Payback (1999 film)

Payback is a 1999 American neo-noir action thriller film written and directed by Brian Helgeland in his directorial debut, and starring Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, Lucy Liu, Deborah Kara Unger, David Paymer and James Coburn. It is based on the novel The Hunter by Donald E. Westlake using the pseudonym Richard Stark, which had earlier been adapted into the 1967 film Point Blank.

During post-production, Helgeland was removed by Gibson and the producers, who rewrote and reshot substantial portions of the film, including a different third act and a new villain played by Kris Kristofferson. This version of the film was released by Paramount Pictures on February 5, 1999, and received mixed reviews from critics.

In 2006, Helgeland issued a director’s cut, entitled Payback: Straight Up, that differs substantially from the version released by the studio. This new version received a more positive reception, and is generally considered superior to the theatrical cut.

Plot

Note: This plot synopsis refers to the film’s original theatrical cut. Plot differences between the theatrical and director’s cut are noted later in the article.

Porter, a career thief and former U.S. Marine, has gunshot wounds treated by an unlicensed doctor, having been shot and betrayed for $70,000, and plans his revenge. After months of recuperating, Porter uses a series of petty thefts and short cons to acquire cash, a new suit, and a revolver. He and his partner-in-crime Val Resnick had stolen $140,000 from a local Chinese Triad, but Val deceived Porter’s wife Lynn into believing Porter was having an affair with Rosie, a call girl he used to protect. Lynn shot Porter and left him for dead as Val took the cash to pay off a debt to “the Outfit,” a powerful organized crime syndicate.

Porter confronts Lynn, who has been consumed by guilt and become addicted to heroin. He tries to confiscate her drugs, but she finds some in a secondary stash. Porter awakes and finds her dead from an overdose the next morning. Believing that Val was funding her habit, Porter interrogates Lynn’s drug connection, who points him to Val’s middle-man, Stegman. Porter finds Stegman in the company of corrupt police detectives Hicks and Leary, and Val learns from Stegman that Porter is alive. Enlisting the help of Rosie, who is now affiliated with the Outfit, Porter ambushes Val during a session with Pearl, a Triad-connected dominatrix, and demands his money.

Val goes to Carter, a higher-up with the Outfit, who warns him to eliminate Porter on his own. However, after Val leaves he directs one of his men to take care of Porter himself. Desperate, Val directs Pearl to tell the Triads that Porter was responsible for the $140,000 heist. Before the Triads can kill Porter, Hicks and Leary arrive, having found Lynn’s body and questioned her dealer, and extort Porter for a cut of his money once he recovers it. Following Porter to Rosie’s apartment, Val shoots her dog and threatens to rape her, but Porter shoots and wounds him. Giving up the names of Outfit bosses Fairfax and Carter, Val is killed by Porter. Taking Rosie to his secret apartment, Porter finds a bomb rigged to the telephone by Carter’s men, who call him from a car outside. Cutting their fuel line, Porter incinerates them with a lit cigarette.

Outside Carter’s office, Porter is waylaid by Hicks, Leary, and Stegman, who also demands a cut. Porter gives them his revolver to hold while he is inside, securing Leary’s fingerprints on the gun that killed Val. Meeting with Carter, Porter disarms his guards and threatens to kill him. Deferring to the organization’s corporate structure, Carter calls Bronson, the head of the Outfit. Porter repeatedly corrects them that all he wants is his half-share of the money Val stole, but Bronson refuses to pay, and Porter kills Carter. Framing Hicks and Leary for Val’s death, Porter leaves Hicks’s badge and the gun with Leary’s fingerprints by the body.

