In God We Trust, All Others We Track: Battleship & the US-Japanese Fight Against Socialism

Once again, not everyone will be saying that director Peter Berg's action thriller Battleship is "a direct hit" because of the obvious pro-America and pro-capitalist message of the film: calling upon the deep, buried history of cinema, Battleship reminds us of where we have been so we know why we are going where we are (and it's not in the direction of socialism).

When we first meet Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch), it's his 26th birthday and he's celebrating with his brother Commander Stone Hopper (Alexander Skarsgard) of the Navy. Alex has long hair, no job, no money, no running vehicle and doesn't seem to care; his brother obviously has far more sense of responsibility, being an officer in the Navy, and, presenting a cupcake to his brother and lighting the candle for his birthday wish, tells Alex that he wishes him "Success, growth and happiness" because "Adversity is the state in which man can best come to know himself." At this moment, Sam (Brooklyn Decker) walks into the bar, wanting a chicken burrito but the "kitchen" is closed. Alex blows out the candle on his birthday cupcake, making his birthday wish on her. He ends up breaking into a convenience store to get her the chicken burrito, being tasered by police and arrested. Stone, disgusted with Alex's dissolute lifestyle, forces his brother to join the Navy, which Alex does, rising quickly because of his talents and skills. Alex's poverty (in more ways than one) in the beginning is clearly a reminder of the American dream and the options and potential open to Americans in finding a better way of life, not only for themselves, but for the country and the world.

For those of you who were so patient and full of faith in me as I took you on a seemingly unimportant journey through the science-fiction films of the 1950s, your faith has paid off! For those who have read my post Jaws & the Cleansing Of America, you remember that the monster shark Jaws symbolized American guilt over the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; you might also recall the bit regarding Godzilla, and how the United States' fears of Imperial Japan wrecking havoc on the world was mirrored when the Japanese created the monster Godzilla who symbolized for them the United States and the destruction we brought. However, there was also a conversion for Godzilla, and Battleship hasn't forgotten it. (Importantly, when we see the ships under water in the Pacific, we first see a large shark swimming around them).

Alexander Skarsgard as Commander Stone Hopper, Alex's (Taylor Kitsch) brother who forced him to join the Navy after living on his couch for so long, Stone couldn't take it anymore. Why is their last name "Hopper?" Because the opportunities in America allow them to "hop" from one social class to another. While they didn't appear to have come from much, their devotion to the Navy has allowed them to "hop" from the bottom to the top (rather like in John Carter with John "jumping" from the bottom of society to the top). After he informs Alex that Alex will be discharged from the Navy when they return to Hawaii after the RIMPAC exercises, Alex tells him to call someone to work it out for him and Stone replies, "Who do I call to teach you humility?" an accurate critique on what can definitely be attributed to an American pride that does need to curtailed when it prevents us from effectively participating in international peace-keeping teams (we see the international team in Captain America and American cockiness in Thor). Yet it's Alex who survives the film, not Stone, and we know that whenever a character dies in a film, it's because that character is all ready dead and we have to understand what the film tries to communicate to us philosophically about that death. When the alien ship blasts out all the glass from the USS Sampson, and Stone gets blasted in the face, that's an important commentary on him, because glass symbolizes "reflection" and being able to understand what is happening; Stone doesn't understand the full gravity of the alien ships and the face he's lost (compared to Alex "losing face" when he's kicked in the soccer match, then fails to make the goal) Stone--who is steadfast and reliable like a "stone"--is also inflexible and unable to "make the goal" that will need to be made but Alex can, because Alex is named for Alexander the Great who can "cut through" the Gordian Knot of conflict and politics and the problems of defeating the goliath aliens. Proof that Alex invokes Alexander the Great? Both have a passion for Homer, and Alex completes the quote from The Odyssey, Book XII, Admiral Shane begins, "Keep the ship out of surf and spray," and Alex completes, "or before you know it, the ship will veer to the far side, and plunge us to destruction."  Admiral Shane lets Alex know it disgusts him that Alex knows Homer that well, why? Because it's also a disgust with the way Fate favors those we don't really see as deserving favor. Without doubt, there are those who have many poor qualities, such as Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man) but who seem to get all the breaks. But like the Greek hero Odysseus, whom the film makes a point of quoting, Alex too must be broken before he can be fixed and fulfill the destiny that is his to fulfill. Why is this important for Americans? Because, ultimately, we, too, are called to fulfill a fate like Alex's, for we have been invaded by "undesirable aliens" and we have to rid our country of them, too (please see below for one more Alexander the Great comparison with Alex). 

