Pusher
Pusher
| 30 August 1996 (USA)
Pusher Trailers

A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.

Reviews
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
bowmanblue Apparently this gangster film was really huge in Europe. I'm not sure how 'big' it was here, in Britain, but, in my opinion, it's no 'Lock Stock.' Firstly, it feels cheap. I know a lot of people who enjoyed it will call it 'gritty,' but Reservoir Dogs was 'gritty' and still felt stylish at the same time. 'Pusher' just feels like it was filmed with a video camera without anyone's permission on each location.It's about a gangster, who seems to dabble in everything from drugs to armed robbery, trying to organise a drugs deal which – guess what – goes wrong and leaves him in debt to an even nastier gangster. Do we care? Not really.I have no problem with films about gangsters (or 'bad guys' to use another term). We don't have to like them to enjoy the film, just as long as they provide some form of entertainment. Our central character here doesn't. He's bland. He doesn't ever really inspire us to care whether he lives, dies or finds a way of paying his way out of the situation. He just sort of spends the film wandering around doing some half-hearted effort of calling in old debts.And that's about it. A cheap-looking film with bland characters who you won't really care about and a plot that's been done to death. Yes, the film has Mads Mikklesen in an early role, but he doesn't do enough to elevate it to anything other than very ordinary.However, this film has seemed to have spawned a couple of sequels meaning many must have seen something in it that I didn't. I guess if you can put up with the subtitles and don't mind the rawest of raw films then you may get something out of it.
Bene Cumb In other words, I enjoyed more the first third or so when good performance by Kim Bodnia (as Frank) was complemented by even better performance by Mads Mikkelsen (as Tonny; usually, he has totally different roles); their ensemble was great, their dialogs witty and a good demonstration of modern vanity fair. Anyhow, it is a strong film, depicting daily life of drug dealers/addicts in a realistic manner - without making it heroic or "cool". The use of hand-held cameras and suitable soundtrack provide additional value to the film.The other male actors are catchy and veracious as well, particularly Zlatko Burić as Milo and Slavko Labović as Radovan. Female characters tend to be more sketchy and spend a little time on screen.The film is for you if you like gloomy stuff and to have ambivalent feelings towards most of characters - there are virtually no "good persons" visible.
Jack Coen A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.Today I continued the Nicolas Winding Refn marathon with his first movie "Pusher". I had begun with "Drive" and was great, then i followed with four films (Valhalla Rising-Bleeder-Bronson and Fear X).Pusher is a very good movie and when you take into consideration it was his first movie, it makes it all the better, you can sum up the movie in one simple sentence, (A really bad week) in the life of a Danish drug pusher. That's the story. For a first time director, working with a lot of first time actors, he gets great performances out of them. The story moves along very quick and has enough turns in it to keep the viewer interested.The characters are also deep enough to make you actually care what happens. Many first time film makers seem to go more with whats happening now then character development. Refn however does a good job at both. The only familiar face in the movie is Mads Mikkelsen, who played the villain in Casino Royale and also was the main character in Refn's "Valhalla Rising". This movie is the first in a trilogy but has a definitive ending that does not make you feel you need to see the rest immediately, ending leaves one speechless. I won't spoil it, but it's unforgiving and breathtaking.
thebogofeternalstench Forget all the crappy glossy American gangster films like The Godfather, Pusher is much more real to life and brutal.I saw Pusher in 2004 on DVD after I was highly impressed with Bleeder, another of Refn's masterpieces.Pusher follows Frank, a drug dealer who gets in a spot of bother with Milo, a drug kingpin, when Frank accidentally loses/has to get rid of a stash of Heroin bought on credit from Milo (who he already owes money too) after the cops chase after him through the street.He then has a short amount of time to recover the financial and moral loss to Milo otherwise he's in the $hit, his life being at stake.A fantastically acted film with a 100$ fluid plot that really does keep you intrigued, that's what I love about Refn. The whole film oozes with originality, pace and substanceA brilliant Danish film, from a British reviewer.