Bullhead (2012)

just saw this powerful & intense beligan crime drama- The BullHead...heart breaking story about a man (played excellently by Matthias Schoenaerts) who has to deal with the memories of a traumatic incident of his past for the rest of his life ..very intense & a moving performance...one can imagine his plight and feel for him. this film is brilliant and unforgettable.

Jacky Vanmarsenille is a muscle-bound cattle farmer. He injects illegal hormones into his cattle and into himself. He deals with the underworld of illegal meats and illegal hormones. A cop investigating illegal hormones is killed by the meat mafia. A stolen car with a bullet hole is fixed up by two mechanics. Jacky is tangentially connected to the incident. He is obsessed with Lucia Schepers who is the basis of a childhood trauma 20 years earlier.The disjointed nature of the story makes it difficult to maintain the tension. The flow is constantly disrupted. The childhood incident is shocking and it makes the characters more compelling. It would be helpful to be clearer and more straight forward in the storytelling. He's a compelling character but the story is too disjointed.

Whom ever says "it's all been done." Needs to see this film..As a modern production 'first of a kind' is VERY rare. For the subject matter, may well remain one of a kind, which is almost entirely impossible.I think to myself, 'Some things just simply are not and never will be OK.' Every living soul will eventually endure that truth, yet most stories and films do there very best to convince us otherwise. Not here.Bullhead smashes into you with tragic inescapable fates and the secret conditions silently endured.As a man watching this film, my gut(and loins) recoiled and cramped, begging me away from the screen. My soul demanded me to keep watching. I long after contemplate the 'scenario' Michaël R. Roskam had me endure. Visual excellence, great characters, great performance and humanity.Say good riddance to characters who come into a plot in one piece, glide though the impossible, somehow 'win' the struggle and go out in that same one piece. Bullhead is much closer to reality; It stays trapped, here, with us, in the meat grinder. .Watch to see a special violence; A lonely condition suffered in silence, Unstoppable creeping fate. This film beat the crap out of me. Bullhead is a cruel, dead eyed masterpiece... As is all of life.

However I will have to agree that it packs enough intensity and dark, heart-wrenching material to qualify as a contestant for the foreign film category. On the surface, it is about a shady deal gone wrong but the film chose not to focus too much on the details of the underworld and the ensueing investigations, hence I would not categorise it as a crime film.Instead, what makes this film worked as a successful character study are the back stories of certain characters, and how recent happenings intensifies the after-effects of the past. On another note, Matthias truly excelled in his difficult role as a torn-apart man whose emotions are dictated like those of an animal due to his conditions. My only main issue is the pace, As i feel the film could deliver more than what meets the eye if it could have been slightly faster.