Dirty Weekend

Controversial? What's the big deal? Sure it comes across as tasteless, perverse and unsavoury, but really the underlining black humour in the smarting script and a revenge fantasy layout does mildly soften the savage intentions. When released; the British (sort-of) feminine vigilante 'Dirty Weekend' caused a real uproar. I seen it labelled as pornographic, but it doesn't really come close. It can get dark, daring and nasty, but never arouses. The raving screenplay by Michael Winner and Helen Zahavi (which it's based upon her novel) is lyrically intrusive, can be offbeat, grotesque (you'll know when) and wears its feminist liberation proudly. Surprisingly I thought it was well thought out even with some patchy inclusions and silly developments. However the absurdity it succumbs to makes for an uneven balance between the humour and serious matter. The waxing between the characters was always amusing, especially when the tables are finally turned. Watching the vulnerable nature of our single female protagonist slowly transform and breathe growing confidence (going from a shivering victim to a sardonic murderer) is done in a wonderfully hardy portrayal by Lia Williams. Some might finde her superficially bland, but I found her suitably incisive. The majority of the men come off as filth, unpleasant and sleazy. David McCallum is substantially good as the fractious dentist and Rufus Sewell is fairly unnerving as the grubby pervert. Sean Pertwee also gets a taste of his own medicine. Director Michael Winner's frank handling is gusty and his sledgehammer approach productively works along side the no-holds barred material. Sometimes the way it was shot it felt like a cheap TV movie. Mainly due to the editing. While the crude violence has a malicious streak, it isn't overly explicit or even convincing, but it can evoke severity. David Fanshawe's eclectically uncanny and soulful music score is an odd one to behold. At times it has a majestic air, but other cues are a complete mess. Interesting low-brow and misogynistic exploitation nonetheless.

It's difficult to know if Dirty Weekend finds Michael Winner taking the rise out the urine, or if he genuinely feels he had something to say? And what of Helen Zahavi, author of the novel and in charge of the adaptation to screen here? What's her story - motivations et al? It's quite possibly that Helen and Michael at their respective humane cores were a match made in cinematic heaven, but how come Dirty Weekend just feels dirty, lazy dirty at that, a sort of shock for shocks sake as Zahavi gets to curry favour with the feminist movement and Winner gets to be seedy, with murder death kill and the grotesque thrown in for good measure.

Plot, for what it's worth, has dowdy Bella (Lia Williams) suddenly turn into a sexual vamp over night with a blood lust for offing all men who dare to leer and pester. In Brighton, the place of rock, candy floss and degenerate male members of the human race.

It would have been easy to root for Bella had she at the very least had acquaintances or drinks with some normal men, but it's hard to take seriously a film where every single bloke she meets is either troubled mentally, a sexually deviant, has a penchant for serial killing and etc etc. Even her best friend's husband is a milquetoast who probably should have been on Bella's hit list as well!

Winner achieved everything he hoped for with Dirty Weekend, the critics frothed at the mouth, the British censors sharpened their scissors, and crucially the film became a holy grail of uncut home formats for the intrigued and degenerates. It undeniably was shocking back on release, I mean when the broad sheet newspapers of Blighty are dissecting it frame by frame you know it's a fire-cracker piece of cinema.

Rufus Sewell can be forgiven as this is right at the start of his career (he is edgy, nutty and Anthony Perkins like), same for British legend Sean Pertwee, but what is David McCallum's excuse, Ian Richardson also? That Lia Williams is bold and cheeky with her performance saves the film from stinker hell, it's great to note that she carved out a strong career in British TV and still works today.

Hard to recommend and guaranteed to make you angry, but fair play to Winner, boy did he know how to punch buttons! 5/10

This is a nasty and crude little offering from Mr Winner, which has quite a lot of heinous and cruel male characters in it. All set amongst the splendid flowers and apparent tranquility that is Southern England. But no, we are treated to some despicable men, such as a two-timing rotter; a psychopathic threatening phone-caller; a lecherous copper; a randy, grotesquely obese chap; a dentist who forces a woman to give him fellatio; and three nefarious blokes who savour in trying to set fire to an old vagrant woman. The picture has a definite menacing air to it throughout, has the lead lady Bella is repeatedly threatened by the said men and takes revenge and eventually gets her justice. I'm not going to entirely condemn the film, it has some moments, but it is difficult to watch. Only really for vigilante and Michael Winner film fans.

Dirty weekend is a very well made film- as you would expect from Michael Winner. To sum it up, it is basically a feminist version of Death Wish about a woman who gets pushed around, experiences her own powerlessness and one day decides she's had enough. Needless to say that she then spends a weekend with a gun meeting a lot of creeps. Some of ther performances are great. David McCallum as psyohopathic dentist alone is worth watching the film. As always Winner plays effectively with audience by getting us to actually want her to pull the trigger. Of course, it is all black/and white in terms of morals and the likelihood of meeting such an assortment of scumbags in one weekend is not really that big. But all in all the film is well made. What impressed me most was the very effective use of music in the film. I found it remarkable that the French film "Baise Moi" allegedly a feminist masterpiece is a shameless rip off of Dirty Weekend, lifting complete scenbes from Winner's film.

I only saw this as I was writing a review for a college magazine at the time and thought it would be easier to write about a bad movie than a good one. I didn't realise just how easy it wou ld be. I saw it on a wet afternoon in a mutliplex, and 4 of the 6 people in the cinema walked out. I wish I was one. Awful in every possible respect, if Edison had known that this would happen to his great invention he would have hid the patent. Not out of curiosity, masochism or desperation should you give this a look.