Les Voyous

It's hard to catch the nuances (that I hope are there) in a subtitled film. Francesca Neri is the star of this film, even though Antonio Banderas is featured on the U. S. release. It has an exotic (to me) location, a circus in Madrid. Neri's character suffers a brutal rape (Not an easy scene to watch) and the rest of the film deals with her method of dealing with the wrong done her, and its unintended consequences.

This film is a fine drama about a woman who gets raped by three men then hunts then down one by one with a cold determination of a professional assassin. After years of being an equestrian circus performer, Francesca Neri meets Antonio Banderas, a journalist, and romance seems to be in the offing but fate is unkind to them and sets in motion the tragic events of the story. The pursuit and revenge plot is straightforward with no surprises but the drama really builds when Neri herself becomes the hunted when an all-points alert is issued by Spanish police. Neri's role of a woman who takes the law into her own hands is one-dimensional but she sells her character well and manages to generate sympathy because of what happened to her. Neri and Banderas do have a certain chemistry between them and they make the premise work in spite of the unpleasant subject matter.

OUTRAGE, or "Dispara!" in Spanish gives us a glimpse of the real Antonio Banderas. If subtitles get in your way, then you cannot judge this movie, directed by the legendary Carlos Saura. The female lead is the versatile Francesca Neri ("Live Flesh") who has made some of the most daring European films of the 90's, switching easily from Spanish to Italian in her prolific 15 year or so career. This trio of great talent delivers a revenge drama/love story worth watching only for the lead actors' performances. Here you see the real Antonio Banderas, who went back to Spain at the height of his Hollywood crossover, to do what he had always done: ACT, and take a break from the tough guy/action hero/Latin lover Hollywood has made of him. The real Banderas is a sensitive actor, who actually has played mostly frail, bi/homosexual and mentally-challenged characters. Though OUTRAGE is not his best performance by any means, it is a rare look into the real actor. His character in OUTRAGE is possessed by the beauty and talents of a mysterious circus performer (Ms. Neri). The two start an unusual relationship and after a fateful night's event, both main characters go down a destructive path of revenge. Check it out. I bought it from Amazon.com, not to plug them, but because it is available from them at a very good price.

In Madrid, the journalist Marcos Vallez (Antonio Banderas) is writing an article about a circus and he schedules an interview for the next day with the lead attraction Anna Meltzer (Francesca Neri) a.k.a. the Amazon Queen Guiditta, who simultaneously rides a horse and sharply shoots in balloons in her performance. After the interview, they feel attracted for each other and they spend the rest of the day and the night together. In the morning, Marcos travels to Barcelona to cover a concert and promises to meet Anna on the next day and follow her to hell. However, three men gang rape Anna during the night after her performance with extreme violence and the disturbed Anna takes her rifle and ammunition to chase the rapists, but with tragic consequences.

"Dispara!" is a depressing and heartbreaking travel to hell of a sweet character magnificently performed by the extremely beautiful and talented Francesca Neri. This movie is great but the plot is not simply a revenge of a woman brutally attacked but a very sad, realistic, dark and quite unpleasant drama, reason why it is not among my favorite movies. The character of Anna Meltzer is very well developed in the beginning; therefore when the rape happens, the viewer is entirely connected feeling empathy for her nice character. The attitude of Marcos Vallez is despicable, mixing feelings with his profession, telling his suspicious about Anna to his editor without any evidence. I regret that the DVD released by Brazilian Distributor Spectra Nova is awfully dubbed in English without option to the original language (Spanish). My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Dispara" ("Shoot")

Outrage is a good film with an excellent (as always) performance by Francesca Neri who is the main character in this movie. Warning: there is a rape scene that can be a bit hard to watch and graphic for some audiences. Overall it is a very interesting film which shows how the recklessness of 3 young men can affect the lives of others. It is a love story with a very young looking Antonio Banderas as a newspaper reporter who interviews and falls in love with a circus performer who after a brutal rape by a group of 3 young men, takes it upon herself to avenge the deed. It had an unexpected ending (at least for me )but I really enjoyed watching this film.