Product Details

• Actors: Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, David Paymer, Bill Duke
• Directors: Brian Helgeland
• Writers: Brian Helgeland, Donald E. Westlake, Terry Hayes
• Producers: Bruce Davey, Stephen McEveety
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Paramount
• DVD Release Date: July 27, 1999
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (198 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000JDIQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,281 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Payback" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There were reasons writer-director Brian Helgeland's cut of Payback was dismissed by distributors Paramount and Warner Bros., then heavily re-shot and re-tooled by Mel Gibson's production company, Icon Entertainment. Those reasons are explained in detail by Gibson, Helgeland, and others in the special features of Payback: The Director's Cut (Special Collector's Edition). Among them: Helgeland's version was too dark. America wasn't ready in 1999 to see Gibson play an unapologetic, 1970s-style antihero who might not get exactly what he wants. Audiences didn't have the patience to wait for answers to their story questions. A dog dies. (A big no-no.) All of these comments make sound, practical sense. But here's the bottom line: Helgeland's cut, perhaps even a bit more disciplined and taut (according to Payback’s editor, Kevin Stitt) than it was in 1999, is a serious movie with an organic tone and logic that makes the film look the way it was meant to look: as a neo-noir film for adults. The theatrical release of Payback, by contrast, was and is silly and vulgar, self-sabotaging, pointlessly vicious, and perversely jaunty. It is very much like--deliberately like--the Lethal Weapon series. The Director’s Cut makes clear that’s not at all what Helgeland had in mind.

Kudos to Gibson and Icon for giving Helgeland a chance to restore his film and get it out on this DVD. But a look at both versions (this disc does not include the theatrical cut) back-to-back can certainly make one's head spin. Icon’s revisions in the original release show little faith in a contemporary audience’s ability to discern much about a story or mood or character from spare but telling details. That film relies on crass swatches of voiceover narration, cute inserts, added scenes, and hipster tunes on the soundtrack. All of that was designed to tell an audience how to feel rather than encourage a cinematic experience encountered with an open heart and mind. Worst of all is a specious third act nakedly built around an obligatory Gibson-gets-tortured sequence, leading the film to a lazy, comforting conclusion. The Director’s Cut eschews all of that. Gibson’s character, Porter (based on the central character in the novel "The Hunter," written by Donald E. Westlake under the pseudonym Richard Stark), is a man returning from the brink of death with nothing but his identity and the memory of something (an almost-nominal amount of money) taken from him. His iron determination, his capacity for brutality and inducing fear, and his survival instinct make him anything but warm and cuddly. It's his few ties to the past--especially an interrupted relationship with a call girl (Maria Bello)--that humanize him. One doesn't have to like Porter; one just accepts him and follows his journey in an honest, unmitigated fashion. That’s exactly what Helgeland does, and his cleaner, leaner, smarter cut is instantly rewarding for its uncompromising, undistracted toughness. Special features include a documentary about the film’s history, and a wonderful interview with Westlake. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

Every so often Mel Gibson likes to get down and dirty for one of his unglamorous roles; the last such occasion was "Ransom," and now he appears as Porter, a grim-faced criminal who was cheated of seventy thousand dollars by his wife (Deborah Kara Unger) and his associate (Gregg Henry). The movie, which delights in its low-lit scumminess, follows Porter on a quest to retrieve his money and, more broadly, to assert his determined free spirit. This entails the indifferent slaughter of those who stand in his way-men from the Outfit, for example, a mysterious cabal that holds their city in its clutches. The picture was filmed mostly in Chicago, although the place is never named, and the writer and director is Brian Helgeland, although he was ousted from the project before the end; reports are that almost a third of it was rewritten and reshot. No surprise, then, that the result should be a mess: half-jokey and dumbly violent, with performances that flail all over the place. (Special mention should go to the twitching of Gregg Henry's facial muscles.) The script was based on Richard Stark's novel "The Hunter," which was also the source of the 1967 Lee Marvin movie "Point Blank." If you're looking for an existential hero on a revenge kick, Marvin is still your man. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Payback - A truly enjoyable film!, October 5, 2003

By 

K. Wyatt "ssintrepid" (Cape Girardeau, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Payback (DVD)

"Payback" hails back to the seventies type movies where rooting for the bad guy is the whole point of the movie and it works quite successfully in this first-rate film. Mel Gibson does an terrific job of playing the bad guy that you really want to root for. Fair warning to the light of heart and young ones though, for this film is not for them. Sticking with Mel Gibson's type of film making, the realism in this film is astonishing and could be considered rather shocking.

