Handgun

I caught this British made but American set and themed thriller on TV. After it had been on for a few minutes i remembered that i seen this film on its original theatre release. Though essentially a low budget exploitation film with a message or two as it's justification, events since the movies 1983 release have made the film far more relevant today. What with the gun lobby at odds with the gun control debate raging in the USA, not to mention the sexual harassment question gripping the attention of this years movie awards season. There is a lot to think about, in this well made though clearly low budget but very effective little thriller, that play's out in a taught tense swift 90 minutes.

I was really deceived by this woke before its time movie, which I expected in the line of Neil Jordan's THE BRAVE ONE, starring a Jodie Foster more or less in the same kind of lead female character. This one is a piece of junk - not sh...though - talkative, very slow to begin, and finally lousy, cheesy. With some good scenes however, such as the shooting walk practice; I appreciated. Yes, this is purely WOKE before its time. Now in 2023, this kind of plot is very usual. But in the early eighties, it was a bit the heir of the vigilante fashion that emerged in the seventies. Bad acting and lame directing. Forget it.

Handgun is an obscure little rape and revenge thriller that has more weight than many other films in the genre and actually tries to make some points outside of it. The film I would liken this one to most is the Swedish exploitation flick 'They Call Her One Eye' as it features an innocent young looking girl being wronged and then getting herself some weapons and some training to get back at her enemy. In fact, the two films are so similar that I would be very surprised if Handgun director Tony Garnett has not seen They Call Her One Eye. The major focal point here is course, rape. Kathleen Sullivan is a young woman who moves from Boston to Dallas. While there, she meets a man and starts seeing him; but shortly thereafter, the relationship turns sour when she refuses her advances, and he rapes her at gunpoint. She gets over the initial shock by getting angry and later buying herself a nice big gun and learning how to use it, all with the intention of hunting down and killing the man who raped her...

The film comes off as being slightly classier than the 'Video Nasty' style rape and revenge flicks such as The Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave, although it's not as graphic, sleazy or nasty; and to be honest, I prefer the aforementioned classics to this film. The film is rather slow to start and nothing much happens for the first half hour. This is good in a way because it lets us get used to the central character, but on the other hand it's quite boring so becomes a bit of a problem. Otherwise, the plot flows fairly well; but there's never any secret made over where it's going so the film doesn't contain a lot of suspense. The rape scene is not particularly graphic either, which is a shame because it's what a lot of people will be tuning in for. There's a point thrown in there about guns and their usage, but it's not very potent. The film boils down to a good conclusion, despite the fact that it's obvious it was going to turn out that way - but it does pull an interesting little twist out at the end which is decent. Overall, I'm not surprised that this film isn't well known as it's not all that good and wont appeal to a mass market; but it's decent stuff and I can recommend it.

This is very underrated thriller which also poses questions about America's love of guns. It is very low key and filmed almost like a documentary, and Karen Young is excellent as the victimised main character. It perhaps isn't as powerful as it could be but it is definitely worth watching.

A teacher in Texas (Karen Young) learns how to use a gun in order to take revenge against the lawyer (Clayton Day) who raped her in British director Tony Garnett's American film debut. EMI Films funded this slow, thoughtful, and considered character study that criticizes American gun culture but refused to release it as they were expecting a commercial action movie with some sexy rape scenes. Like the director's previous film, Prostitute, you could be mistaken for thinking you were watching a documentary rather than a film, and this is certainly not your standard exploitation revenge thriller that Hollywood regularly churned out, especially coming from an era when movies like I Spit On Your Grave were rife. Garnett used a mix of unknown actors and non-professionals in key roles and operated right at the apex of contemporary social issues, upholding the traditions of the utterly authentic, socially aware films he produced with Ken Loach in Britain during the '60s and '70s. He sold the film to Warner Bros who just sat on it as they were producing a Clint Eastwood rape and revenge film at the same time and didn't want the competition. It opened in just a few theatres before being pulled and was a Box Office flop.