I’ve had the Pusher trilogy since last year when I picked up the trilogy for a few bucks over at the local Movie Gallery when it was liquidating it’s stock. Had heard about them for a long time, but never seen them.
Man, I was in for a surprise. Each film just successively gets better. With the only constant being my favorite character, Milo. A few days ago a dusted off the dvds (literally, I had only seen them right after I bought them last March) and began to revisit them in reverse order thanks to the Pusher Trilogy thread as well as the article Russ did on the trilogy. I then proceeded to do something I don’t do often.
I began them in reverse order. I started off with the third one that features Milo as the main character. I already said he was my favorite character, and it was a treat seeing him take the main spotlight. The first time around I saw them chronologically, but this time I just found myself watching them backwards.
There’s only a loose connection through the 3 films. One character presumed dead in the first one, takes main stage in the second with visible scars, and Milo appears asking about the main character from the first film. Two characters from the second appear in the third one in opposite time frames. One character that had a larger supporting role in the second has a cameo in the third one, and vice versa.
The third one is all about Milo having the worst day of his life that includes baking for 50 people for his daughter’s wedding, and some drugs that he got stiffed on. His downward spiral needs to be seen.
The second one is about Tonny. Friend to Frank from the second one, and receiver of a baseball bat bashing to the head, and sports a bunch of scars on his head. He’s portrayed by the enigmatic Mads Mikkelsen. Complete with a shaved head and “RESPECT” tattooed on the back. The ending to this one is probably the best ending out of all of them, even though the ending to the third one has a lot more punch, and perfectly sums up the character of Milo, but me being sappy, I really liked the ending of the second Pusher flick.
The Pusher that started it all features an INTENSE performance by Kim Bodnia as Frank, a drug dealer into Milo for 230,000 kroner large. He spends the entire movie trying to get the money together, and the ending is so abrupt and good, that I didn’t want it to be the ending. I wanted to see more. Instead all I got about Frank’s fate was Milo asking Tonny about him in the second one.
These are three great films that need to be seen.
Rene’s song of the day: “Don’t Fear The Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult.
Thanks for reading my blog and see you next time!