Television and newspapers and radio were interviewing some of his victims, particularly this forensic scientist that he blew up in the car and who still suffers from his injuries. And so I was being accused of glamorizing violence, or crime. Actually, when the film came out, all that really disappeared, because it was seen as a fair picture of him. The film doesn't flinch from showing his brutality. I think actually that's the interesting thing about the film, the way it does confuse your emotions.
Some people find it very unpalatable to have that emotional confusion.
Because of the way Hollywood is, people are led to expect that the heroes are people you can root for, they're sympathetic. When I was trying to finance the picture, Americans all said two things. They could see it as a kind of Robin Hood thing, but they didn't want the complexity and they didn't want the tragedy. I always said when I was making the film that this has to have a tragic dimension. If it's not seen as a tragedy, it's not going to work.