There are two other important references to the science-fiction films of the 1950s which we explored: the scientists and Sam. In Howard Hawk's 1951 hit The Thing From Another World, it was the scientists who were anxious to be friendly to the aliens as the scientists are the ones inviting the aliens to earth in Battleship. The scientists' lack of concern for consequences goes hand in hand with the blurring of gender and sexual promiscuity also found in the film in the character of Nikki and is reincarnated in Sam. The many social consequences--and relationship consequences to a loss of intimacy--resulting in the US from World War II, caused a blurring of gender identity, aptly demonstrated in films with the "crossing over" of male and female names: Samantha becomes Sam,

Why is Alex celebrating his 26th birthday? Because, 26 years ago, the United States Justice Department declared that Austrian President Kurt Waldheim was an "undesirable alien" on US soil because of his rise and work in Nazi Germany; just as in The Hunger Games linking the 74th Annual Games to Hitler starting World War II, so Battleship links the aliens attack to socialists through the historical reference of Kurt Waldheim (who became an international problem regarding his work for the Nazis) and Alex's crew initially thinking the alien attacks were coming from the state-owned economy of North Korea.

While Godzilla symbolizes the horrors released upon Japan by the United States, later Godzilla films depict the Japanese calling upon Godzilla to save them from greater threats, such as Rodan and Mothra; what was the change of heart in the Japanese? As communism and the Cold War progressed, Japan knew its one-time enemy could be counted on--just like Godzilla--to protect them from the ravages of socialism taking over countries such as Russia, China, Cuba, Cambodia, Vietnam and North Korea. Battleship remembers the hostility between the US and Japan brought on by World War II so it can remind us of who emerged as the real enemy after the war: socialism and communist states.

Sam and Alex after the soccer tournament between the United States and Japan in Hawaii. Alex scored to bring to get the US on the board with Japan's 2 goal lead; he got kicked in the face by Captain Nagata (Tadanobu Asano) so received a penalty kick. Alex's brother Stone wanted someone else to take the kick because Alex was obviously suffering from the wound, but Alex stubbornly persisted that he could make the kick; then Alex misses the entire goal, he kicks it straight over the goal posts, losing the game. The kick in the face Alex receives from Nagata symbolically refers to the bombings of Pearl Harbor, when the US "lost face" by the attack (remember, please, this tournament is taking place in Hawaii and the Japanese Imperial flag is flying all over the ships watching the game); Alex's weakened condition also refers to how weak America was from the loss of men and equipment after Pearl Harbor and then the missed goal refers to the many failures of the United States in the early stages of the Pacific War. (More on Game Theory and Battleship below in the comparison with Moneyball, The Hunger Games and The Avengers).

This reminder is the reason why the "alien bombs" strike Hong Kong, China, first: Hong Kong is a leading financial center in the world because it is the greatest example of laissez-faire capitalism (free of intervention by the state) but only because of the 156 years Hong Kong spent as a British colony; had Hong Kong suffered the fate of the rest of China, it would not enjoy the economic prosperity it does (it was to Hong Kong that most fleeing the Communist Party fled), hence the reason for the aliens crashing into the Bank of China Tower: the Bank of China has been sited in the past for unfair favoritism in banking practices, which goes against the capitalist spirit of the country. The "alien bombs" striking the skyscraper and its crashing to the ground, people running away from the dust and debris clouds is a clear reminder of the devastation of 9/11 and puts the current attack by the "alien socialists" on par with the "alien jihadists" of 9/11. (This can be re-substantiated by the very next shot in the film: after the skyscraper falls, we see the Pentagon in the US, which was also a target of 9/11).

