applied to any game or confidence trick. This is the fourth feature film by Ritchie and his third to center on crime and professional criminals. It was released in UK theaters on September 22, 2005, but performed poorly at the box office. A reworked version was released to a limited number of US theaters on December 7, 2007.
Plot
After spending seven years in solitary confinement during which his sister-in-law is murdered, confidence trickster Jake Green (
Jason Statham) is out to get revenge on Dorothy Macha (
Ray Liotta), a corrupt casino boss.
Dorothy Macha was involved in illegal gambling all over the city. With the help of three goons, known as "the three Eddies", he controlled several games that took place in the underground. On one occasion, just before a big game, Macha loses his card man. Knowing about Jake's skill at the table, Macha and the three Eddies want him to fill in the spot. Jake refuses and so they harass his brother's family in order to convince him to play. He succumbs and plays and ends up winning, but the loser, a high roller named George, then insults Jake's mother. Jake responds by shooting him in the foot igniting a full blown gunfight in which the game's money ends up disapearing. Two weeks later, Jake's name is mentioned and he is brought in for questioning by the police. Taking precautionary measures Macha sends the three Eddies to Jake's brother's house where they threaten his little girl. The mother reacts badly to this and in defending her little girl she ends up getting accidentally shot. Jake doesn't give Macha's name to the police and ends up sentenced to jail and is given the choice of 14 years normal time or 7 years in solitary. He chooses the latter.
During his seven-year stint imprisoned in solitary confinement Jake learns of a specific strategy (referred to as "The Formula") that is supposed to lead its user to win every game. The Formula itself was discovered by two unnamed men who inhabited adjacent cells on either side of Jake's own. They are referred to as a chess expert and a con man. During the first five years of his seven-year sentence, the three men communicated their thoughts on confidence tricks and chess moves via messages hidden inside library books, such as 'The Mathematics of Quantum Mechanics'. The chess expert and the con man plan to leave their cells simultaneously, and promise to take Jake with them. But when they disappear from their cells, they leave Jake behind to serve the remaining two years of his sentence. When Jake is released, he finds that all of his possessions and money have been taken by the two men with whom he had shared everything. Still, he has The Formula, and he goes about making a lot of money at various casinos. Two years later, Jake has garnered a reputation that leads many casinos to fear his freakishly good 'luck'. The Formula applies to any game, and is often exemplified by Jake's apparent mastery of chess (He beats Avi over and over again as they converse). The story revolves around Jake's epiphanic awakening, as he learns how to apply the Formula to the 'game' of life.
Approximately two years after his prison release, Jake, Billy and their other brother Joe walk into one of Macha's casinos. He is recognized and "all the tables are closed" to Jake and company. But Macha promptly calls them up to a private area of his casino where a high rollers' game is currently taking place. Jake bets Macha a fortune on a chip toss, and wins. This hurts Macha. As Jake says "nothing hurts more than humiliation and a little money loss". Macha suspects that Jake, who seems unafraid of him, will be out for more revenge. As Jake and his brothers leave the casino, a man hands Jake a card and tells him that he can help him. Jake, who has a fear of enclosed spaces, decides to take the stairs. In the stairwell he looks at the card and then collapses, falling down the stairs. The card is revealed to read "Take the Elevator". Jake is rushed to the hospital. The doctors report he is very ill but do not disclose why he had the blackout. Macha puts out an order for a hit on Jake. Jake arrives home, without Billy, to be welcomed by one of Macha's hits. However, on his doorstep there is another card, which says "Pick This Up". As Jake bends to retrieve the card bullets fly over his back. As the shooting continues, the same mysterious individual called Zach (Vincent Pastore) arrives and rescues Jake who is the only person to survive the hit. Zach introduces Jake to his partner, Avi (André Benjamin). They offer him a deal: they will take all of his money and he will do what they say, no questions asked. In exchange, they will protect Jake from Macha. In the course of their proposal, they show Jake his medical file, which they have mysteriously obtained. It indicates that the blackout occurred due to a rare blood disease which will cause his death within three days. Jake suspects a con. The mysterious men later reveal that his money will be used to fund their loan shark enterprise.
Sam Gold is seen to be the 'king' in this chess game of gang warfare. He is the ultimate figure that all men are supposedly aspiring to be. Sam Gold is revealed to be an ultimately powerless cipher, whose power is granted only by those who invest in him. He represents ego and self-investment. He is the personification of greed. It is revealed that Avi and Zach were Jake's "neighbours" during his years of incarceration. They have forced Jake to "induce head pain to engage the enemy" by making him give his money away under the principle that "nothing hurts more than humiliation and a little money loss". They are inflicting this form of 'premature enlightenment' upon Jake because, according to them, he was not ready to hear how hard this process of liberation was going to be while in prison. It was because of this that they left without him.
Avi attempts to get Jake to understand the nature of the ego. He tells Jake "the greatest con that [the ego] ever pulled was making you believe that he is you." This is seen to be the 'ultimate con', in that no-one wants to sever their connection with their ego, because they refuse to challenge their own life-long investment in it. In the end, Jake also steps off the proverbial chess board by making a conscious effort to reverse everything his ego tells him to do. This is seen to be the truest and most fundamental application of the Formula. The characters of Jake, Zach, Avi and Sorter (Mark Strong) are seen to ultimately reject the ego's 'rules'. The character of Dorothy Macha is seen to succumb to them.
