Best Revenge ** (1984, John Heard, Levon Helm, Alberta Watson) – Classic Movie Review 9909

Director John Trent’s 1984 Canadian film Best Revenge stars John Heard as Charlie, a small-time dealer who finds himself blackmailed and out of his depth, and joins Bo (Levon Helm) in Spain for a $4 million drug deal. They have to get the cannabis from Morocco into the United States.

Heard is good in a surprisingly well-made, well-shot and well-performed action thriller that keeps going so quickly that for the most part you forget that you have seen it dozens of times before.

John Hunter [Logan N Danforth], Rick Rosenthal and David Rothberg write the French Connection/ Midnight Express-style screenplay from a story by David Rothberg.

The TV version cuts some of the 18-certificate violence.

John Heard in Best Revenge (1984).

Also in the cast are Levon Helm, Alberta Watson, John Rhys-Davies, Michael Ironside, Benjamin Gordon, Stephen McHattie, Moses Znaimer, Hrant Alianak, Tim McCauley and Lorenzo Campos.

It was filmed in Toronto and Andalucía, Spain.

It is the last film directed by Canadian John Trent, killed in a car crash in Toronto on 3 June 1983.

It was filmed between 19 May 1980 and 29 July 1980, but not released until four years later, with a UK release date of 19 October 1984.

RIP John Heard, who died of a heart attack on 21 July 2017, aged 71.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9909

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