From Crazy Heart writer/director Scott Cooper comes Out of the Furnace, starring Christian Bale as a down-on-his luck steel mill worker, a real Springsteen-song type, who gets drawn into vigilantism after Woody Harrelson and some bad boys try to get Bale’s Iraq veteran brother played by Casey Affleck to take a dive in his underground boxing match. Much to their chagrin, Casey Affleck says PTSDEEEEZ NUTS to that idea and they retaliate by killing him, leading to an epic showdown between Bale and the bad boys. Also, Pearl Jam.
Jeez, give away the entire movie, why don’t you.
Russell Baze (Christian Bale) works a dead-end job at the local steel mill, as his terminally ill father did before him. When Russell’s brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) returns home from serving time in Iraq, he gets lured into one of the most ruthless crime rings in the Northeast and mysteriously disappears. The police fail to crack the case, so – with nothing left to lose – Russell takes matters into his own hands, putting his life on the line to seek justice for his brother. Sometimes your battles choose you.
You think it’s bad that Woody kills Christian Bale’s brother, they don’t even show the part where he deflowered his sister after her prom. While I’d love to offer some analysis of this beyond “great cast!”, as a child of the 90s, as soon as that Pearl Jam song faded in over all the flannel shirts and the grey Northwest cityscapes, before I even knew what was happening I found myself swaying back and forth holding a Bic lighter over my head.
I’LLLLLLL RIIIIIIIDE THE WAAAAAAAVE, WHERE IT TAAAAAAAAAAAAKES MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…
(*stage dives into cats*)
