Deep in the heart of Jakarta, a small but brave band of cops
stage a predawn raid on an apartment building which is also headquarters to the
powerful crime lord Tama Riyandi (Ray Sahetapy). The team has only to ascend to the fifteenth
floor to apprehend Him. While that task
may sound simple in theory, the reality proves anything but. The other fourteen floors of the complex are under
24 hour surveillance by way of closed circuit cameras. The domiciles themselves are inhabited by
residents who are fiercely loyal to Riyandi.
Upon his command, they relentlessly pounce on the intruders. Armed with every weapon imaginable, they turn
the building into Hell on earth. As the police
find themselves being assailed at every turn, the young rookie Rama (Iko Uwais)
receives a trial by fire.
After cutting a bloody swath through the film festival
circuit, The Raid: Redemption at long
last arrives on American shores. It does
so amidst much prerelease buzz, as film critics and fans having been praising
it to the heavens. It has also been previewed
and teased to death via a bevy of red band trailers and clips. Now, after all of the hyperbole and hoopla,
does The Raid: Redemption live up to
all the hype? Is it, as many have
claimed, a watershed event in the history of action cinema? The answer is a resounding yes.
The Raid: Redemption
has mainly been looked at through the scope of action and martial arts
cinema. That’s a rather limited paradigm,
as the films mood and feel lend themselves just as much to the horror and
suspense genres. You read that
right. Though The Raid: Redemption is wall to wall with fight scenes and shoot-outs,
it has the distinct feel of a horror film, or even a survival horror video game. It does so through its use of two crucial
elements in both the action and horror genres: ferocity and intensity. The Raid simply does not let up, even
during its “slow” moments.
That the action all takes place in a single location only
amplifies the intensity. The lighting is
dark to the point of being nonexistent at certain moments. When light is allowed to creep in, it’s
mostly in the form of ashen greys and blues.
That’s not to say that everything is obscured in grime, grit, and
darkness. It’s just that even the indoor
lighting has the hue of an overcast sky.
A perpetual cloud of melancholy and sadness hangs over the proceedings,
giving them a feeling of desperation.
Accentuating the feel of desperation are the action
sequences. Though the choreography is
amazingly intricate and features some of the most agile stuntmen I’ve ever seen,
it remains locked in a mortal struggle with the camerawork. It’s as if the stunt team is constantly
daring cinematographer Matt Flannery to keep up. This results in an odd but effective mesh of
traditional action sensibilities with the “chaos cinema” aesthetic. As the actors transition from fisticuffs to
ground fighting in the blink of an eye, the camera races to document the
action. Much of it seems to have been
filmed handheld, as evidenced by the lack of any static shots.
Adding to the visual ferocity is the violence itself. The finishing moves that close the fight
scenes are insane. The fatalities in Mortal Kombat pale in comparison to some
of the showstoppers featured here. At
the same time, these moments bring the sadism of the film front and
center. The Raid: Redemption reduces the characters (and by extension, the action
genre) to its lowest element. In that
sense, it plays even more like a guerilla war film than simply an
action/martial arts extravaganza.
Amazingly, things like character and story don’t get completely
lost in the mix. While The Raid isn’t particularly long on
either, both are present. Most of what
we know about the hero comes from the brief prologue. Rama is the proverbial man of few words, yet Iko
Uwais infuses him with dogged determination and a will to survive. As the villain, Ray Sahetapy is like a mean
spirited version of Inspector Gadget’s
Dr. Claw. Although his face is shown throughout,
he mostly sits in the main suite of his ivory tower, dispatching his minions
and doling out cruel punishment. Like
Rama, he exists mostly as a type, but works nonetheless.
The Raid: Redemption
is one tough little customer. It distills
the action genre down to its most elemental components: Violence, tension,
steady escalation, and forward momentum.
It does so with anger and relentlessness. It’s been a good long while since a “Hard R”
action film of this sort been unleashed upon the public. American audiences, who’ve been weaned on
heavily sanitized Blockbusters for the past couple of decades, might be a bit
put off by it. True action connoisseurs,
and perhaps even horror and war movie buffs, will appreciate what the film
accomplishes. This is aimed at a
specific kind of action fan, one who is willing to roll with punches and take
the bruises.
Great review, Scott. Sorry it's taken me so long to get to it. I had intended to read it a few nights ago and forgot. I plan on seeing this hopefully tomorrow. It's playing at two theaters near me so I'm a bit anxious to check it out.
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