PUSHER 3: I'M THE ANGEL OF DEATH (includes trailer)
May 14th 2010 00:31
Throughout Pusher 1 and 2, we witnessed Frank and Tonny’s lives come to a ferocious climax of violence and pressure as the world that the Pusher Trilogy portrays threatened to completely swallow them up. Brutally convincing, the Pusher Trilogy by Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Valhalla Rising) has brought out the ugly side of Copenhagen, delving into the asphyxiating underworld of Denmark with a streetwise eye and a maniacal energy. It’s players made up of vicious rogues and junkies, street rats and prophets of doom, all adding to this edgy, thrilling experience of life on the streets, consistently shown in a hyper realistic style that Danish cinema is known for.
Zlatko Buric, who plays Milo, a drug kingpin, has always been a presence through out the trilogy, affecting every character he came into contact with. Writer/director Refn never set him up as the villain, but instead, a criminal who had paid his dues and managed to maintain his status . Zlatko Buric as Milo resembles the Ben Gazzara character, Cosmo, from the John Cassavetes film The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie, a man who prides him self in seeming more in control than anyone else, his deep voice and commitment to appearance and blunt attempts at charm suggest a man trying to make up for something. He has had put plenty of people in the hot seat before, turning the screws on them, mercilessly. In Pusher 3, however, he has some heat brought on him, not by others but by the trappings of his own existence. Milo tries to kick his life style of coke and heroine but finds that pressure builds all around him as his life style suddenly goes haywire, his sins have finally caught up to him. A day of judgement is about to come knocking at Milo’s door.
Pusher 3: I am The Angel Of Death brings the camera’s eyes closer in to Milo’s soul than any other character so far. This is not going to end on a pretty note like Pusher 2 did, as one of the finest crime trilogy’s, that has ever graced cinema, concludes with all of its wounds hanging out, in possibly the most ferociously sadistic scene’s to ever be filmed during this last decade.
Milo is introduced to us at the start of Pusher 3, in a casually human manner. He’s trying to come clean, he’s beginning to age and intends on celebrating his daughter’s birthday, purified from any substances what so ever. He sits shyly in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. He’s been clean for 5 days, and he seems strangely vulnerable in these opening scenes, which have a tenderness to them which seems unique for the Pusher Trilogy and particularly this character. The hand held camera persistently hovers around him, like a fly that can’t be shooed away, trying to get closer to him emotionally. He tells everyone at the meeting that he just wants his daughter to have a happy 25th birthday, all he has to do is stay away from that first drug.
Things are about to get nasty.
Milo meets up with his daughter, Malena (Marinela Dekic), to confirm the details of her 25th birthday. He clearly hasn’t sheltered her from what he does while she’s grown up, aside from probably spoiling her rotten as she behaves more like a spoilt teen ager. Everyone in the family knows about Milo’s ominous reputation, where things start to get messy though, is when Milo receives a package that’s meant to be heroin and instead turns out to be ecstasy. Milo is completely out of touch with the ecstasy market and soon all of his dealings become more problematic as he’s thrown into a world where he is at the mercy of a younger generation of upcoming drug lords. Not only that but he is going to see the full extent of how the life he has lived is coming back to bite him.
Pusher 3 is back to it’s roots, again being shoot in a frantic, energised form, filled with vibrant production design and a hand held camera that zips around, hitting all the right notes. Refn has grown as a film maker, he has rid himself of the cautiousness that hovered over Pusher 2. He’s having fun again, but is able to pull of a more focused story this time. Pusher 3 feels hipper and wiser and uses it’s foundation of the previous 2 films to truly do something fresh this time, there are no retreads to be found here as Pusher 3 builds into the best and most exciting, effortlessly told instalment of the trilogy. The script doesn’t rub it’s characters crudeness into your face this time as Refn, our director, wisely takes the path of ‘less is more’. The casting is perfect and the actors achieve an almost Zen like ability to communicate exactly what they’re all about, by doing very little.
Pusher 3 is simply whip fast and as ferocious as ever, but it’s ferocity is more calculating and brooding this time. It’s really a thrilling experience to watch film making this inspired and re-energised. It’s leaner and meaner and morphs into something completely operatically monsterous by the end. The sound scape by a composition group called Texas Chain Saw Orchestra create an eerie sound scape in the film that starts to suggest something traumatic is about to take place, it’s as if it’s preparing the gates of hell to open and embrace Milo as Pusher 3 will end with a scene so bestial and haunting that nothing could possibly prepare you for it.
Pusher 3 stands tall in the trilogy as it closes the curtains on what will be remembered as one of the most realistically violent, thrilling and rewarding series of films to ever come out of Denmark. Pusher 3 is inspired and compelling, and at times even poignant but definitely not for ones with weak stomachs.
