22 Of The Best Revenge Films

“Django Unchained” (2012)
While it experienced a short life, Quentin Tarantino revived many of the stylistic tropes found in the Blaxploitation genre. Films such as “Shaft, “Coffy,” and “Foxy Brown” laid the foundation for the wacky-minded Tarantino to build upon. Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” (featuring Blaxploitation queen Pam Grier) and “Kill Bill” unashamedly borrowed from this era, but it was his 2013 “Django Unchained” that managed to soundly bridge the gap between afro-exploitation and his gnarled finesse. As ruthless as he envisioned a story that blew Nazis into bloody pieces (“Inglourious Basterds”), Tarantino puts a knife to the throats of Southern slave owners in “Django Unchained,” weaving together an escapist tale of freedom and retribution. After the initial scene where a bounty hunter by the name of Dr. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) frees Django (Jamie Foxx) from his enslaved bondage, the duo embarks on a murderous trail and sniff out bounties while confronting the congenital implications involved with racist Southern slavery. Admittedly, it’s a bit jarring that Tarantino reduced a horrible reality that persisted for almost 250 years into a spaghetti-western; nevertheless, Tarantino meticulously orchestrates a story of a slave turned bounty hunter into a blood-filled quest to save his wife from slave owners. With clenched fists and gritted teeth, this film unearths merit in cathartic vindication grounded in ferocity and a whimsical sense of humor.

“Lady Snowblood” (1973)
Toshiya Fujita’s “Lady Snowblood” follows the enraged and harrowing journey of Yuki Kashima (Meiko Kaji), a young woman raised to avenge the brutal murder of her family. Kaji’s portrayal of anguish brings potency to her personal crusade for justice. Filled with emblazoned hatred, rivers of revengeful blood flow from the beating heart of Kaji’s gritty performance as an unassuming assassin. Bearing a solemn complexion offset by two smoldering coals for eyes, the film’s hero never cracks her stoic expression while her body language holds a reclusive aura of danger, ready to be unleashed if pestered by threat. The harmonious pantomime between beauty and disarray makes this quest for vengeance that much heavier. Without Fujita’s “Lady Snowblood,” Quentin Tarantino’s blood bathed saga, “Kill Bill” would have never existed. While the prevailing poetic carnage of the “Kill Bill” franchise makes it easy to draw parallels between it and “Lady Snowblood,” Fujita’s pioneering epic enjoys ultraviolent rhyme and reason of its own nature. Its paradoxical presentation of creative and graceful butchery undoubtedly places “Lady Snowblood” as a drama ahead of its time.

“Nocturnal Animals” (2016)
One of the more atypical and subtle revenge plots on this list, fashion designer Tom Ford’s second directorial effort, “Nocturnal Animals,” lacks a feverish pursuit for revenge. In its place, Ford reveals retribution through a fascinatingly intricate narrative structure. The amorphous plotline(s) follows Susan Morrow (Amy Adams), an art gallery owner who receives an unpublished manuscript entitled ‘Nocturnal Animals” from ex-husband Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal). The novel tells the story of Tony Hastings (also played by Jake Gyllenhaal), a man whose wife and daughter were raped and killed by the perverse Ray Marcus (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Tony alongside Detective Bobby (Michael Shannon) enter a vigilante manhunt for Ray. The revenge-filled novel is an uncanny parallel to Susan’s past relationship with Edward. While the novel’s unsettling theme of vindication is unmistakable, the main plot reserves its own moment of retribution. After having delved deep into “Nocturnal Animals,” Susan’s mind becomes flooded with memories between the two. She is enraptured—filled with regretful sentiment and painful reminiscence — caught under a spell set forth by Edward’s bewitching writing capabilities. Edward wanted it this way. He wanted Susan to finally suffer through the pain only Edward himself endured at the time of their divorce. With an overwhelming slow burn and grief-filled atmosphere, “Nocturnal Animals” takes an unhinged approach to a three-pronged story about redemption and revenge. Ford’s keen eye for detail makes every aspect of this art-house, neo-noir feels necessary. Every shot, every spoken line, and every devastating grimace is perfectly cropped and airbrushed to perfection, lending a hand to the meticulous storytelling.

“The Revenant” (2015)
Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, “The Revenant,” often presumed an experience rather than a film, serves a grisly revenge western loosely based on the true events of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio). After having been mutilated by a bear and left for dead by his fellow trappers, Glass must survive the perils of the wilderness and avenge the murder of his son, whose life was taken by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). This masterpiece’s immense tension, barbarity and riveting moments of karma juxtapose the beauty announced by the cascading magnificence of the North American wilderness. Credit cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki for accomplishing this feat as he maintains a visceral bravado by capturing the spirit of the wild with his immersive landscapes. While Lubezki’s cinematography grabs most of the attention, Iñárritu should be commended for eschewing a complex plot with one of effective and revengeful simplicity. Its singularity invests resources elsewhere. Iñárritu gives prominence to striking visuals and dream sequences with the help of Lubezki’s masterful camera work. When the plot’s predestined moment of vengeance rears its head, audiences are taken aback and Glass’s moment for retribution cuts that much deeper. While “The Revenant” is an earth-shattering spectacle, it’s the story that ties it all together. The hardships Glass experiences while struggling through the unforgiving wilderness should be enough to break any human’s will to love, but the anguished memories of his slain wife and son are substantial enough to inflame his valor and thirst for payback. While the fixation on revenge may not yield the most redeeming qualities of humankind, it is a turbulent truth nonetheless. Given the circumstances of Glass or any of the above-mentioned characters, it would be hard-pressed to question why they feel the way they do.

“The Big Heat” (1953)
Surprisingly few film noirs deal with revenge as a plot, and while 1953’s “The Big Heat” has a more straightforward narrative than some of the crime pictures of the period (in many ways, it’s a forerunner to the contemporary action movie), stylistically Fritz Lang‘s film is very much of a piece with the classic film noir. Glenn Ford stars as homicide cop Dave Bannion who, while investigating the death of a colleague, soon discovers how far the tendrils of the local mob, led by Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby) and Vince Stone (an early stand-out turn from Lee Marvin). His inquiries take a tragic turn when his car is blown up by the criminals, with wife Katie inside, causing Bannion to quit the department in order to bring the murderers to justice, with the aid of Stone’s girlfriend Debby (Gloria Grahame). It’s now a generic tale sort of premise, and Ford’s charmlessness does the film few favors, but it’s also thrillingly intense, visceral stuff, with a level of violence that you’re surprised ever got past the Code, and a great femme fatale (one who causes the downfall of the villain, and herself, rather than the hero) in Grahame. And Lang, of course, directs the hell out of it, letting the corruption of an entire city (including the straight-arrow, but somewhat heartless Bannion) slowly bubble over. By the end, the cop has his revenge, but any sense that it’ll change things is fairly unconvincing.