Payback (Director's Cut)

Last month I covered a special unrated cut of 1989’s The Punisher my friend Matt gifted me. That cut was the only available version of the film on BluRay. Coincidentally, today’s entry is another film whose BluRay edition is also a special cut that Matt gifted me for another old-school, gritty action flick. That film is 1999’s Payback (trailer). This director’s cut has a new subtitle: Payback: Straight-Up. I am a huge fan of the film, and fondly remember catching it in theaters right after work against my superior’s wishes who kept pleading with me to stick around to cover for someone else who called in, but I already had plans to catch this movie at our then second-run $1 theater, The Plaza Twin, and I could not back out of them! I caught it a couple times off cable over the years, but it has been well over a decade since my last viewing, and I heard polarizing views on this director’s cut going into it which held me off from checking it out until Matt recently gifted it to me.

For those unfamiliar with Payback, it stars Mel Gibson as Porter, a gritty con-man who is catching up to his past after escaping near death when he was betrayed by his partners, Val (Gregg Henry) & Lynn (Deborah Kara Unger). Catching up to his partners leads him down a rabbit trail of going through local drug racket goons, corrupt cops and other top brass in hopes of claiming the $70,000 he was screwed out of. Gibson is flatout awesome as the gruff, take-no-crap-alpha that is Porter. Watching him step-by-step get back on his feet on his return to town and work his way through the ranks of the crime syndicate known as “The Outfit” to get his money back was a breezy, raw, experience that wastes not a single minute in its 90 minute runtime.

I liked Gibson’s on-screen chemistry with an old flame he catches up with by the name of Rosie (Maria Bello). The two play off each other naturally and make a great team in the final act. Speaking of the final act, this is where I was taken for a loop as the third act in Straight-Up is entirely different from the original theatrical cut. In order to elucidate on this I will have to spoil some of the broad-strokes of the last act in both versions, so be forewarned!

The theatrical version is not on the BluRay, and has a completely different final act where Porter tracks down the head boss of The Outfit, Bronson (Kris Kristofferson), and gets to him by kidnapping his son from a basketball game, and subsequently gets caught in the act and winds up in a brutal torture scene before escaping and ultimately getting his vengeance. That whole act is not in the director’s cut here, and Kris Kristofferson is completely absent in this version of the film! In the director’s cut Bronson is a woman voiced by Sally Kellerman who is only heard from via speakerphone when negotiating with Porter. She sets up a payment drop for Porter at the subway, and Porter and Rosie methodically pick away at The Outfit’s goons as they work their way to the drop.

I was initially taken aback by how different the final act is, but came around on it and ultimately really dug it after mulling it over for a few days. Hearing director Brian Helgeland’s commentary track and his interviews in the bonus feature, Same Story, Different Movie, helped connect the dots on how Helgeland was removed from the film during post-production after standing his ground against Paramount executives for not wanting to change the final act. I enjoyed both cuts of the film, and Straight-Up has a few other additional little scenes that portray Porter with more of a cold-blooded edge, and I can see how it came across differently to higher-ups at Paramount. Definitely check out that half hour bonus that sheds a lot of background on why Paramount switched things up for the theatrical cut, and what prompted Paramount to rectify the situation several years later by bringing back Helgeland to release his cut.

Paybacks are a Bitch is the headlining bonus feature at a 49 minute duration. Paramount tracked down a wide array of the original cast and crew, including Helgeland, Gibson, Unger, Bello, Henry and many more for their memories from working on Payback. A lot of insight from filming in Los Angeles and Chicago I got a lot out of, and ditto with the running theme in this bonus with Helgeland referencing his mentor Richard Donner helping him out tremendously throughout and trying to win his approval. If you got the time, do not skip over this bonus either! Rounding off the bonuses is an 11 minute interview with author Donald Westlake, who wrote the book that was the inspiration for Helgeland’s screenplay for Payback.

The ultimate bonus to include would be also having the original theatrical cut of the film available, because as of this writing the director’s cut of Payback is the only version of the film available on BluRay. As much as Payback: Straight-Up won me over with its all-new final act, a part of me still wants that original version I have fond memories of in the theater. Regardless, if you have not seen either version and are especially a fan of no-nonsense revenge films, then I cannot recommend either version of Payback enough!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
The Accountant
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
The Avengers: Infinity War
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed I & II
Deck the Halls
Detroit Rock City
Die Hard
Dredd
The Eliminators
The Equalizer
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Grunt: The Wrestling Movie
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Hell Comes to Frogtown
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
I Like to Hurt People
Indiana Jones 1-4
Ink
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot
Jobs
Joy Ride 1-3
Last Action Hero
Major League
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Man vs Snake
Marine 3-6
Merry Friggin Christmas
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Not for Resale
Pulp Fiction
The Punisher (1989)
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VIII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Slacker
Skyscraper
Small Town Santa
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Sully
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
Vision Quest
The War
Wild
The Wizard
Wonder Woman
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Apocalypse
X-Men: Days of Future Past