Not going to sugar-coat this.
“Bring Them Down” is rough, a movie of wrenching, insensate cruelty, much of it directed at animals.
Writer-director Chris Andrews has made a debut feature that is as hard to watch as any recent film, and an intentionally frustrating experience that mimics real life in a world where “the law” doesn’t figure into things, least of all a search for justice.
Andrews tells the story out of order, showing us horrible things that happen as tensions rise in a feud between neighboring sheep farms in hilly, rocky central Ireland (Connemara is the setting, Athenry is mentioned, the Wicklow Mountains were the filming location). And then he flips back to show us how and why things happen, letting us dread the ugliness that we’ve already seen and know we may have to see again.
The story weaves random encounters and bad blood and vague rumors of “rustling” into specific grievances, causes and effects as it does.
A car accident years ago shows us a tearful mother pleading with her son to take the news of her leaving his father well, and Mikey’s mother and girlfriend in the back seat shouting at him to slow down as he road rages into an accident that kills, and disfigures and emotionally scars those who survive.
Grown up, Mikey (Christopher Abbott, just seen in “Wolf Man”) still lives on the farm with his “waiting for new knees” Da (Colm Meaney, of course), still communicates with the old bully in Gaelic, still tends the the that the O’Sheas graze on a hill they share with a neighbor who doesn’t have their “500 years” of experience, reputation and financial security.
Paul Ready of TV’s “The Terror” is Gary, the burly, bearded and bullying neighbor who has raised his son (Barry Keoghan) in his image. His wife (Nora-Jane Noone) was in the back seat of that car with Mikey, decades before. She bears the scar of that wreck, and Gary isn’t shy about using that to bait Mikey every chance he gets.
We’ve seen Mikey’s temper. We’re allowed to wonder if he’s mellowed, and wonder how wise that approach to a neighbor might be.
Because young Jack (Keoghan) called Mikey to alert him to a couple of dead O’Shea rams on the hill.
“Where there’s livestock, there’s dead stock,” he cracks.
But Jack is evasive and won’t let Mikey see the corpses. and when two re-branded (with spray paint) rams turn up at the local auction, the game is up. Jack stole them. Mikey’s fury is barely contained as Gary does what bullies do — dares him to do something about it.
As there have been stories of rustlers mutilating sheep, lopping off their legs, the threats to the O’Shea’s way of life are concrete and palpable. What does Old Man O’Shea want Mikey to do about it? Bring back the sheep by force?
Nooo. He wants his son to “Bring me their f–ckin’ HEADS!”
Callous cruelty and self-serving behavior permeates this world, where peer pressure — nobody will buy from shifty, crooked Gary — is almost the only recourse available when one family steps completely out of line. There’s no friendly uniformed Garda to keep the peace and see that wrong is made right.
And with no law, escalations can only end in horror.
Shoving and threatening leads to road rage and other escalations. And as the story folds back into itself, we see the desperation and amorality of the malefactors, the cowardice of bullies, the consequences of being a bad neighbor and the burden of being trapped with that bad neighbor — for life.
If you’re easily triggered on pretty much any subject listed above, I’d advise you to steer clear of this brutish Irish saga. It’s too bloody, too depressing and infuriating, and Andrews makes it his business to not give the viewer much relief or satisfaction with any of it.
But it’s also quite good, even if it denies us much that would give the viewer some sense of relief or justice.
Rating: R, graphic violence, animal abuse, drug abuse, smoking, profanity
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Barry Keoghan, Nora-Jane Noone, Paul Ready and Colm Meaney.
Credits: Scripted and directed by Chris Andrews. A Mubi release.
Running time: 1:47
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