Deep in the Heart (aka Handgun)
Studio: Fun City Editions
March 29, 2024
Web Exclusive
Kathleen Sullivan (Karen Young) settles into her new world, having left her old life and her Irish Catholic parents back in Boston for a job in Dallas. Home is a long way away for the high school teacher, who now finds herself teaching lessons about the many lawmakers and folk heroes that populate Lone Star State history. A friendly colleague tries to set her up with a suitable bachelor – a handsome young lawyer named Larry (Clayton Day) – who is obsessed with his gun-centric Texas heritage. When Kathleen reiterates that she is not interested in a relationship with him, Larry uses the threat of a gun to take what he wants by force.
Like Michael Winner with Death wish (1974), Tony Garnett was a Brit who used the revenge film as a commentary on an aspect of American society, but from the opposite side of the political spectrum. Like Bronson's Paul Kersey, Kathleen finds herself empowered with a gun in her hand and becomes a tool for justice where legal authorities have failed. Where Winner's film glorifies a fantasy where armed vigilantism was an effective deterrent against violent crime, Garnett's Deep in the heart (1983) has a much more skeptical attitude toward American gun culture.
In the wake of Kathleen's attack, the police wave a white flag in their investigation: Larry is a respected lawyer, and the two he had finally got a date. (In court, the issue of consent would come down to her word against of.) The priest he turns to for spiritual support insists that he accept the attack as part of God's unknown plans — and suggests that the ordeal Larry is about to face accused rape is just as bad as what she went through. Under the weight of her trauma and ridiculously inadequate response to the incident, Kathleen slams into the object of Larry's fascination: the gun. He goes from being afraid of guns to joining the same gun club as Larry, where he trains in marksmanship drills and combat-style ranges.
Like his hero Death wish, Kathleen begins the film as disliking firearms. where Paul Kersey was a conscientious objector, he nervously admits that he had never been near such a weapon before meeting Larry. But instead of using her first weapon to rid the streets of thieves, she uses her mastery to torture her assailant – first to humiliate Larry by showing him in the area, and finally to put him in a situation where he feels as powerless as he was during his attack. It makes him fear what he loves most.
While writer-director Tony Garnett stops short of outright condemning America's love affair with firearms, the juxtapositions he presents paint the situation in an absurd light. Children applaud as a shooter juggles loaded revolvers through a packed crowd at the State Fair. Two salesmen openly demonstrate the murderous qualities of various survival knives while sitting in a fast food restaurant. A bowling ball with a man squatting down and repeatedly quickly pulling his pistol from a holster hidden under a huge belly, as if he's Roscoe Arbuckle playing Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop. A cover of “Gods, Guts and Guns” plays as the camera pans over a myriad of guns for sale at a local gun shop. Photos of Texas' most famous cowboys hang on the wall behind Kathleen as she lectures her (racially diverse) class about the killing of the area's indigenous communities. When our heroine sets her latest revenge plot in motion, her outfit first evokes a feminine, cowgirl style reminiscent of Doris Day Calamity Jane (1953) or Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar (1954)—She soon unties the bandana around her neck and reshapes it over her forehead like Rambo.
Everything about Deep in the heart it feels purposeful and suggests that extra level of care from its writer-director. Although at times it sounds so heavy – the close-up of the cheerleaders' underwear suggests Larry's lust – but it's not as trashy as the film's original disco track 'Make Me Come With You Tonight” (written by Garnett himself) — there are many moments where the director lets scenes play out, not to advance the plot, but to create an atmosphere. A sweet, trivial phone call between Kathleen and her parents. quiet lessons with various shooting instructors. an uninterrupted scene in which he shops for the ideal revolver, feeling their weight and listening to salespeople expound on the virtues of different grip materials. This isn't a big movie at around 100 minutes, but it stops to show the championship and the entirety of a 60 second “foxy boxing” match in a scene that doesn't even include our lead character. When Kathleen cuts her hair (Young's actual bricks), we watch as the scissors slowly and methodically pierce her thick ponytail. Moments like these never feel like filler, however; they give Deep in the heart a particularly naturalistic feel.
Despite outstanding performances from his two championships, Deep in the heart it more or less disappeared upon release in the early 1980s — but given how little has changed in the four decades since then, the film still lands with full resonance in 2024. Deep in the heart It joins an ever-growing list of overlooked films that have been given a well-deserved second life by Fun City Editions, with strong picture and sound and a generous selection of extras. Bonus material includes a new commentary by Erica Shultz and Chris O'Neill, an archival interview with the director, and a wonderful essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, who wrote the definitive book on the genre.
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