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Filth (film)

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This article is about the 2013 Scottish crime comedy. For the 2008 Finnish horror film, see Sauna (film).

Filth
A police officer riding an oversized bottle of whisky.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJon S. Baird
Screenplay byJon S. Baird
Based onFilth
by Irvine Welsh
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMatthew Jensen
Edited byMark Eckersley
Music byClint Mansell
Production
companies
Distributed by
  • Lionsgate (United Kingdom)
  • Ascot Elite (Germany)[2]
  • Noble Entertainment (Sweden)[3]
Release dates
  • 16 September 2013 (2013-09-16) (Old Town Taito International
    Comedy Film Festival)
  • 27 September 2013 (2013-09-27) (Scotland)
Running time
97 minutes[4]
Countries
LanguageEnglish
Box office$9.1 million[5]

Filth is a 2013 psychological black comedy crime thriller film written and directed by Jon S. Baird, based on Irvine Welsh's 1998 novel Filth. The film was released on 27 September 2013 in Scotland, 4 October 2013 elsewhere in the United Kingdom and in Ireland, and on 30 May 2014 in the United States.[6] It stars James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, and Jim Broadbent.

Filth marked the final film role of David Soul, in a cameo role.

Set in Edinburgh, the film follows misanthropic Detective Sergeant investigating a murder case, beset with mental health problems following the end of his marriage. He suffers from borderline personality disorder, feelings of guilt over the death of his brother, a newfound need to cross-dress as his wife, and (eventually) suicidal ideation.

Plot

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Edinburgh Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson, a scheming, manipulative, misanthropic bully, spends his free time indulging in drugs, alcohol, abusive sexual relationships, and "the games" – his euphemism for vindictive plots he hatches to cause trouble for people he dislikes, including many of his colleagues in the Lothian and Borders Police.

Bruce also delights in bullying and taking advantage of his mild-mannered friend Clifford Blades, a member of Bruce's masonic lodge, whose wife, Bunty, is the target of his repeated obscene phone calls. He only shows genuine warmth to Mary and her young son, the widowed wife and child of a man whom he tries and fails to resuscitate after he suffers a heart attack in the street.

As the story begins, Bruce's main goal is to gain a promotion to become Detective Inspector (DI), the path to which appears to open when he is assigned to oversee the investigation into the murder of a Japanese exchange student. However, Bruce slowly loses his grip on reality as he works the case and has more and more vivid hallucinations.

It is ultimately revealed through dream-like exchanges with Dr. Rossi, Bruce's psychiatrist, that he is on medication for bipolar disorder and has repressed immense feelings of guilt over a childhood accident that led to the death of his younger brother. We learn his wife Carole has left him and is denying him access to his daughter Stacey.

These domestic issues sparked his desperate bid for promotion, played a part in his unusual displays of kindness toward Mary and her son, and have also led him to start cross-dressing as his wife when off duty in order to "keep her close" to him.

While wandering the streets on such an occasion, Bruce is kidnapped by a street gang led by the thuggish Gorman – who are responsible for the murder – and badly beaten. However, he manages to kill Gorman by throwing him through a window and is found by his colleagues. Bruce not only misses out on the promotion as a result of the events, but is in fact demoted to Constable and is reassigned to uniform, while rookie Ray Lennox is promoted to Detective Inspector.

Afterwards, Blades receives a tape of Bruce apologising. Bruce then prepares to take his own life by hanging, but is interrupted at the last moment by Mary and her son knocking at his front door. He then breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience repeating his catchphrase – "same rules apply" – and laughs as the chair slips from under him.

Cast

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Production

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Welsh's novel was published in 1998, but over the following years the project was passed between producers and acquired a reputation of being "un-filmable".[7]

Music

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Track listing

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Source:[8]

No.TitleArtist(s)Length
1."Robbo's Theme"Clint Mansell1:14
2."Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"The Shirelles0:17
3."Love Really Hurts Without You"Billy Ocean2:42
4."Silver Lady"David Soul3:00
5."It's All Over Me"Otis Blackwell3:43
6."Born To Be Wild"Wilson Pickett2:44
7."Supermarket Emptiness"Clint Mansell0:37
8."Creep"Clint Mansell & Coco Sumner2:07
9."Dr Love"Tom Jones4:12
10."Mercy"The Third Degree1:51
11."Backdoor Santa"Clarence Carter3:20
Total length:25:47

Other notable pieces include[9]

Reception

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Box office

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The film earned £250,000 in the box office revenue during its opening weekend in Scotland, reaching number one in the charts.[10] It grossed £842,167 ($1.4m) in the following weekend, when it went on general release throughout the United Kingdom.[11] The film ultimately ended up grossing $9.1 million worldwide.[5]

Critical response

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On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 66% based on 97 reviews and an average rating of 6.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Warped, grimy and enthusiastically unpleasant, Filth lives up to its title splendidly."[12] The film also has a score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 24 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Filth-BFI". Archived from the original on 31 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Drecksau". filmportal.de. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Filth | Noble Entertainment". nobleentertainment.com. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  4. ^ "FILTH (18)". Lions Gate Entertainment. British Board of Film Classification. 15 July 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Filth (2013)". The Numbers. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  6. ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1450321/releaseinfo?ref_=tt_dt_dt [better source needed]
  7. ^ Ford, Matt (11 September 2013). "Irvine Welsh: The 'unfilmable' Filth finally makes it to the big screen". The Independent. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  8. ^ "Filth Soundtrack (2013)". Soundtrack.Net. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  9. ^ All 170 songs from the Filth (2013) Soundtrack, retrieved 29 May 2021
  10. ^ "Filth tops Scottish box office". The Scotsman. 30 September 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  11. ^ Sandwell, Ian (7 October 2013). "Prisoners locks in UK box office lead". Screen International. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  12. ^ Filth at Rotten Tomatoes
  13. ^ Filth at Metacritic Edit this at Wikidata
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