Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – Out of the Furnace

Out of the Furnace (UK Rating: 15)

In 2008, brothers Russell (Bale) and Rodney (Affleck) Baze live in Braddock, a steel town on the East coast. Older brother Russell has followed his father into the mill and is the steadier of the two, with Rodney gambling and losing money left, right, and centre. A tragic accident puts Russell in jail and Rodney returns to the army, serving in Iraq while his brother's away. Fast-forward to the present day and a damaged Rodney has resorted to bare knuckle fighting to make money. When he takes on a fight in the Appalachians and doesn't return, Russell sets out to find him.

The film shows a dying way of life, both for the town and America as a whole. In the 2008 sequences, Braddock is already shabby and down-at-heel and the recession is about to kick in. When Russell returns from prison, the town has taken the brunt of it. The steel industry has moved to the Far East, rumours are that what's left of the mill will close and its derelict buildings are used for bare knuckle fighting.  His father worked at the mill and it killed him. Now Russell is facing the same fate, having gone back to work there, yet the mill still dominates the town. The residents can see it, wherever they are. They hear it, because the background hum is constant. If Cooper could have given the audience smell-o-vision, it would smell terrible as well.

Decline is just one of the themes Cooper looks to examine. What life, he asks, is there for the soldiers returning from the horrors of the Iraq War? Precious little, comes back the answer. Rodney is just one of the returning soldiers with physical and emotional injuries and nothing to look forward to. Worse still, they have to do it all on their own. It's a bleak outlook.

The similarities to The Deer Hunter aren't difficult to see. For Vietnam War, read Iraq. For Russian roulette, read bare knuckle fighting. The steel town is still there, as is an actual deer hunting scene. The two films could be taken as bookending America's unsuccessful wars but, ultimately, it would be too easy to allow these parallels to overshadow what is, essentially, a social thriller.

Out of the Furnace is a marked change of tone for Scott Cooper. In his first feature, Crazy Heart, drink-sozzled (and Oscar winning) Jeff Bridges was redeemed by the love of a good woman, even though he lost her. Here, Bale loses the good woman as well, and his redemption doesn't last either. It's a morose, dour piece of work, but there's no denying its power and grip.

The lip-smacking cast lives up to expectations - and they are considerable. Bale is his usual intense self, full of pent-up emotion, threatening to boil over at any time. Affleck is suitably on the edge as his little brother and is increasingly battered as the film progresses. Plus there's strong support from Sam Shepherd and Willem Dafoe.

It's Hollywood's favourite go-to psycho, Woody Harrelson, who dominates the film as the drugs lord from the mountains, though. It's a role he attacks with relish, whether lurking menacingly in the shadows, killing without batting an eyelid or injecting his latest concoction into his big toe. Then there's probably the film's flashiest and most memorable moment, when he lights his cigarette with a blowtorch…

8/10

Great - Silver Award

Out of the Furnace isn't an easy watch. It's violent, brooding, grim and has a pessimistic outlook. Even the soundtrack is low-key. However, as gripping dramas go, they don't come much meatier.