Bring Them Down Movie Recommendation… If you are a fan of movies like Calibre, Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Banshees of Inisherin, then boy, do I have a movie for you. Bring Them Down features Barry Keoghan (of the aforementioned Sacred Deer and Banshees films) and Christopher Abbott (Sanctuary, and Black Bear brilliance…), and Nora-Jane Noone (whom I particularly loved, but was completely unfamiliar with until this film).
Before we go any further, if you avoid movies where animals are harmed… dude, hard pass on this film. Trust me. Woah. Okay, with that out of the way… trailer.
The reason the movie is similar to Calibre, is that it’s a downward spiral of a movie that pours on mistake, after mistake, after ill-intentioned hate, after mistake, after retribution, after chaos fueled and blundered chaos. It’s a brilliant movie with some really great acting from these two gents. But I wouldn’t read any further if you haven’t seen it yet. Bounce, go watch, then come back and we’ll try and make sense out of it together.
Bring Them Down Movie Timeline Resolved
One of the biggest complications of this movie is that the timeline is bifurcated at about the halfway point, and then restarted. The vantage points shift, and the story resets. That way we see things we’ve seen before, but this time from a new and more revelatory perspective. Which, makes it both easier to understand, and harder to understand simultaneously. So, in order to make sure we are all talking to the same timeline as we try and make heads or tails out of this film… let me list out the timeline that I think is correct. (Comment if I jacked anything up.)
- Michael causes an accident w/ his girlfriend Caroline, and Michael’s mother who was leaving the family.
- He accidently kills Michael’s mother and scars Caroline’s face.
- Time Jump, Caroline is married to Michael’s neighbor, Gary, and they have a son Jack.
- Gary’s finances are in dire shape.
- Gary’s bridge washes out and he forcefully crosses Michael’s land without permission from Michael’s father Ray.
- Caroline dresses up nicely for a job interview in Cork – which would mean she’d have to leave Gary.
- Jack steals two rams from Michael, and tries to sell them as his own.
- Michael catches Jack, but Gary refuses to give the rams back.
- On the way home, Gary chases Michael, but crashes the car.
- Michael gives Gary and Jack a ride back home.
- Jack lies to his mother about how the accident happened.
- Jack and Lee sell a dead ram and find out that sheep legs are worth 15 Euro a pair.
- Jack and Lee come across Michael and his herd and honk angrily. Michael breaks their headlamp.
- Jack and Lee steal the construction van.
- Jack gets cold feet cutting off the ram’s legs but continues anyway.
- Mac, Michael’s dog attacks, and Jack stabs the dog.
- Michael assumes that it’s the construction guys that harmed his flock.
- Ray tells Michael he wants the head of whomever has done this to his flock.
- Jack and Lee sell the legs.
- Michael comes to Gary’s house to kill him but doesn’t shoot.
- Returning home, Jack learns that his father has told his mother he’d stolen Michael’s rams.
- Jack sees someone prowling as Michael hides in the truck.
- The next morning early, Caroline tells Jack she saw the rams in the shed.
- She tells Jack not to push Michael too hard.
- Jack and Gary need to help the builders because someone has stolen their van.
- Gary discovers that Jack didn’t kill the rams – the plan is to help the builders and then return the rams.
- Michael can’t kill Gary, but is discovered by a construction worker.
- Michael kills the man, but not before getting his own ear blown off.
- Michael goes to Caroline for help and Jack is unsure what to do.
- Michael places the knife on the counter and Caroline gives it to Jack because it’s his.
- <<and now Michael knows who killed his dog and rams>>
- Caroline drives Michael to his house, and Ray is in a bad way.
- She leaves to get a call out for help, leaving Jack behind “you’ve had a part in all this.”
- Ray sees that there is a head in the bag – but its the “wrong head.”
- Jack runs for it and Michael gives chase up into the mountains
- Jack stabs Michael – and Michael accidentally stabs Jack in response.
- Michael carries Jack down out of the mountains to his mother.
- “I’m sorry for the crash, I’m sorry I’m sorry.”
- “You f’ing terrify me.”
- Michael heads into the barn to die.
Okay, Let’s Make Sense of Bring Them Down Now, Shall We?
Everyone in this film has a prime mover, or a raison d’etre… a purpose for being alive, and a motivator that propels them ahead in the action of the film. For example, Michael… his entire life is filled with grief and self-loathing. How do I know? LOOK AT HIS LIFE POST CRASH MAN! He is lonely, and regretful. He spends his life caring for his father, and the sheep. That’s it. That’s what he does. In a moment of pique, he ruined his life because he didn’t want his mother to divorce his father. He crashes the car, kills his mother, and critically injures his girlfriend.
What about Gary? Money. He’s swimming in debt. He can’t figure out how to make ends meet. He’s gotten loans from pretty much everyone they know, and no one else will even talk to him or his son. And Jack? Worse. He’s a scoundrel and a thief. He too is concerned about his parent’s relationship, and that his mother will leave them. And it’s these motivators and broken cycles that cause this flywheel to spin out of control.
What is the Impetus That Starts It All?
It’s the gate. The LOCKED gate is what kicks this entire problem off. When Gary’s bridge is washed out, it necessitates their traversing of Ray’s land. But Ray gives no such permission. And Gary can’t afford to rebuild the bridge. So now he can’t get to his herd. And voila, the keg of gunpowder has been lit. So Gary runs down the gate and away we go.
This, in turn, communicates to his son Jack, just how dire things are financially. So when Jack sees the two rams from Michael’s herd wandering lost, he decides to capitalize. But things go horribly sideways when Gary decides that road rage is the way to go, and the story traverses sanity and instead heads off into the darker waters of revenge.
What is the Deeper Message Here?
It would be pretty satisfying if, like Banshees of Inisherin, or The Killing of a Sacred Deer, there was a much deeper message here for all of this violence and bloodshed. Could it be that there is a deeper story of hatred between two Irish farmers? A story of brother on brother bloodshed, the IRA and all of that? No, no… this isn’t that story. Instead, this is just a story of two men who are wired way too tight, who willingly chose not to take the various off-ramps of forgiveness and grace that permeate this story. They are everywhere.
Michael could have let his foot off the gas and let his mother leave his father. That would have avoided the initial tragic accident that scarred his girlfriend for life. When Ray asked for the head of the man responsible for the murdering of his flock, Michael could have just said… yeah, no thanks. I’ll be passing on that. But instead, he hauls a random head back to his father. “It’s a head, but it’s the wrong head…” sheesh. What a violent waste. But that is where we all go wrong. We violently plunge ourselves into the deep end and we don’t let up. It’s how road rage starts and ends in a shouting match. It’s how a parking lot showdown for the perfect spot escalates. It’s how that work feud boils over. That is the message here – man’s inhumanity to man knows no bounds.
And that is why I loved this movie so. It characterizes man’s own internal insanities so perfectly.
Edited by: CY