Just as he did in Taxi Driver, Paul Schrader serves up a bleak character study of slow-burn rage finally igniting the powder keg. Life's a Bickle for small-town sheriff Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte), a man who looks in the mirror and sees only failure. As Wade turns a hunting-accident investigation into a deluded grope for respect and redemption, the reflection of his booze-sodden father (James Coburn) starts grinning back at him after decades of unremitting abuse.
Violent catharsis, anyone? While Schrader exposes raw nerves in the male psyche with powerful immediacy, his intellectual cool gets a blast of burning emotion from the cast. Coburn's flinty bastard snagged the Best Supporting Oscar - and deservedly so - but it's Nolte who's on career-best form, hunching his grizzly-bear torso with winces of throttled pain. A steal at under six quid.
DVD Extras:
Trailer.
