Payback

Brian Helgeland’s first film as director comes from The Hunter by Richard Stark, filmed once already in 1967 as Point Blank. When Porter is shot the trigger is pulled not by his partner but by his wife, whom the partner had deceived, and he asks not for the whole take but for his own half of a 140 thousand dollar robbery, 70 thousand dollars. Helgeland’s cut never reached cinemas. Mel Gibson, one of the producers, said changes and reshoots were requested, that Helgeland refused on artistic grounds to write or direct them, and another director came in. Roughly 30 percent was redone, Terry Hayes reworked the script and Kris Kristofferson was added as a new villain. What changed was mostly the final third. By Gibson’s own account the sledgehammer scene on Porter’s toes was added then, and a dog that died in the first version survives in the new one. The release print uses bleach bypass and a washed out red, brown and grey palette. The 2006 director’s cut carries neither that nor Porter’s voice over, and Bronson there is a woman heard only on the phone. A good fit if you like setting two versions of one film side by side. Not for anyone who wants to skip the torture scene; it was not in the first cut.