At his birthday "party" with Stone, Alex has a dilemma: does he blow out his birthday candle and wish for Sam, who just walked in, or does he blow out the candle and wish for a job? He should wish for Sam: it's very important to note, there are not any gay military personnel in the film (if this were a pro-Obama film, like The Pirates! Band Of Misfits) there would be references to homosexual military personnel because of the Obama administration lifting the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy; Alex's desire for Sam also re-enforces traditional masculinity (as opposed to the issues being brought up in the new documentary Mansome) because he will be providing for her--wanting to be with Sam means he wants to "court" her properly, which implies a job and his own means, not his brother's couch or car--and that he asks her father, Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson) for Sam's hand in marriage; this "outdated" tradition, as Alex calls it, means that it's still being done today because marriage as an institution, and traditional marriage between a man and a woman, is still being practiced despite some considering it to be "outdated." These conscious decisions being made by the film makers undermines many aspects of regrettable "social digression" which has taken place in America since World War II.

What's going on in the film?
The RIMPAC naval exercises (Rim of the Pacific) are to take place and Alex is aboard the USS John Paul Jones, his brother Commander Stone Hopper is on the USS Sampson and Admiral Shane commands from the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (the only ship upon its christening to be named for a president still living). The alien aircraft have landed close to Hawaii because that's where the signal sent by scientists have come from and they need to be able to send the signal back so they have made a protection field sealing off Hawaii from the outside world; the USS John Paul, USS Sampson and Japanese ship Myoko are the only ships within the protection field, being sealed off completely from the outside world, hence, it's up to those ships to save the world.

A wonderful character presence in Battleship, Lt Colonel Mick Canales, retired, and a double-leg amputee. Sam is a physical therapist, and Mick has had great difficulty adjusting to being without his legs, which creates the situation of a fabulous Ronald Reagan film, King's Row, when Ronald Reagan's character has both his legs intentionally amputated by a bad doctor who wants to "keep him down," and Reagan responds, does he think I am my legs? And, in defiance, gets up and resolves to go on. Mick, on the other hand, lost his will when he lost his legs (because feet/legs symbolize our will and our "standing" in society) so when he and Sam have gone on a hike and encounter the aliens who have landed to use the communications satellite, he's found another war. Symbolically, however, Mick represents other ways the military has been "amputated" by the government, which I don't need to go into here,...

Symbolically, the USS Sampson, named for William T. Sampson, invokes the Spanish American War in which Sampson won the final victory, ending the war for Cuba's independence (Cuba struggling for independence from Spain then is rather like the Jews struggling for freedom under Hitler in Captain America, and reminds the audience of the reason the US becomes involved in wars, the protection of people from tyranny; I know there are plenty of  liberals out there who will accuse the US of tyranny, but they can move to China for all I care). One reason the Spanish-American War would be sited is because it was a war forced by Democrats onto Republican President McKinley when he didn't want to go to war; likewise, in (the book) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, although it's a socialist work, author Seth Grahame-Smith unwittingly reminds Americans how it was the Democrats who started the Civil War.

Captain Nagata who acts as a continual bane to Alex, first in the soccer match, then (in the scene pictured above) when they get into a fight in the bathroom. When war breaks out with the aliens, however, Nagata and Alex pull their forces together and willingly sacrifice their lives to save the world.

Alex, on board the USS John Paul Jones, is very much like the ship's namesake, American Revolutionary War hero and father of the American Navy, John Paul Jones, who always intentionally sought out danger.  Captain Jones' bravery and confidence in his and his crew's ability to to fight is the spiritual backbone of the US Navy, and what Battleship wants to remind Americans, of the US itself.