Themes
Guy Ritchie was, during the time of conceiving and executing the film, interested in
Kabbalah. The film itself is laced with references to Kabbalic ideas, symbols and
numerological references.
The trinity of Zach, Jake and Avi are representative of Kabbalic right, center and left pillar energies, respectively. Avi is a Black man who is somewhat effeminate in his physical appearance, clothing and mannerisms. The 'left pillar' or 'left column' in Kabbalic traditions is often associated with 'the feminine' and with the colour black. Jake's surname is "Green", and the colour green is associated with the central column or pillar in Kabbalic traditions. Zach is a hefty, gargantuan, white man who 'dresses down' in a very archetypically 'masculine' way. Both masculinity and the colour white are associated with right column or right pillar energies in Kabbalic traditions.
The trinity of characters are named after the Patriarchs. Avi [short for Abraham], Zach [short for Isaac] and Jake [short for Jacob].
The number 32 comes up repeatedly. "The chess game has many mystical meanings. The Temple of Solomon was chequered like a chess board, which has 64 squares and 32 pieces." The elevator that Jake enters near the end of the movie has buttons for 32 floors.
Soundtrack
According to director Guy Ritchie, the music for the film was initially intended to follow in a similar vein to his previous crime movies, ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' and ''Snatch'', in that it was to be primarily source-based (i.e. using non-original music). Those source tracks would all have been classical in nature. However, during the production process, Ritchie changed his mind and decided to score a majority of the film with original music, leaving only some small sections to non-original music tracks (such as the restaurant shoot-out during Lord John's attempted assassination of Dorothy Maccha). Ritchie selected Nathaniel Mechaly to compose the score.
The music itself works as an experimental fusion piece, melding acid jazz, electronic music and contemporary classical music.
The score was performed by Mechaly on Mini Moog and keyboards and drummer Maxime Garoute.
Track listing
All tracks composed by Nathaniel Mechaly and Maxime Garoute except where otherwise noted.
# "Revolver" - 03:58
# "Later That Night" - 02:02
# "Atom's Tomb" (
Electrelane) - 02:11
# "The Heist" - 02:52
# "Fear Me" - 03:42
# "Mucchio Selvaggio" (
Ennio Morricone, performed by
2raumwohnung) - 05:06
# "Chess Room" - 02:03
# "Sorter Shoot Out" - 01:56
# "Purple Requiem" - 04:00
# "3 Eddie Story" - 02:40
# "End Casino" - 02:50
# "Opera" (from
Antonio Vivaldi's ''
Nisi Dominus'', performed by
Emmanuel Santarromana) - 04:03
# "Casino" - 01:54
# "Jack Accident" - 02:02
# "The Mental Traveler" - 04:08
# "To Never Miss" - 01:18
# "Ask Yourself" (
Plastikman) - 08:51
# "Gnossienne No. 1" (from
Erik Satie performed by
Alessandra Celletti) - 04:18
# "Metropolitan" (
Emmanuel Santarromana) - 3:18
# "
Sonata No.14" (
Ludwig Van Beethoven) - 5:32
Home media
; Extra features:
Feature length audio commentary between Lance Lochner and director Guy Ritchie.
''The Concept'': an interview with director Guy Ritchie and editor James Herbert on the subject of the film's conceptual and editorial development.
''The Game: The Making Of Revolver''
Stills gallery (over 100 stills against film soundtrack).
7 deleted scenes with director's commentary.
Outtakes
Music Trailer
; Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1
DTS Digital Surround 5.1
; Aspect ratio:
2.35 Widescreen / Color
; Regional format:
''Revolver'' is currently available in both Regions 1 & 2 on DVD.
Region 2 is the original 2005 theatrical release, while Region 1 is the 2007 reedited version, created by Ritchie in order to simplify and/or clarify some plot points after criticism that the film was too hard to follow.
Reception
Critics
The film was generally panned by critics: for example, it has been criticised on grounds of pretension and having an over-complicated plot by critics such as
Mark Kermode. Reviews were so poor in the UK that ''
The Guardian'' ran a story on how the distributor managed to attribute a quotation to ''
The Sun'' saying that the director was "back to his best". The quotation came from a section of the ''Sun Online'' website created by a PR agency on behalf of the film's distributors.
There were, however, some positive reviews as well. Mark R. Leeper conceded that it was "a film for a narrow audience", but said that he personally rather "liked it" and gave it a score of 7/10. According to Brian Orndorf, ''Revolver'' "is the perfect movie for those who like to crack things open and dig around the innards", saying that it "reminded [him] quite a bit of Richard Kelly's film, ''Donnie Darko''". He goes on to explain that "both films have a taste for the deliberately confusing, sharing scripts that take the viewer on a ride that requires much more than one simple viewing."
Box office
The film has grossed as of December 20, 2005 $84,738 at the USA box office and $6,651,225 in other countries making a total of $6,735,963 worldwide.
References
External links
''Revolver'' webpage
OhmyNews Review
"How to flog a turkey" - ''The Guardian'', October 3, 2005, on ''Revolver'''s UK poster quotes
Category:2005 films
Category:Films directed by Guy Ritchie
Category:2000s crime films
Category:Crime drama films
Category:Gangster films
Category:British drama films
Category:French films
Category:English-language films
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