Pusher (1996)

Wonderful character development!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

"Pusher" is the first installment of a gritty crime trilogy from Danish writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn set in the Copenhagen underworld. In each of the three films, the main character (a different one in each) is trapped in the same existential scenario: One incurs a debt from a drug deal gone wrong and must pay it back on a tight deadline. It's not stupidity that puts these pushers in a bind: The drug trade is inherently a risky one, and even the smart players can get beaten by the odds. Relying on hand-held camera-work, a tight budget, and an emphasis on natural lighting, the trilogy's gripping set of stories unfolds with the raw immediacy of a documentary. In "Pusher," our anti hero is Frank (Kim Bodnia), a mid-level dope dealer who is successful and hardcore enough to live his days in a fast, fun-loving manner. Accompanied by his friend/enforcer Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen), Frank spends the movie's first half-hour roaming from deal to deal, to a couple of bars, and simply living it up with Tonny. Bad news arrives, of course, in the offhand form of a score gone wrong with local kingpin Milo (Zlatko Buric) on credit, despite Frank's looming debt. When the cops chase Frank down, he dives into a lake, taking the drugs with him. Now his debt to Milo is unmanageably huge, and as the thugs come looking for him, he begins a frantic, frustrated search for cash. The film begins loosely structured, but as Frank's predicament becomes more dire, the narrative tightens. Surprisingly, Frank slowly becomes genuinely compelling despite the fact that he is a low life smack dealer and now an emotional wreck beneath his stoic exterior. Abrasive from start to finish, Refn's debut has a vibrant life apart from its obvious influences (Mean Streets, Trainspotting), and he has the gift for taking familiar material and making it his own. Refn scoffs at Hollywood's third-act redemptions and justice served as simply a pipe dream, while refusing to glamorize criminality or trying to correct it. As botched-drug-deal stories go, "Pusher" digs surprisingly deep.

Although i've heard only good things about Pusher, it took me several years to pick it up. The result was surprisingly good.The movie is shot almost as a documentary, which is well suited for the subject it depicts. Unlike hip-hop videos advertising gangster lifestyle, Pusher shows us the reality of a low level drug dealer. There is no glamor, but rather hard labor without strict working hours providing questionable financial gain.Serbian gangsters are depicted rather realistically, presumably due to Slavko Labović'S experience as bouncer and mingling in the appropriate milieu.Despite its independent funding, Pusher is rubbing shoulders with the best gangster movies of all times.

Nicolas Winding Refn modernized the crime film genre with his Pusher trilogy. Thinking about that and the era he made the first part makes you probably think of another crime film modernizer of the 90's, Quentin Tarantino. He made something totally new in the United States with three crime films: Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Jackie Brown (1997). People often see Tarantino as one of the most important directors in the crime genre, because he influenced it a lot. In the same way Nicolas Winding Refn made something completely original. He made Pusher. A movie about a drug-dealer who gets into a debt swirl. The way Refn shows the lives of the criminals is harsh. It's different from other 90's crime films, because it doesn't show any glamor in the underworld life. No one has got expensive cars, all of them live in their cruddy apartments, they aren't that rich and they all are under the control of their addiction to drugs.Pusher is about a drug-dealer, Frank (Kim Bodnia) whose life isn't pretty. His only relationships are with his friend Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) and with his "girlfriend" Vic (Laura Drasbæk). When a Serbian drug-courier comes to Copenhagen and Frank fails to deliver money to him, he gets into a debt swirl.Frank is portrayed as an ordinary guy, who is a juvenile child under his hard shelf. He even goes to get money from his mother when he needs to pay his debts. All the conversations he has with his friend Tonny are about blow jobs, strippers and prostitutes. The dialog is sharp and it's well made to feel like common everyday chat.The film is very fast-paced and it's colored with some aggressive punk music, which I enjoyed a lot. It added a great element to Frank's life full of loneliness and despair. Pusher is a great description of the underworld in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's excessive realism and doesn't add any glamor to the lives of the junkies. It deals with the problems that are out there and with us every day, no matter where you live.

Frank is a drug dealer moving heroin between the level above him and his customer base. When he is asked to get 200 grams of dope in less than 24 hours he balks but when he is offered 700 on the gram he tries to pull it together. Already 50,000 in debt to local gangster Milo, Frank takes a risk and gets the drugs on credit ahead of a good sale. However when the sale goes down the police are tipped off and the only thing saving Frank from jail is his quick wits to dive into the lake and destroy the evidence against him. Released by the police within hours, Frank knows his problems are only beginning as he now owes even more money to Milo – a man not known for his patience.Although I had not really heard any hype over this film, I had heard it compared to Mean Streets in style so I thought I would give it a try. The main thing that struck me was how gritty it was and how lacking in the style and pop culture that the post-Tarantino audience have become accustom to. For some viewers this may be taken as a complaint but for my money it made the film that much better as a piece of dramatic realism as opposed to a modern thriller. Of course "reality" is a loose term in regards this film because I hope I never see this as a world I recognise, but it is still one that I found convincing.Refn's direction helps it by being hand-held and mobile in lots of good locations – the viewer never feels like they are on a set or with jobbing actors. It is perhaps a bit too gritty and slow for some tastes though but I didn't really find much wrong with it in what it tried to do. Perhaps I would have gone for a bit more character development and emotion or maybe it could have lost a bit of running time and been tighter for it, but mostly it was effectively desperate, gritty and with a good feeling of claustrophobic hopelessness. Bodnia does this aspect really well; he is an unsympathetic character but we are taken along with him as he is convincingly real. The film belongs to him but the support cast is mostly good with turns from Buric, Drasbæk, Labovic and Mikkelsen.Overall then a convincing and gritty crime story that reeks of fear and being trapped. It avoids the trappings of modern Tarantino style and instead keeps low to the street, meaning that it does well by aiming for its own target and hitting it consistently.