Dead Shot, 2023.
Written and Directed by Charles and Thomas Guard.
Starring Colin Morgan, Aml Ameen, Mark Strong, Felicity Jones, Sophia Brown, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Will Keen, Mairéad Tyers, Dara Devaney, Andrea Irvine, Jack McMullen, Steve Wall, Caolan Byrne, Stephen McMillan, Hywel Morgan, Martin McCardie, Desmond Edwards, and Marianne McIvor.
SYNOPSIS:
A retired Irish paramilitary witnesses the fatal shooting of his pregnant wife by an SAS officer. After outwitting the SAS, now wounded, and presumed dead, he escapes, taking his revenge to the dark and paranoid streets of 1970s London.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, Dead Shot wouldn’t exist.
Set during the Troubles, siblings Charles and Thomas Guard are less concerned with the bigger picture of the Irish/British feud and more about how it impacts soldiers on each side, one accidentally killing a pregnant wife and another who seeks retaliation for this injustice. The opening sequence of Dead Shot is shocking and harrowing without this tipping-off point for this personal rivalry feeling like exploitation, primarily because half of the narrative is from the perspective of the guilt-ridden party.
SAS officer Tempest (Aml Ameen) says he thought his life was in danger when he accidentally gunned her down and is now in hot water with his superiors. However, he is given a way out of surefire incarceration by putting his skills elsewhere, gunning down high-profile Irish targets suspected of retaliating for the damage that is being done on their land by committing an act of domestic terror in London.
Meanwhile, IRA officer Michael (Colin Morgan) is pulled into an equally dangerous operation assisting with the terrorist attacks, reporting to Keenan (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) and meeting with courier Catherine (Felicity Jones), all with promises of being given the exact location of Tempest to enact his revenge.
To say that these two characters are on a collision course would be an understatement, with engagement coming from these filmmakers seemingly refusing to choose sides during the buildup. Tempest is a soldier that was doing his duty and made an honest fatal miscalculation, whereas Michael essentially lost everything to live for. To make matters more thorny, Tempest seems to be building a decent life for himself on the side in between missions, which theoretically could lead to the very thing he took away from Michael.
For what surely had to be a small budget, the film also looks authentic to the era, whether it’s Northern Ireland or London, coming with an appropriately bleak color palette. There is also an urgency and intensity to the performances, even if the actors themselves are clearly working with limited depth (it’s also worth noting that the narrative is based on an original script by Ronan Bennett and inspired by Steven P. Moysey’s book The Road to Balcombe Street.)
Dead Shot is far from a deep dive into the Troubles, but nevertheless remains a gritty and grounded thriller that doesn’t resort to exploiting or glorifying some horrible actions taken on both sides of these covert organizations for misguided excitement. It is a standard cycle of violence story elevated by harsh realism, with a willingness to stop and breathe, allowing the human elements of tragedies to take over, and competent firefight action once the time is right. Even if there is a gut feeling about how this will play once that final confrontation begins, it is still a tense and satisfying payoff that effectively drives the point of the story home.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
Originally published August 14, 2023. Updated August 15, 2023.
