While R.L. Scott’s Touye
Pwen is a gritty street drama akin to The
Wire or The Sheild, Champion Road
is in the same tradition as Ben Ramsey’s vibrant bare knuckle brawler Blood and Bone. Where Ramsey used the milieu of underground
fighting to tell the tale of a post modern gun slinger, R.L. Scott resurrects a
different western tradition: The retired gun who’s forced into donning his
pistols one last time. In telling this
tale, Scott employs a different aesthetic than Ramsey’s rather straight forward
approach.
The look of Champion Road is one of hazy pastels,
almost like the blue tinge of chlorine treated pool water. This makes everything look as though the
viewer is seeing it through the haze of early morning grogginess. It also serves as a clue that what the viewer
is about to see has mythic quality to it.
While Champion
Road might be grounded in real world
situations, it has an air of the fantastic about it.
R.L. Scott offers a hero who is driven by family values and
a sense of duty. That might seem quaint
or even naïve by today’s standards, but I understand what Scott is going for
here. The most interesting stories often
involve an exceedingly honorable and/or humble man who must walk among
nefarious types. Champion Road
also employs the strategy of allowing a seemingly mild mannered character to
harbor a hidden talent, or be blessed with a super power. That is right out of the Marvel Comics
playbook. Whereas Stan Lee’s creations
come by there abilities as the result of a scientific accident, John developed
his talents the old fashioned way.
Further aiding the “make-believe” aesthetic are the fight
scenes. R.L. Scott makes use of speed ramping
and iconic mid-air poses. The fights are
brief but memorable. The first one takes
place in front of a wall covered in graffiti.
The second, which features Chyna McCoy, gains a lot from his physical
presence. McCoy has the chiseled
physique of a comic book character, almost as if Jim Lee drew him. Both sequences have the effect of anime
cut-scenes from a fighting game. They
feel different from the dramatic moments, but not disjointed or out of place.
The ending moment, where John fully accepts his destiny, is
a time honored standard in many a genre.
Superhero films and westerns both have similar moments where the
protagonist suits up for war. Is it cliché? Of course it is, but R.L. Scott does it with
style and conviction. The image of John
pulling his hood over his head could just as well be the cover of a Champion Road
comic book.
I enjoyed this pilot episode of Champion Road
for all the reasons that it is different from Touye Pwen. The latter puts
the darker side of human nature on full display, while the former is about
preserving ones integrity in such a world.
Many B-Level martial arts pictures have used the milieu of underground
fighting as an excuse for extreme bloodletting.
R.L. Scott seems to be going after something with decidedly old
fashioned sensibilities. Champion Road
harkens back to a time when heroes spoke with their fists.
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