Big Bad Wolves

Embittered over his preteen daughter's rape and murder, an intelligence officer kidnaps the chief suspect and sets about torturing him with the assistance of a former detective in this gripping Israeli thriller. From the premise alone, 'Big Bad Wolves' might sound like a sadistic 'torture porn' movie, however, the focus of the film is the torturers themselves and their unflinching certainty that they have the right man despite his ongoing protests of innocence and the severe lack of evidence against him. Have the torturers let their emotions overcome them and get in the way of sound judgment, or could they actually be right? It is an interesting central dynamic, however, the film would have benefited from greater ambiguity. It is made so abundantly clear that the torture victim is innocent that we are constantly on his side throughout and never really on the side of the intelligent officer and detective. The initially shocking ending also makes less and less sense the more one thinks about it and the comedy angle often awkwardly subtracts from the grimness of the tale. That said, there are admittedly some genuine laughs in the mix. The film is enticing the whole way too; certain scenes are so brutal that they are hard to watch, but there is a welcome intensity in the air with the lingering questions of just how far the torturers will go and just how much suffering their victim will undergo before he confesses (regardless of actual guilt) as the pain becomes too much. The acting is top notch, especially from Doval'e Glickman, and the sets and music are appropriately ominous.

Right off the bat I'll just have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I was hooked when I saw the trailer, and then finding out Tarantino claimed it to be the "Best Movie of the Year" pretty much meant that I needed to watch it immediately. It was brilliant. However, the trailer is sort of misleading. The trailer sets you up for what seems like a nice, long torture fest. Yes, that is a large part of the movie, but there is so much more going on. And as far as gore goes it's reasonably mellow. Much of the focus is on the suspense. So much so, that at one point I had to pause the movie and was like "I need a beer." The cinematography is great, the audio/soundtrack is SUPERB! It's one of the very few movies where I found myself saying "I have no idea what's going to happen," and I found myself saying this the entire time I was watching the movie.

As I was researching this movie a bit I came across a review on rogerebert.com that I would like to share (and destroy):

"On the face of it, Quentin Tarantino declaring the second-rate Israeli torture thriller "Big Bad Wolves" the best film of 2013 is patently ridiculous, especially given how seriously inferior it is to Tarantino's own work in the grisly exploitation field." - Godfrey Cheshire (rogerebert.com contributor)

First of all, claiming this movie is "second-rate" totally ruins one's credibility as a critic. It is far and away not a second-rate movie. But what gets me even more worked up is not the fact that Mr. Cheshire claims this movie is inferior to Tarantino's work, but for his categorization of this movie into the grisly exploitation field. I love Tarantino and his movies and I wouldn't dare compare Big Bad Wolves to any of them, as Big Bad Wolves is largely different. IT IS NOT A GRISLY EXPLOITATION FILM. Maybe the critic only saw the trailer — I wouldn't put it past him — But this film, while it does include some torture, is much more in depth than any "grisly exploitation film" I've seen.

With all that said, I would just like to reiterate that I loved this movie, and would recommend it as a must-see to anybody who appreciates good filmmaking (and doesn't mind reading subtitles).

I was very surprised at how good and nerve-wrecking this movie was, as well as twisted. I had previously seen many publications about the movie, but always thought it was more of a comedy, but I'm glad I watched it because it was great. It had a very good combination of dark humor and gore. It kept me entertained and on the edge of my sit through most of the movie, and about those last minutes of the movie, you have to see them to be surprised and get chills down your spine. It's one of the best surprises I've had in a movie this year because its way better than what you expect. With great acting, script and even the music, it adds a lot of tension until it comes to an end. Awesome thriller and study of how you can't never fight evil with evil.

So Quentin Tarantino had this one on his top ten flicks of 2013. I don't know why I thought this was going to be a horror movie, maybe it was because of the tittle, but it does have some frighting elements in it.

Three men from three different walks of life, all of which are bad fathers. The movie centers around one bad father whose child is raped and murdered supposedly by one of the other bad fathers, and when the cops, lead by another bad father, failed to bring this man to justice even by any means necessary, he takes matters into his own hands.

It was a well crafted psychological thriller about what a father would do to seek vengeance for the crimes committed against their children based upon his own guilt of not being there for them. The movie was very low key and had the viewer use their imagination for a lot of what could have been the horror parts.

What surprised me most was how this slow film was such a roller coaster ride as they keep the viewers trying to figure out if the protagonist was doing the right thing to the right man to get vengeance.

Tarantino was right about this one.

It sounds like a comedy, and certainly, the way the movie plays undermines the seriousness of the subject, (no spoilers here!) but that is okay, because not always do things have to be so gritty, dark and brutal.

In a way, "Big Bad Wolves" is the antithesis of "Prisoners" (2013), and this is not a bad thing, because "Big Bad Wolves" does not toy with our emotions, anger or despair, but with our curiosity, with our doubts, all the way to the final scene that fades into the elegance of irony and what we already knew.

The acting and the atmosphere creates what I crave most in a film, and this is: unpredictability; who really did it?, why?, where? These questions became irrelevant, because we are just in it for the ride that provides a good movie like this.