Moby Dick,though you have to see the John Barrymore silent movie version to get the full flavor
The Boondock Saints was about two guys from the mean streets getting revenge on mobsters, pimps, drug dealers, et cetera for making life so crappy for them. Also
The boys avenge Rocco’s death at the end by executing Papa Joe with style right in the middle of a packed courtroom.
Leon, aka The Professional is mostly the tale of Mathilda trying to get revenge on the corrupt cops who killed her brother.
From the world of books, Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is considered one of his best. It’s also a revenge tale that I won’t spoil for those who haven’t read it. Fredrick Forsythe’s brilliant Avenger hinges on a similar premise.
The Ring and The Grudge could arguably be called revenge movies, though the revenge-takers don’t seem to be too particular about who they get.
Christine has a fair amount of revenge in it, with the car getting back at the gang members that trashed her.
The Punisher & Batman.
In fact, any superhero out to avenge the death of a loved one.
Ultimately The Shawshank Redemption.
They hardly came up with that idea on their own - there’s an ancient Greek story that Atreus killed his brother’s son, cooked him, and served him to his brother. The brother (Thestes, I believe) then cursed Atreus’ family, which according to myth, resulted in the Trojan war and the rather unfortunate fates of most of Agamemnon’s family.
Man, the Greeks knew how to tell a good story.
</geeky hijack>
And Shakespeare used the same cannibalism motif in Titus Andronicus, already mentioned upthread.
Revengers Tragedy by Thomas Middleton. The modernised film version http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286921/ is also well worth checking out.
Yes but did any of them have the audacity to cast the story with 8 year old boys? I think not!
Also, there’s the story about how my friend Mike played a practical joke on my other friend Mike of some description, so then Mike gagged him, duck-taped him to a chair and left him in the back of a darkened auditorium for several minutes.
Heh. Good times.
–Cliffy
Yebbut did anyone then cry in front of Radiohead then get called a crybaby?
I don’t think so.
Cartman for TEH WIN!!!1!
The story that immediately came to mind was The Count of Monte Cristo but I have a couple others:
Marv’s story in Sin City was a pretty good revenge story.
Tombstone was a pretty good revenge story. Doc and Wyatt killed every cowboy in sight after Morgan was killed. They may have been headed down that path anyway though…
I know this wasn’t really the focus of the movie, but in The Usual Suspects, Verbal tells Kujan the story of what Kaiser Soze does to his family then to the guys who tried to take his territory, then to the families of the guys to tried to take his territory.
Memento is all about the protagonist’s (probably mistaken, or at least misdirected) drive to get revenge for the death of his wife.
The writer’s vengeance against his captor/tormentor at the end of Stephen King’s Misery is particularly sweet.
The plot of The Incredibles is largely driven by Syndrome’s desire for revenge.
Gladiator. 'Nuff said.
An evil black dragon tries to get revenge on Vaarsuvius for the death of its child in the webcomic The Order of the Stick, but the Elven wizard turns the tables on it… spectacularly.
Stephen King’s CARRIE
The Vincent Price movie THEATRE OF BLOOD (one could also throw in THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES, but not DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN.)
The Levite’s Concubine War that takes up the last part of the Book of Judges
The Book of Revelation
The Book of Esther
Yep!!!
Revenge of the Zombies.
Oldboy is a quintessential revenge movie. Almost everything pales in comparison.
It’s weird…so far today I’ve seen something like three well-known posters who should probably know better rezzing old zombie threads. I was trying to read all the links and wondering why I kept getting 404s, then I saw the date of the post.
The attorney is not corrupt. The psycho has no reasonable justification to seek revenge.