Looking for payback.

Byline: Jim Keogh

COLUMN: FILM CLIPS

I've been reading a lot about revenge lately, specifically revenge-themed movies. With Jodie Foster packing heat as a victim-turned-vigilante in "The Brave One" and an armed-and-dangerous Kevin Bacon avenging the murder of his son in "Death Sentence," scribes are trying to get to the heart of what drives us to lash back at our attackers.

Some speculate that revenge movies are inspired by their times. In "Taxi Driver" (1976) Travis Bickle rampages against New York's street rats in a fit of post-Vietnam fury. Pimps? Politicians? Doesn't matter. They're equally responsible for the degradation Travis sees on his nightly rounds of Times Square, and all deserve to be taken down.

The Foster and Bacon movies are being touted as examples of revenge fantasies that are indicative of a post-9-11 world, movies that tap into people's desire to take tangible action against an enemy who is elusive, yet poised for attack. The movies empower the powerless.

There is truth to all of the above. Movies, like any other type of art, can't be viewed in a vacuum - they are products of the social, cultural and political forces that shape the way we view the world. That's not to say they are always a true rendering of what we see. I'm reading a book called "The Worst Hard Time" about the great dustbowl of the 1920s and '30s, and throughout there are references to the relentlessly upbeat music ("Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries") and films that offered pure escapism from the Depression-era degradation that beat down so many Americans. ("The Grapes of Wrath" wouldn't appear in theaters until 1940.)

The key ingredient that links revenge movies across the generations is, of course, anger. You've got to get it, you've got to nurse it, and you've got to act on it if you plan to wreak vengeance on your oppressors. Anger cuts through ugly questions about morality and law; it stokes a feeling of near insanity that the hero, or anti-hero, needs to overcome their fears and doubts in order to pull the trigger. In 1972 George C. Scott cut to the chase in his directorial debut in which he played a peaceful sheep rancher who takes violent action against those responsible for the accidental chemical poisoning of his son. The film's title? "Rage."

Revenge fantasies endure because they ask the ultimate "What if?" questions. What if someone harmed your family? Tried to kill you? Ruined you financially? When that anger wells up, what will you be capable of? In a 1988 presidential debate, CNN anchor Bernard Shaw asked Michael Dukakis if he would favor the death penalty for someone who raped and murdered his wife. Dukakis' reply, a wooden, jargony defense of his anti-death penalty stance, drew heat from many who wanted him to acknowledge how he would wish to respond to such a terrible action as a husband before he dissected the legalities of the "case" as a presidential candidate.

Filmmakers know how elemental the revenge movie is to their repertoire. Most of Clint Eastwood's Westerns, from "Hang 'Em High" to "High Plains Drifter" to "The Outlaw Josey Wales," are built around the theme of revenge. Somebody done him wrong, and now it's his turn to return the favor one well-placed bullet at a time. It's hard not to feel that secret thrill while watching "Hang 'Em High" when Eastwood confronts the men who tried to lynch him, revealing his identity by removing the kerchief around his neck to reveal the scar left by their noose.

Mel Gibson ("Payback," "Braveheart," "The Patriot" and, yes, "Hamlet") is a sort of revenge savant. Russell Crowe ("Gladiator") got to kill the Roman emperor to avenge the murder of his wife and son. Michael Caine can be a debonair dandy, but in "Get Carter," bad men had to get out of his way as he tracked down his brother's killer.

In revenge fantasies, there usually isn't much murkiness surrounding the central question about whether the villain deserves his fate. Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies pitted Uma Thurman against a rogue's gallery of goons who'd tried to murder her on her wedding day. She gets a free pass to become Bride-zilla with a samurai sword. In "Walking Tall" (both the 1973 and 2004 versions) and "Billy Jack" (1971), men yearn to live peaceful lives in small towns but discover that will be impossible as long as corrupt officials and their hired thugs terrorize the populace. So they revolt with justified force.

Sometimes, the need to reciprocate in terrible ways can be so powerful it transcends rational human thought. The killer whale in "Orca" (1977) knew just where to direct his ire: at bounty hunter Richard Harris, who killed his pregnant mate. The whale coming after the captain is an interesting twist on that ultimate story of homicidal madness, "Moby Dick." Though when you're talking aquatic payback, it's difficult to trump the eternally cheesy "Jaws the Revenge" (1987), in which a great white shark seems to have tracked the late Sheriff Brody's family to the Bahamas to exact retribution for his shark-killing exploits.

Jodie Foster's film is being closely compared to 1974's "Death Wish," the seminal retaliation picture in which Charles Bronson's mild-mannered architect becomes a gun-wielding vigilante following his wife's murder. Street criminals seem oddly lured to him. I haven't seen the movie in some time, though I recall wondering who in their right mind would choose to pick on Charles Bronson. Unlike Foster, that craggy, creased face had revenge stamped all over it.

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Jodie Foster stars in "The Brave One."