Alex with Petty Officer Cora "Weps" Raikes (Rihanna). When the RIMPAC exercises begin, Alex gives a aggressive speech to his crew that they are to win and destroy, and Raikes mutters under her breath how Alex is a mutation of Donald Trump and Mike Tyson; the comparison to Mike Tyson comes because Tyson compared himself to Alexander the Great in his post-Lou Savarese knock-out in June of 2000. Alex is likened to Donald Trump because of Trump's commercial and financial success but both Tyson and Trump could be called "the come-back kids" because both had huge career blows (like Alex in Battleship) but they came back stronger after them because they adapted and created new strategies.

To summarize heretofore, the "aliens" are socialists because after the protection field has been put up by the aliens, one of the crew members says, "It's the North Koreans, I'm telling you!" referring to the country's communism and the "protection field" is meant to divide the country (Hawaii is cut off from the rest of the world and Stone, Nagata and Alex are cut off from the rest of the fleet), a clever reference to the American Civil War because Obama's policies have divided the country more than any other president. But there is another reference to North Korea as well: at least one of the veterans on the USS Missouri wears a N. Korea veteran's hat, meaning, he helped to fight against the spread of communism in the North Korean war (which could regrettably ignite again any moment). It was in the Korean War that "Mighty Mo" sailed against the communist threat, and it's precisely for that reason it's called a floating museum, a "museum ship," (well, it is a museum, too)  but the Mighty Mo carries the history of the US and her cause with her everywhere she goes, including around Hawaii to destroy aliens sending the wrong signals.

This is a great moment for RihannaSentimental Journey which coincided with the end of World War II and the returning home of US veterans. With this simple line, the purpose of World War II has been officially re-instated because, as Nick Fury says in The Avengers, "We are at war," and Battleship gives us one of our most important weapons to fight it: US history, and the cause of why we did what we did (regardless of the thesis of The Hunger Games) and how we can win that same war again.

One of the recent films Battleship begs comparison with is Captain America, because it takes place during World War II, but also because, like Steve, Alex in Battleship reflects the trend of many films of the 1950s demonstrating how the US was nothing before WWII, and then became a superhero afterwards because of the heroic sacrifice of our men and women and the prodigious production capacity of our factories, fueled by the patriotism and determination to win the war and stop communism/socialism/fascism/imperialism (other films include, for example, Breakfast At Tiffany's and Annie Get Your Gun).

Great shot of the aliens, how they appear "nearly human" but have deformities, specifically, in the hands (pictured above) which have only four finger digits instead of five; why? Hands symbolize strength, so what the aliens stand for--socialism--means that it doesn't have the strength of capitalism. Just as the aliens first appear in the Pacific, so it was in that same area the spread of Communism threatened the United States during the Soviet Union's advancement of Communism in its satellite countries in southeast Asia (Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam). One of the crew members tries on the helmet of an alien and realizes it's like a big pair of sunglasses and, like lizards, they don't like light. Light symbolizes truth, because truth will set us free the same way as light frees everything from darkness, and so the aliens not being able to tolerate truth reflects how socialists are ignoring the truths about socialism empirically failing throughout history and how over 60% of Americans don't want it. Whenever light is shined into the eyes of the aliens, they become completely blinded and are easily defeated, and that's what we need to remember.

Because Battleship is based upon a game, we have to discuss game theory. ("Game" is based on rules, meant to enhance certain advantages of players all ready in power, like tall basketball players; "play" is the creative interpretation/understanding of the rules or circumstances to undermine the advantage created by the rules or inherent in the opposition's capabilities). Nagata introduces water displacement--monitoring the tsunami buoys caused by waves--to see where the alien ships are, reflecting methods of playing the actual Hasbro game. The Art Of War (a Chinese work) is finally understood by Alex and applied in the last battle sequence, "Fight the enemy where he is not," and through a cunning "fake out," Alex manages a sneak attack, winning the battle (please recall that all of RIMPAC is a "war game").