Given that this is an entirely different type of movie for Mel Gibson in which he is the hero of the film but his character isn't quite the "hero" type, I found his performance to be exceptional, but then again, name a film where his performance wasn't exceptional. Maria Bello of "ER" fame stars as Mel Gibson's love interest and she performs quite well in this film. Gregg Henry who plays the "true" bad guy of the film and he does a great job of playing the extraordinarily sadistic mafia "wannabe." Kris Kristofferson plays the "mob" boss of the film. Lucy Alexis Liu performs quite "scarily" as the masochistic/sadistic call girl with some interesting associates.

This is the first film from Director Brian Helgeland that I've seen and he certainly deserves a great amount of praise for bringing the novel "The Hunter" by Richard Stark to the silver screen and DVD format. This film is certainly the last of its type in the twentieth century! The sound track for the film matches perfectly with the entire "feel" and atmosphere of the film, greatly enhancing the experience.

The premise:

Mel Gibson plays Porter who, while being little more than a common criminal is not so much a common criminal as the film unfolds. As the film opens Porter is retelling the recent events of his life after he's been shot and has now recovered enough to make his way back to New York City and he's on a mission. We soon learn that he and Val Resnick had planned and executed the robbery of $130,000 from a Chinese organized crime group and that when it came time to divide the money between himself and his wife and Val, Val had been conspiring with Porter's wife, showing her a picture of Porter and Rosie (Maria Bello). Porter's wife shoots him in the back. He's now recovered and he's coming to town, looking for his $70,000 and to kill Val Resnick.

What follows from there is nothing short of one of the most brilliant films of its type where Mel Gibson brings his style of acting to the forefront where he can throw in some well placed and funny lines in the most serious of situations for his character.

I highly recommend this film to any and all fans of this genre as you will soon find that it bears many viewings quite easily and all the way through you'll be "rooting for the bad guy." {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

There's not much to look for here when it comes to the Special Features for "Payback." In the end though, this DVD is about the movie and that's what you get, in all its glory!

- 2 Theatrical Trailers
- Behind the Scenes Featurette

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Payback Pays Off, January 13, 2000

By 

Armando M. Mesa (Chandler, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Payback (DVD)

What a straightforward, action packed flick this was with no confusing sidebar twists or excess baggage plots. This is the first film I've seen Gibson portray a character only described as a good-bad guy. This time he has the upperhand (most of the time) and does a bit of the damage control; It's always the real bad guys that get that privelage. Without giving away too much of the film's minor portion of comical slapstick, there is one scene where Gibson's character Porter is repeatedly slapped in the back of the head by one of the movie's shadier characters (this is a funny scene, especially when America remembers a time when Mel was US Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in the past). His dead panned expressions and deep serious voice let the bad guys know he is not kidding around. Lucy Liu, from Ally McBeal fame, turns in one of the most kinkiest performances without actually using any nudity ! She adds quite a sensational spark to the movie. All in all, from the previous mixed reviews, people should take it for what it is; A typical action/comedy/drama flick done Mel Gibson style !Mel's antics rate top 5 stars and the story rates 3 stars. It was also a real hoot to see some old Hollywood heavyweights: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, and William DeVane. The only question is still why all that for 70 grand ?

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely sharp bluray quality, April 10, 2007

By 

toddo "overfiend" (los angeles, ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Payback - Straight Up - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

This bluray boast a very sharp video quality. From start to finish I was very impressed at how good an old movie like this can look. Extremely enjoyed the extras which had interviews with all the cast. Pace of this director's cut was a lot slower than the original release as how the director intended. Along with it you lose Mel's character narration that was highly enjoyable on the previous release. Even for such an old flick, you can see all of Mel's wrinkles and see his age.