Here's the trailer with subtitles for Pusher 3 - not for the feint of heart.
Zlatko Buric, who plays Milo, a drug kingpin, has always been a presence through out the trilogy, affecting every character he came into contact with. Writer/director Refn never set him up as the villain, but instead, a criminal who had paid his dues and managed to maintain his status . Zlatko Buric as Milo resembles the Ben Gazzara character, Cosmo, from the John Cassavetes film The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie, a man who prides him self in seeming more in control than anyone else, his deep voice and commitment to appearance and blunt attempts at charm suggest a man trying to make up for something. He has had put plenty of people in the hot seat before, turning the screws on them, mercilessly. In Pusher 3, however, he has some heat brought on him, not by others but by the trappings of his own existence. Milo tries to kick his life style of coke and heroine but finds that pressure builds all around him as his life style suddenly goes haywire, his sins have finally caught up to him. A day of judgement is about to come knocking at Milo’s door.
Pusher 3: I am The Angel Of Death brings the camera’s eyes closer in to Milo’s soul than any other character so far. This is not going to end on a pretty note like Pusher 2 did, as one of the finest crime trilogy’s, that has ever graced cinema, concludes with all of its wounds hanging out, in possibly the most ferociously sadistic scene’s to ever be filmed during this last decade.
Zlatko Buric as Milo, in Pusher 3
Milo is introduced to us at the start of Pusher 3, in a casually human manner. He’s trying to come clean, he’s beginning to age and intends on celebrating his daughter’s birthday, purified from any substances what so ever. He sits shyly in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. He’s been clean for 5 days, and he seems strangely vulnerable in these opening scenes, which have a tenderness to them which seems unique for the Pusher Trilogy and particularly this character. The hand held camera persistently hovers around him, like a fly that can’t be shooed away, trying to get closer to him emotionally. He tells everyone at the meeting that he just wants his daughter to have a happy 25th birthday, all he has to do is stay away from that first drug.
Things are about to get nasty.
Milo meets up with his daughter, Malena (Marinela Dekic), to confirm the details of her 25th birthday. He clearly hasn’t sheltered her from what he does while she’s grown up, aside from probably spoiling her rotten as she behaves more like a spoilt teen ager. Everyone in the family knows about Milo’s ominous reputation, where things start to get messy though, is when Milo receives a package that’s meant to be heroin and instead turns out to be ecstasy. Milo is completely out of touch with the ecstasy market and soon all of his dealings become more problematic as he’s thrown into a world where he is at the mercy of a younger generation of upcoming drug lords. Not only that but he is going to see the full extent of how the life he has lived is coming back to bite him.
Marinela Dekic as Malena, in Pusher 3
Pusher 3 is back to it’s roots, again being shoot in a frantic, energised form, filled with vibrant production design and a hand held camera that zips around, hitting all the right notes. Refn has grown as a film maker, he has rid himself of the cautiousness that hovered over Pusher 2. He’s having fun again, but is able to pull of a more focused story this time. Pusher 3 feels hipper and wiser and uses it’s foundation of the previous 2 films to truly do something fresh this time, there are no retreads to be found here as Pusher 3 builds into the best and most exciting, effortlessly told instalment of the trilogy. The script doesn’t rub it’s characters crudeness into your face this time as Refn, our director, wisely takes the path of ‘less is more’. The casting is perfect and the actors achieve an almost Zen like ability to communicate exactly what they’re all about, by doing very little.
Pusher 3 is simply whip fast and as ferocious as ever, but it’s ferocity is more calculating and brooding this time. It’s really a thrilling experience to watch film making this inspired and re-energised. It’s leaner and meaner and morphs into something completely operatically monsterous by the end. The sound scape by a composition group called Texas Chain Saw Orchestra create an eerie sound scape in the film that starts to suggest something traumatic is about to take place, it’s as if it’s preparing the gates of hell to open and embrace Milo as Pusher 3 will end with a scene so bestial and haunting that nothing could possibly prepare you for it.
Pusher 3 stands tall in the trilogy as it closes the curtains on what will be remembered as one of the most realistically violent, thrilling and rewarding series of films to ever come out of Denmark. Pusher 3 is inspired and compelling, and at times even poignant but definitely not for ones with weak stomachs.
Here's the trailer with subtitles for Pusher 3 - not for the feint of heart.
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Comment by Matt Shea
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Even though I like them all, there's something about the 3rd pusher that makes me keep watching it repeatedly. Looking forward to hearing what you thought
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Thanks - oh and I got the lady that plays Milo's daughter to have a read of this as well - she seemed quite happy too about this review!
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Speaking of an undertaking - I just did a review for Antichrist - hehe