Film interview Outlaw - Nick Love
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We talk to Outlaw director Nick Love about some of the controversial issues surrounding his latest film, such as the level of violence in Britain and Tony Blair's government.
Q. This film has already touched a few nerves. Is that what you wanted?
Nick Love: I didn't set out to make a film that upset people but naturally some of the subtext of the film, and some of its issues, are organically quite topical and controversial. So it seems to be putting a few noses out of joint.
Q. Where did the story come from in the first place?
Nick Love: It came from Rupert Friend's story in the film, which I'd read as a very small article in the paper a couple of years back. It was basically about this university student who had been the victim of a totally unprovoked attack. He was beaten and slashed. The kids who beat him up were teenagers and they were sent to borstal. But they had such short sentences that they'd come out before the student had even finished having reconstructive facial surgery in hospital. I remember reading it and thinking that there’s something fundamentally wrong in the justice of that.
Then I started thinking about it as a film, and as a character, how would that boy feel if he read that. Would you just go: "Oh well, I believe in God and I'm going to let it pass"? Or would you want to exact revenge on that? What would you do if a crime was perpetrated against you or someone you love? How far would you go? Would you be able to take the law into your own hands and allow rationality to slip out of your hands? Or would you trust the police?
Q. The newsreader in the film asks viewers whether they think the characters in the film are heroes or villains. What do you think?
Nick Love: The bottom line is that if you break the law you’re a villain, and they’ve all broken the law by the time that question is posed. Therefore, they’re on the wrong side of the law, which is why the film is called Outlaw. But it's a good question because there are a lot of moral dilemmas in the film and that’s why it’s interesting.
For instance, the scene in the barn where they’re about to hang or not hang the thug - there are so many different issues going on in that one scene. For Cedric, the lawyer, to be put in front of the person who has killed his wife, there are so many things in there that viewers are unclear about. The idea was that all the way through the film you’re constantly asking moral questions. It goes beyond whether it’s illegal or not: it’s more about being so desperate that you’re really not thinking about whether it’s illegal or not.
Q. With all the media attention on young people, ASBOs, the hoodie culture, etc, your film seems to portray young people in quite a negative light. Is that what you think?
Nick Love: It depends. Some people may watch the film and say it's very anti-chav or whatever. But then you'll get a whole swathe of chavs watching it and saying it's great. It's such a subjective thing. I remember with The Football Factory I was being pilloried in the press for making what they saw was a film that was negative about working class people.
But at the end of the day it's a film with a bunch of characters in it. Outlaw has more of a political backdrop than The Football Factory but it's still ultimately about a group of people who get together and do whatever they do.
Interview: Rob Carnevale Photo: Pathe