Out of the Furnace  

Out of the Furnace is 2013 Crime action movie that was directed by Scott Cooper, with writing by Brad Ingelsby and music by Dickon Hinchliffe. Cast members of the movie include Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrison, Willem Deafo, Zoe Saldana and Forest Whitaker.  

Warning if you have not seen this movie be aware there will be spoilers. 

Story Summery   

The story starts at a drive-in cinema where we first meet the villain of this story “Harlan DeGroat”, (and let me tell you he is brutal). Not only does he forces feed his date a sausage that she nearly chocks on, but he also beats a man to death for trying to intervein. We then meet our main protagonist Russel Baze who after getting out of his job early goes to find his brother Rodney at the horse racing, losing on a betted horse. Turns out Rodney was betting with money that was lent and now he has a huge debt.

Russel then goes to see John Petty the man who lent Rodney the money where we also find our sausage feeder Harlan again demanding the money that John owes him. After he leaves Russel pay’s John half of Rodney’s debt and says he will pay the rest once he gets it. However, Russel had a bit too much to drink and when he was driving home, he ends up crashing and, which unfortunately results in the death of a young boy.  

After spending some time in prison Russel finds out that a lot of things have changed, first he’s already sick father passed away while in prison, His girlfriend Lene had dumped him for the police chief and his brother, well then. After serving in the army Rodney now takes part in illegal fight’s due to the horrors of war, he faced in Iraq.

When Russel finds out he confronts his brother about it and wants him to stop being in these fights. However too mentally scared by war to stop Rodney goes to John to have him set up another fight for him. Despite John begging Rodney to get out of this business he non the less reluctantly gets in contact with Harlan who happens to be in charge of the illegal fight pits. We also find out that Russel wants to get back together with Lene but she has already become Pregeant with the baby of Wesley, which makes the idea of the both of them getting back together a thing of the past.

Things aren’t going to well for Rodney ever after throwing the fight like he was asked to do John hoped that his debt to Harlan would be paid. However, Harlan still wanted the money John owes him and when he refuses saying their now even Harlan dose the unthinkable. He kills John first then he drags Rodney into the woods and then shoots him dead.  

Later on, Wesley informs Russel that Rodney has disappeared. Not willing to let the police handle this his starts a search for his brother. Sadly, he soon finds out that his brother is dead. What makes it worse is that early on he finds a letter from his brother saying he will come and work with him in steel mill after his last fight is done.

Having lost everything now Russel has nothing left to lose and vows he will kill the man who murdered his brother. He does this by luring Harlan out with promise of paying off John’s debt. A final chase takes place where Russel has hunted down Harlan but doesn’t want to kill him straight away, he beings by shooting him in the leg and then letting him limp away before shooting him again. Even though Wesley arrives and pleads with him to not kill him Russel ignores him and shots Harlan dead, getting revenge for his brother.  

The movies ending is very unclear it just shows a final scene where Russel is just sitting at a table by himself, and it ends with that.

Thoughts and feelings 

I thought that this movie had a very interesting storyline. This was because at first it was based on Russel doing everything to protect his younger brother. However, it turned into a story of revenge when his brother was murdered, and he went on a path of revenge to kill the man responsible.  

Christane Bale did a great job as Russel as well. Because of the way he was able to changes his characters motives, from a good honest man looking out for his friends and family to man with nothing left to lose and full of rage and longing for revenge. 

Woody Harrison did a great job with his characterisation. This was because he was able to play a really cold hearted and brutal crime lord who was willing to kill anyone who gets in his ways and doesn’t give him everything he wants. An example of this was when he killed both John and Rodney when John refused to pay him the money, he owed him despite him agreeing to let him off if Rodney throws the fight. 

I did however think it was sad that Russel never got back together with his love Lene, as I just wish that least he could have had one good thing left in his life, (but no, she decides to run off and be with a police chief, talk about lack of loyalty).  

Another thing was even though it was part of the story I did find it really sad when Rodney was killed. This was because after finding the letter I was hoping that Rodney and Russel could help support each other in life and work in the same job together. But sadly, that was not meant to be, (thanks a lot Harlan too bad Russel ended up killing you in the end, serve you right).   

Apart from those little bits I thought this was great movie.