Alien bombs (the round objects) coming in for an attack. The bombs seem to adhere to certain "rules" as well, only taking out certain portions of highways and not killing children playing baseball.
But it certainly takes out our military.

This isn't the only means of understanding how Battleship employs game theory, however, because capitalism is very much a "game" as both Moneyball and The Hunger Games have taught us. The other understanding of game theory is that rules are good and necessary, and we can see this in the "chicken burrito affair," when Alex, desperate to score points with Sam, breaks into a convenience store to deliver her the sought after item.  Battleship, it could be said, is covering its bases, that there are means of "playing the game" which go against everyone's interest, even when it looks like it suffices, but the tazer marks on Alex's back the next morning reveals to the audience that the debacle of the previous night has "scarred Alex" and only re-learning the right rules so he can correctly play the game will redeem him.

Aboard the "Mighty Mo," the USS Missouri, which fought in the Korean War. Battleship using the Missouri as a "game piece" in the film, and the "Sea Salt," the retired veterans, is itself an employment of game theory because it makes history--the Korean War and the goals of North Korea today--a major component to getting its point across regarding what socialism does.

In the greater context of films being released, this is an important moment in Battleship because Moneyball (2011, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill) aptly taught the American public how the economy is like a game, we have to take what we have and make the best of it, and when we do that, we are bound to win; this certainly happens in Battleship when the destroyers have been destroyed and all that's left is the battleship the Mighty Mo, but they make do with it and, capitalizing on their advantages, still manage to win (please see Moneyball and the Great American Economy).

Contrariwise, is The Hunger Games, which--my interpretation of the film posited--suggested that, if it hadn't have been for Adolf Hitler starting WWII 74 years ago (when the Hunger Games were instituted to commemorate the great sacrifice made to end Hitler and Communism) the United States would be a far more socialist country today than it is (because of the Great Depression and Roosevelt implementing many socialist programs at the time). I willingly concede to The Hunger Games that this is a real possibility. Yet the film goes on to show humans trying to succeed in a game meant for enterprise, i.e., in the do-or-die world of capitalism, companies are either killed or they kill their competition; to make a case for socialism (which isn't a very good case) it tries to demonstrate how violent capitalism is. Battleship, on the other hand, in the very appearance of the aliens, tries to demonstrate how socialism has recognizable features but is still "alien" to us.

There is another aspect with The Hunger Games that Battleship shares, and with The Cabin In the Woods: the separated field of play. In all three films, there is an invisible force field/barrier separating the "game world" from the "outer world" and Battleship and The Cabin In the Woods share the orientation, while The Hunger Games has a different spin. In The Hunger Games, the field keeping the players within the "arena" could be said to be the government regulations artificially constructing a world where some are given advantages (like Katniss receiving medicine for her burns) but not all are when they need it (such as Rue dying). In this way, again, The Hunger Games tries to paint a picture of how inhumane our treatment of companies are and that everyone (companies) should be kept alive (i.e., all auto industries should be bailed out, all mortgages paid, no workers laid off, etc.).

Battleship and The Cabin In the Woods, on the other hand, show how we enter the playing field (the space cut-off from the rest of the world) with what we have and we have to make do (rather like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdom, an excellent example of play vs game). Because The Cabin In the Woods is a horror film, the assets of each "contestant" in the game is their moral integrity and ability to overcome their own weakness in the guise of the red-neck zombie torture family means survival or death.

Battleship puts this in similar terms because Alex doesn't have the humility he needs to survive in the outside world (the Admiral having Alex kicked out of the Navy after the war games are ended) but his exceptional skills "in the arena" of saving the world earn him an elevated place outside the arena (which is why many of our ancestors came over from other countries, so they could look forward to the possibility of class mobility for themselves and their children and Alex achieves this exact thing) but the "chicken burrito" affair is still remembered, as it should be, because in some ways, it mirrors the corruption of many (especially on Wall Street) who broke rules and brought about the melt-down of the economy from which we are still suffering.  But this leads us to our next comparison: The Avengers.

