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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
EXCELLENT! MAKES YOU THINK TWICE ABOUT THE LIFESTYLE., December 7, 2000
A brutally honest, shockingly realistic look at the week in a drug dealer's life when things go wrong and he realizes that he's in too deep. The story may take place in Copenhagen, but it really could be in any major city in the world. The characters are fully believable in their demeanor and attitude. Because of its extremely realistic violence and dialogue, this should definitely be shown to high school students as part of an anti-drug curriculum. This doesn't sugar-coat the bleak lifestyle of drugs, nor does it make any excuses for it. The film is unrated for a reason: the violence is brutal and some of the dialog is sexually explicit, perhaps unnecessarily so at times. Nevertheless, the movie certainly gets its point across! Technically, the direction is excellent and the story grabs you from the start. The camera work can be jittery at times, but it adds to the realism as if you were there in the midst of the action. The subtitles are good and do an excellent job of keeping up with the story, although there are a few moments where the characters continue to speak and there is no translation. It doesn't take away from the story, but makes one awfully curious as to what's being said for those few seconds. If you've always thought of foreign films as being too bland and boring, this one will surely wake you up with a shock!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best movie I've seen this Summer, September 12, 2006
If you live in the States, and you watch movies, then you probably haven't seen a crime movie released like this since the seventies.
The plot involves a midlevel heroin dealer who finds himself in a tight spot when he becomes indebted to a local crime boss. He can't shoot his way out of it like every crime/action movie from the last twenty years. He's got to do what he knows to try and pay off his debt.
Crime movies became very stylized in the nineties. Sometimes they got a little silly.
Pusher isn't anywhere near silly. Because it's shot mostly with a mobile handheld camera you'll forget you're watching a movie about twenty minutes into the story. It's got style, but it's never at the expense of substance. The characters seem real enough to make mistakes that are human but also absolutely damning. Underworld types are shown durring the usual routine of the day, but the story never feels slow and no scene is a waste.
Tired of watching formulaic movies featuring drug dealers with dreams, hitmen with hearts and stunning, savy prostitutes? Watch this movie. See a despicable dirtbag who will use anyone around him. You'll know who these people are, but you won't feel like you know what's going to happen next.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
copoenhagen's seamy side, May 29, 2001
This review is from: Pusher [VHS] (VHS Tape)
'Pusher' is Nicholas Refn's film debut, and is certainly full of the energy and enthusiasm of a first time director. The story follows frank, a small time smack dealer who dreams of the big leauge. When he meets a swede who needs 200 grams pronto he readily accepts, but (suprise suprise) things go wrong and he gets busted. Now in heavily in debt to his sadistic croatian supplier (milo), frank's life rapidly detoriates into a nightmarish scenario; his customers who owe him won't pay; his best friend informs on him and milo's henchmen get ever more insistent. One of the things I liked most about 'pusher' is the way it shows how this kind of lifestyle seems so glamourous and exciting on the outside, yet one bad event brings everything crashing down into chaos. The film manages to be non-judgemental without being amoral; frank is not the presented as the bad guy, yet neither is there any sympathy for his plight. Beautifully shot in sunny Copenhagen, Pusher is a film which somehow manages to be formulaic and yet innovative; violent yet thoughtful; it challenges but does not 'push'.
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