Michael Winner's Dirty Weekend is his take on films like Ms. 45 as well as a middle finger to the critics who complained about sexual violence in his earlier box office smash, Death Wish.
Dirty Weekend is rarely talked about even among fans of British crime films and Britsploitation. It is cheap, it is nasty and despite Winner's reputation as a bad director (he's not) it's actually well paced and there's some decent performances especially from Lia Williams, the housewife next door turned vigilante. Production wise it has a bit of a TV Movie feel, which is a shame. For some reason it kept me gripped for the running time, maybe because I wondered what I would see next. It does feature graphic violence and sexual assault; nobody seriously believed that this is a feminist film; it's exploitation, but that sits great with me.
It's nowhere near in the same league as Death Wish which has an explosive scene on a subway train, easily one of the most memorable of the tough crime films of the 1970s. By comparison the show stopper in Dirty Weekend is a nasty forced oral sex scene (simulated) with vomiting. See what I mean? Ms. 45 by comparison is dark and gritty, but much more even in its tone; Dirty Weekend is a bit uneven; part seaside postcard, part brutal rape revenge film - even the film's title is an innuendo.
See it if you like this sort of thing, but it's far from a great film. The version I saw was an uncut VHS, not sure how the DVD from Universal is. Death Wish had a remake in 2018, I can't see this relative obscurity getting the same Hollywood treatment.
Dirty Weekend is rarely talked about even among fans of British crime films and Britsploitation. It is cheap, it is nasty and despite Winner's reputation as a bad director (he's not) it's actually well paced and there's some decent performances especially from Lia Williams, the housewife next door turned vigilante. Production wise it has a bit of a TV Movie feel, which is a shame. For some reason it kept me gripped for the running time, maybe because I wondered what I would see next. It does feature graphic violence and sexual assault; nobody seriously believed that this is a feminist film; it's exploitation, but that sits great with me.
It's nowhere near in the same league as Death Wish which has an explosive scene on a subway train, easily one of the most memorable of the tough crime films of the 1970s. By comparison the show stopper in Dirty Weekend is a nasty forced oral sex scene (simulated) with vomiting. See what I mean? Ms. 45 by comparison is dark and gritty, but much more even in its tone; Dirty Weekend is a bit uneven; part seaside postcard, part brutal rape revenge film - even the film's title is an innuendo.
See it if you like this sort of thing, but it's far from a great film. The version I saw was an uncut VHS, not sure how the DVD from Universal is. Death Wish had a remake in 2018, I can't see this relative obscurity getting the same Hollywood treatment.