The credits song playing for Battleship is Credence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son, about the upper class and privilege which Alex in Battleship didn't enjoy, but was able to rise up to (becoming the Admiral's future son-in-law) because of his merit and skill. The Avenger's Tony Stark (Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr.) is a "fortunate son," because of having an immense inheritance, yet The Avengers clearly demonstrates the conversion of Stark from his self-absorption to self-sacrifice (Batman's billionaire Bruce Wayne will have a similar journey to endure this summer). Tony Stark starts out big because of his self-importance, but ends small because of his humility; Alex Hopper starts out small because of his self-importance, but ends up big because of his humility and both for the greater good of the country.

The "Goldilocks" planet discussed by the scientists in the featurette above, means a political world where it's not "too conservative, but not too liberal," and voters this November have to ask themselves if they really got the world of the choosing in the last election.

One last film Battleship bears a resemblance to: The Descendants. I thought The Descendants was done extremely well, an incredibly rich and intimate story, and if it weren't for the shared locale of Hawaii I wouldn't even have thought to compare them, but we can understand Elizabeth's skiing accident as a symbol for capitalism because it was a game in the form of a race (symbolically for wealth).  The death of Elizabeth, the mother, then symbolizes the death of the motherland, America, having died as a result of being capitalist and seeking only after "a better boat" (more wealth) and the "descendants" are of President Obama and his socialist state. Battleship doesn't let the mother land die, Battleship destroys the alien and protects the real descendants of the men and women who died in World War II, Korea and Vietnam preserving--not only freedom--but free markets as well, because "in adversity we come to know ourselves," as Stone tells Alex, so instead of creating a world wherein there is no adversity (socialism) Battleship encourages us to thrive upon it and adapt to it.

Battleship probably chose Hawaii because that is where President Obama is from and where he frequently vacations on his frequent vacations. The signal which the Beacon Project sent up began in 2006, coinciding with the voter dissatisfaction of the Republicans and then President George Bush; that signal of voter dissatisfaction was answered, and it invited the alien socialists to come and attempt a take-over in the name of "Hope" and "Change," (just like the scientists thought the aliens would come peacefully and in friendship) but instead, have waged war on the country and Battleship calls us to fight back "where the enemy is not" (to use socialist thought against itself) and fight socialism on the grounds of capitalism where it can't compete (and in terms of history).

Boarding the USS Missouri for her last battle with veterans standing ready to fight.

Lastly, the post credits scene: in the Scottish Highlands three school boys, Angus, Ronnie and Thom, are walking home and see destruction caused to a silo and barn, seeing a rock-like structure half-buried in the ground. They attempt to open it and cannot. A Scottish man, Jimmie, pulls up in his truck and decides he's going to get it open, trying all manner of things, including a chainsaw and welding. We are suddenly inside the "rock" structure and can hear the boys and Jimmie outside, then see Jimmie removing a part of the structure. As he peers in, a religious medal can be seen around his neck, then a second medal which clearly has Mary, the mother of Jesus, on it. The subtle yet definite religious introduction suggests that (if there is a sequel) it will take on a more religious nature rather than the political/economic one of Battleship.

I Did See The Dictator

I was actually quite surprised by the number of political topics covered, and the conservative view taken of them; The Dictator aptly covers the idea of the power structure in society and personal relationships, including Feminism. I guess the problem is for all the crudeness (nudity, foul language and suggestions) I wouldn't really recommend seeing it but I am getting this post up and I'm glad the film was made.
It's really crude in areas though, and like 30 minutes too long; someone should have edited some of the dialogue out.

