Big Bad Wolves (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
When Quentin Tarantino tells you that he has just seen the best movie of the year, it might pay off to listen to the man. In 2013, that movie was Big Bad Wolves, an Israeli thriller which frankly nobody had heard about. So Tarantino gave it some well-deserved publicity. But is it the best movie of 2013? Probably not, but it’s a pretty good movie, that’s for sure.
In Big Bad Wolves we travel to Israel, where we find three innocent children playing hide and seek. The game ends terribly, when the last child can’t be found. The police get involved and they soon have their primary suspect, a school teacher named Dror (Rotem Keinan). He is pulled from the streets by a police team led by Micki (Lior Ashkenazi). Attempting to quickly solve the case, Micki resorts to quite harsh interrogation techniques (such as introducing the yellow pages to Dror’s face). Unfortunately for Micki a passerby catches his torture on camera and uploads it to YouTube. As the footage spreads, Micki gets demoted to traffic cop and must leave the case in the hands of Rami (Menashe Noy). Dror gets released and is issued an apology for the harsh treatement.
Rami gets a disturbing phone call detailing the whereabouts of the missing girl. Together with Micki he finds her in an abandon spot in the woods. The girl is sexually assaulted and beheaded. Also on the premises is the girl’s father Gidi (Tzahi Grad), a retired policeman.
Micki, now working on his own, is still suspecting Dror. Wanting to proof he was right by being rough with Dror, he starts following him around, hoping that Dror would lead him to the girl’s missing head. Meanwhile, Gidi also starts suspecting Dror and prepares to kidnap and torture him into telling the whereabouts of his daughter.
Dror, Micki and Gidi are all heading on a crash course. Is Dror really the pedophile, will he be captured by either Micki or Gidi and how far are the two men willing to go to get their answers. All this and more in Big Bad Wolves.
Big Bad Wolves is a pretty movie. You can see that directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado really put in the effort in thinking the scenes through and making sure the details are correct. The visuals in the first fifteen minutes where you see the kids playing hide and seek are pretty excellent. The tension slowly rises and the created atmosphere is unnerving as hell.
Despite the fact that the poster of this movie features a man with a hammer, the gore is pretty restrained. There’s some gore, but it is mostly used for a reason, and not just for cheap shock value. There’s two scenes where this is effectively used to demonstrate that such a thing could really hurt, but at other times the violence is more effectively shown by not showing it at all. Still, people that are very squeamish about gore and violence would better pass on this movie.
The music really adds to the whole atmosphere of the movie. Especially the first 15 minutes stand out, both visually and musically. Every aspect of the film is professionally put together and it really shows the talent of the directors.
The plot is great and is created so that you can feel disgust and sympathy for all the characters. The movie never really takes a side, allowing the viewer to make up his own mind if what happens is a good thing or not. The ending answers some questions, but it remains the personal opinion of the viewer who the good guys and who the bad guys were
Speaking of, the end, without spoiling anything, was the weakest part of the movie. There might be people who enjoy the ending, but I believe it would’ve been a better movie if the last minutes weren’t shown.
Conclusion:
Big Bad Wolves is a great thriller, with functional gore. The actors deliver an excellent performance and the plot is interesting. The ending could’ve been better, but even then it was still a good movie with interesting characters. Naming it the best film of 2013 is a bit daring, but it’s impossible to deny that it’s a very well made movie that will keep you at the edge of your seat.
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