Director Nicolas Winding Refn is becoming a name around the world for his unflinching blow to your visual sense with ‘Bronson.’ Many will look back in years down the road and look at that film that launched Refn’s career as a mainstream filmmaker. However, ‘Bronson’ is far from Refn’s debut as a director. It has been 13 years since his first film, ‘Pusher,’ and, though he has grown more confident as a filmmaker, his debut is just as riveting and stark as anything he has done since.
Kim Bodnia stars as Frank, a mid-level drug dealer on the streets of Copenhagen. Frank wants to make it big, and he sees his opportunity for great things when he is confronted by a former cellmate. The two set up a large deal, and Frank must go to a local supplier, Milo, to get the drugs. Frank owes Milo money from previous deals, and he does not have the money to cover what he is about to take from Milo. Milo, being the generous drug supplier that he is, gives Frank the drugs on the condition that Frank returns with the money as soon as possible. All seems to be going well, until the police intervene, and Frank is forced to throw the drugs into a local lake.
What follows is an intense ride through Frank’s life as we witness him doing everything he can to get back the money he owes Milo. Things go from bad to worse to even worse as Frank’s window of time begins to close in on him.
While there is so much to like about ‘Pusher,’ Kim Bodnia really is the star of the show here. Frank is in every scene of the film save for one, and even moreso than being a drug dealer, he is a despicable man. Never thinking about plans for the future, Frank does exactly what is necessary to get him from situation to the next. He has a girlfriend, a prostitute named Vic, who has deep-rooted feeling for Frank. Frank only uses Vic for his own purposes, and the only times he makes any indication of having a life with her is when it suits needs first and foremost. He won’t even have sex with the Vic, because her profession disgusts him so much, yet he keeps going back to her, dragging her along just to get what he needs from one moment to the next.
This level of egoism is made all the more evident when Frank breaks down and goes to his mother for help. Having not seen her son for years, she wants to know that he is okay, that he is taking care of himself. All Frank wants is money, and, when he realizes she has none to give, he turns on her, shutting her out of his life once again. It is a hard moment to watch in a film full of them, and Refn’s implacable sense of place and movement projects the viewer into Frank’s world.
Despite the aversion one might, and probably should, have for Frank, you cannot help but hope he makes it through this situation unscathed. You keep thinking maybe, just maybe, he’ll come around, find a way to pay off Milo, and run off with Vic to some secluded part of the world. Most of this level of hope stems from Bodnia’s performance. Bodnia is extremely likable, almost sympathetic in his portrayal. You believe Frank, because you want to believe Frank, and you want to believe Frank, because you believe Bodnia’s sincerity in the performance he gives.
You believe the character, also, due to the incredible style Refn gives the film. Like an unstopping train through the streets of Copenhagen, Refn shoots the city with a vitality that makes the city come alive, the streets Frank must work become a character unto themselves. Mid-way through the film, you almost begin to believe that the story is Frank against the city, but it becomes all the more evident as time passes that this is a story of one man against himself.
And that is what ‘Pusher’ truly boils down to. Frank is an addict, but his drug is not anything you can buy or steal. It’s chaos, and it follows Frank wherever he goes whether he is the source of it or not. Even when things are beginning to take a turn for the better, Frank finds a way turn it on its ear and come out the worse for it. He pushes away anyone who might care for him, anyone who might love him, and that alone gives the film’s title a shadowy, comfortless dual meaning.
As absorbing as ‘Pusher’ is, it didn’t find release in the United States until a limited release in 2006. By that time, the film had spawn two sequels, each delving a little deeper into a secondary character. ‘Pusher II,’ released in Denmark in 2004, follows Frank’s former partner, Tonny, played with colorful fascination by Mad Mikkelsen. Mikkelsen is probably the most recognizable of the actors in the ‘Pusher’ trilogy, as he went on to play the villain, Le Chiffre, in 2006’s ‘Casino Royale.’ ‘Pusher III’ follows the Serbian drug lord Milo, whose story comes full circle in this final chapter of the ‘Pusher’ saga. Each film opens with each of the lead actors standing against a dark background, hard music driving the beat and bottom-running subtitles giving their names. Each film is a powerhouse from Refn, but it is his first that is the most memorable.
That goes for all of Refn’s films. Even the inescapable power from ‘Bronson’ isn’t told with as much raw nerve as ‘Pusher.’ The director has become more polished in his later years, but it is still his first film that remains his crowning achievement. Told with a cutting style and cinema verite at its grittiest, ‘Pusher’ is a film that, 13 years later, is just as staggering and as weighty as it ever was.
