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Blue Ruin
Blue Ruin
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jeremy Saulnier
Written by	Jeremy Saulnier
Produced by	Tyler Byrne; Richard Peete; Vincent Savino; Alex Orr; Anish Savjani;
Starring	Macon Blair; Devin Ratray; Amy Hargreaves; Kevin Kolack; Eve Plumb; David W. Thompson;
Cinematography	Jeremy Saulnier
Edited by	Julia Bloch
Music by	Brooke Blair; Will Blair;
Production; companies	FilmScience; Neighborhood Watch Films
Distributed by	RADiUS-TWC
Release dates	May 17, 2013 (Cannes); April 25, 2014 (US);
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$420,000
Box office	$993,313

Blue Ruin is a 2013 American revenge thriller film written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier and starring Macon Blair. Saulnier funded production on the film through a successful Kickstarter campaign, which MTV called "the perfect example of what crowdfunding can accomplish."^[1]

The film is named after the derelict blue Pontiac Bonneville which the main character Dwight operates.

Blue Ruin premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Directors' Fortnight section on May 17, 2013,^[2] and won the FIPRESCI Prize.^[3] The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards.^[4]

Plot

Dwight Evans, a vagrant, lives out of his dilapidated blue Pontiac Bonneville in Delaware. He survives by scavenging for food and money. After learning of the impending release of Wade Marshall Cleland Jr, the man who murdered Dwight's parents twenty years earlier, Dwight returns to his hometown in Virginia. He goes to a firearms store to buy a gun, but buys a postcard instead and sends it to his sister. He then breaks into a truck en route and steals a gun, but destroys it trying to open its trigger lock with a crowbar.

Dwight parks outside the prison, watches the Clelands collect Wade in a limousine and follows them. They go to a local club to celebrate Wade's release. Dwight follows Wade to the club's restroom and fatally stabs him in the neck and temple using a knife he took from the club's kitchen while sneaking into the building. On his way back out to his car, Dwight uses the same blade he used to kill Wade to slash one of the limousine's tires, but badly cuts his hand open in the process. Upon returning to the Bonneville, Dwight realizes he doesn't have the keys, having dropped them while in the club. So Dwight steals the Clelands' limousine. William, a teenage member of the Cleland family, is revealed to still be in the back of the limo. Upon discovering William in the car, Dwight lets him go. William states that Wade didn't kill Dwight's parents as he runs away.

After cleaning himself up, Dwight visits his sister, Sam, for the first time in years and tells her that he has killed Wade. Sam is shocked but relieved by this revelation. As the killing has gone unreported on the news, Dwight surmises that the Clelands have decided to seek revenge without police involvement. Since Dwight's car is registered to Sam's address, she flees her home with her daughters and Dwight waits in the family house for the Clelands' attack. Wade's two brothers, Teddy and Carl, arrive in Dwight's car. As Dwight escapes, he runs over Teddy and places the unconscious body in the trunk. Before he can drive away, Carl shoots Dwight in the thigh with a crossbow.

After having the wound treated at a hospital, Dwight returns to Sam's house to clean up from the attack. He tracks down Ben Gaffney, an old high school friend and veteran, and asks for help. After obtaining a rifle from Ben, Dwight interrogates Teddy at gunpoint on Ben's 16-acre property. Teddy explains that Wade was not his parents' killer. It is revealed that Dwight's parents were murdered because Dwight's father and Wade Sr.'s wife were having an affair. As revenge, Wade's now-deceased father killed Dwight's father; Dwight's mother's death was collateral damage, as she happened to be in the car during the ambush. Wade Jr. took the blame so that his father, who had terminal cancer, did not have to die in prison. Teddy gains the upper hand and wrestles the gun away from Dwight but is shot dead by Ben from a concealed position before he can fire. Dwight and Ben put Teddy's body back into the trunk and part ways after Ben resupplies Dwight with food and more weapons. To keep Ben from further involvement, Dwight sabotages his truck by removing the battery.

Dwight goes to the Clelands' house and removes as many firearms as he can from the home. He buries Teddy and waits to ambush the Clelands. He leaves a message on the answering machine informing them of Teddy's death and asks them to leave Sam out of the dispute. Carl Cleland, his older sister, Kris, and their cousin, Hope, return and listen to Dwight's message. When it becomes clear that the Clelands intend to kill Sam and will search for her in Pittsburgh, Dwight fatally shoots Carl. He holds the women at gunpoint while musing out loud about whether he should kill them all. William, entering through another door, shoots Dwight. William refuses Hope's order to murder Dwight, while Dwight disarms William. Dwight soon realizes he's been mortally wounded, and tells William to leave with his car. As William leaves, Dwight tells the women that William is his half-brother, a result of their parents' affair. Hope attacks Dwight as Kris reaches for a hidden gun beneath the footrest of a nearby recliner. Kris accidentally kills Hope, and shoots Dwight before he in turn shoots her dead. A despondent William drops his gun en route to Dwight's car, while Dwight dies on the floor, mumbling that the keys are in the car.

The next day, the Virginia postcard that Dwight posted a few days ago, informing his sister of the recent events, gets delivered through his sister's mail slot.

Cast

Macon Blair as Dwight Evans
Devin Ratray as Ben Gaffney
Amy Hargreaves as Sam, Dwight's sister
Kevin Kolack as Teddy Cleland
Eve Plumb as Kris Cleland
David W. Thompson as William
Brent Werzner as Carl Cleland
Stacy Rock as Hope Cleland
Sidné Anderson as Officer Eddy

Production

Blair and Saulnier made movies together growing up and hoped to make a living out of it; however, as they both became older with families, they realized that that might not happen.^[5] After the disappointing reception of their horror comedy Murder Party, the two wanted to make one last film together. Saulnier said, "We embraced the fact that we had to wrap up this childhood arc—this insane fantasy of wanting to be filmmakers—and just make a film that was right and true."^[5] The concept of a revenge story appealed to Saulnier, who said that it "was just about grounding the film in a very mundane scenario that needed so little exposition."^[6] The film's plot also serves as a critique for Saulnier of films that he enjoyed growing up. In particular, several violent crimes in the early years of the 2010s "made [him] miserable", and he said he "couldn't do a film that was akin to those awesome genre spectacles of my youth" in said climate.^[5]

The film was financed with help from a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012 asking for $35,000^[1] and money from Saulnier's own savings.^[7] Saulnier initially did not want to use the crowd funding platform, as he felt conflicted about asking for help, specifically that donors could not invest in the back end through the site. However, he eventually realized that the positive outweighed the negative.^[7] Saulnier said that when making the pitch video for the campaign "I faced my worst nightmare" as he was camera shy.^[7]

Reception

Box office

Blue Ruin, which received a limited theatrical release, grossed $258,384 in the United States and Canada, and $734,929 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $993,313,^[8] against a budget of $420,000.^[9]

The film then was given a home video release on July 22, 2014.^[10]

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 142 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Smart, stripped-down, and thrillingly grim, Blue Ruin proves that a well-told revenge story can still leave its audience on the edge of their seat."^[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[12]