With Rosie’s assistance, Porter kidnaps Bronson’s son Johnny, which he reveals to Bronson on another call while he threatens Fairfax. Hicks and Leary are arrested by Internal Affairs due to the false evidence Porter planted. Stegman captures Porter, but a shootout ensues with Pearl and the Triads, leaving Stegman, his driver, and the Triads dead; holding Porter at gunpoint, Pearl is knocked unconscious when the Outfit arrives to abduct Porter. Badly beaten, Porter meets face-to-face with Bronson, who has brought a $140,000 ransom but swears Porter will never touch it. Porter reasons that all he wanted was the $70,000 Resnick took, but Bronson orders his men to hammer Porter’s toes until he reveals Johnny’s location; they smash two toes before he gives them an address.

Bronson, Fairfax, and their men drive to the address, Porter’s apartment, with Porter locked in the trunk. As they go inside, Porter breaks free and uses the car phone to dial his apartment phone; Bronson answers, triggering the bomb left by Carter’s men, and the explosion kills Bronson, Fairfax, and their men. Leaving Johnny cuffed to her radiator, Rosie joins Porter in starting a new life together, beginning by “going for breakfast…in Canada.”

Cast

Production

The film was shot from September to November 1997, in Chicago and Los Angeles, though neither city is referred to in the film.

Mel Gibson stated in a short interview released as a DVD extra that it “would’ve been ideal to shoot in black and white.” He noted that “people want a color image” and that the actual film used a bleach bypass process to tint the film. In addition to this, the production design used muted shades of red, brown, and grey for costumes, sets, and cars for further effect.

Re-shoots and re-editing

Although credited as director, Brian Helgeland’s cut of the film was not the theatrical version released to audiences. Helgeland clashed with Mel Gibson over Gibson’s ideas for the film. After the end of principal photography, Gibson admitted that he was instrumental in having Helgeland removed as director before the film was released.

A script rewrite by Terry Hayes was ordered. There was initially some uncertainty on who directed the reshoots, with some sources claiming it was the production designer John Myhre. However, Paul Abascal has stated on his website that he in fact directed the new scenes. The new director reshot 30% of the film. The intent was to make the Porter character accessible; as such, the film’s tagline became: “Get Ready to Root for the Bad Guy.”

A potentially controversial scene between Porter and Lynn which arguably involves spousal abuse was excised and more plot elements were added to the third act. After 10 days of reshoots, a new opening scene and voiceover track also were added, and Kris Kristofferson walked on as a new villain.

Reception

Box office

Payback was well received at the box office. The film made $21,221,526 in its opening weekend in North America. It eventually grossed $81,526,121 in North America and $80,100,000 in other territories, totaling $161,626,121 worldwide.

Critical reception

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 77 critics gave Payback a positive review, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website’s critical consensus states, “Sadistic violence and rote humor saddle a predictable action premise.” Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 46 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B−” on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert gave the film a three out of four stars, writing in his review: “There is much cleverness and ingenuity in Payback, but Mel Gibson is the key. The movie wouldn’t work with an actor who was heavy on his feet, or was too sincere about the material.”

Director’s cut

Helgeland’s version, Straight Up: The Director’s Cut, was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and HD DVD on April 10, 2007, after an October 2006 run at the Austin Film Festival. The Director’s Cut version features a female Bronson, that is never seen only heard over the phone voiced by Sally Kellerman, does not include the voice-over by Porter and several Bronson-related scenes, and has a different film score composed by Scott Stambler. The film also features alternative color grading, and does not utilize the bleach bypass process present in the theatrical cut.

During their scuffle (which is longer than in the theatrical version and was the main source of controversy), Porter earlier tells Lynn that his picture with Rosie was taken before they met, thereby rendering her jealousy unjustified. This version has an entirely different, ambiguous ending where Porter is seriously wounded in a train station shootout and driven off by Rosie.

A June 4, 2012, look at “movies improved by directors’ cuts” by The A.V. Club described Payback: Straight Up as “a marked improvement on the unrulier original.”

References

External links

Official website

Payback at IMDb

Payback: Straight Up at IMDb

Payback at Box Office Mojo

Payback at Metacritic

Payback at Rotten Tomatoes