Handgun

REVIEW

Sopranos star Karen Young turns in a powerful performance in this uncompromising film from iconoclastic writer/producer/director Tony Garnett. Garnett's hard-nosed directorial approach and use of real people in acting roles gives Handgun a haunting, cinéma vérité atmosphere, creating a particularly American story with particularly British sensibilities.

What could quite easily have veered uncontrollably into Death Wish/I Spit On Your Grave territory is tightly reined in, with the powerfully unsettling rape scene eclipsed by the even more disturbing matter-of-factness of "the morning after". Garnett's stylised look at American gun culture through personal tragedy is a compelling and ultimately redemptive story of one woman's path from victim to victor.

Harry Martineau



PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Karen Young gives a powerfully intense performance as a victim of sexual violence who turns vigilante in this hard-hitting Texas-set thriller. Handgun is written, produced and directed by British film and television veteran Tony Garnett, whose high-profile credits include Kes, Between the Lines and This Life. Handgun is featured here in a new digital remaster in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.

With one broken relationship still fresh in her mind, Kathleen Sullivan is in no mood to take on a new boyfriend. Larry, however, will not tolerate sexual rebuffs; rape is his means of exercising what he regards as a male prerogative. Consumed by anger and hungry for vengeance, Kathleen now finds she must take matters into her own hands...

SPECIAL FEATURES:
[] Archive interview with Tony Garnett
[] Original theatrical trailers
[] Image gallery
[] Press book PDF