TRAILERS: Argo, A Fantastic Fear Of Everything, Gangster Squad, Killer Joe, The Paperboy, The Campaign, Step Up: Revolution, Mansome, People Like Us

There are still a great number of readers' comments to which I have thus far failed to respond; Grandma has been back to the hospital several times for on-going heart problems, so please, forgive me once more, it's beyond my control. The Dictator opens Wednesday so I anticipate seeing that in the evening and getting the post up the next day... well, you know how it goes.  Some great films are finally being released to disc this week: The Grey with Liam Neeson (The Grey: America's Dying Economy & the Politicians's Den) and the film that I absolutely loved writing about, Chronicle (I am adding some new concept art and observations to that post). The Woman In Black will be released May 22 and Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows will be released June 12!
On to the newest trailers:
Argo, set for release in October, comes from director Ben Affleck about attempts to free the American hostages during the Iranian crisis of Jimmy Carter's presidency:

In A Fantastic Fear Of Everything, Jack, a children's author turned crime novelist, becomes a paranoid wreck after he starts researching Victorian serial killers. It might not sound like much, but there is an important date mentioned: November 5, 1979, the date the orphanage where he grew up burns down, and it just so happens, the date that the Iranian hostage crisis highlighted in the Argo trailer above is taking place; given this information, that it's Jack's earliest memory, should we view the source of his anxiety as a metaphor for America's own anxiety about Iran's real or perceived hostility towards the US (like in The Dictator coming out tomorrow)?

Sometimes, movies start looking like other movies (case in point, Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman) and Gangster Squad (no release date yet set) looks an awful lot like Lawless which we have all ready seen. This is important because it not only verifies trends and characteristics of society being documented in one film, but aides us in seeing multiple dimensions of it in another (and how one will express certain problems that the other film expresses differently, or not at all):

From director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) comes his newest starring Matthew McConaughey as Killer Joe (no release date) about a young man whose debt drives him to putting a hit on his evil mother so he can collect her insurance policy:

Also starring Mr. McConaughey and John Cusack is The Paperboy  about a reporter returning to his hometown to investigate the case of a death row inmate. Also starring Nicole Kidman (I thought she retired?) and Zac Efron, there is not a US release date set yet for the film.

And, North Carolina is in the media again, God bless them, this time about two rival politicians running for the same office; set for release on August 10, The Campaign may or may not accurately reflect the way the country runs its democracy:

Also due out in August from Disney is The Odd Life of Timothy Green:

The fourth in the installment, Step Up: Revolution due for a July 27 release. Regardless of the politics that may or may not be in the film (and I see quite a bit of clash and conflict in this situation) I am always in favor of films expanding the vocabulary of art (we have all ready seen this in both The Artist and Pina) so I will definitely be catching this:

The next two films are two different sides of women's lives: most of us will probably be able to get the Russian film Elena on disc, but I think it will be a drama that's worth it:

Hysteria is being released in theaters this week:

I am really sarcastic when it comes to films like Hysteria, I think they tend to make men idiots, hold up poor qualities as role models for women and slant--if not worse--accurate history. Besides, I just don't like sex jokes, I think they are always in poor taste. The invention of the first vibrator--the "feather duster" being likened to the "tool" women traditionally used for household work--is what many Feminists feel "liberating" and empowering, even politically; my view personally, so you know why I won't be watching/reviewing it, is that it not only dehumanizes the woman using it, but men in general because sexual intercourse, meant not only for the continuation of the species, but for the necessary bonding of husband and wife, has been reduced to the drive thru of a fast food resturant when "toys" are used "on demand" and the kind of callousness it builds up not only slowly kills a woman's emotional ability to bond with a man, but strips sexual experience of its human quality and makes it a mere matter of "performance" and "pleasure." Hence, in the trailer above, Elena, she and Vladimir not being married regulates her to a prostitute who basically isn't getting paid but is willing to rob for her children (creating all kinds of interesting scenarios).

But the dehumanizing aspect of technological sex goes both ways.

Jason Bateman's documentary Mansome explores what is "masculine" today:

So, what we see, is a basic switching of the genders: men becoming pretty, women taking on a penis. We saw Silent House (Elizabeth Olsen) earlier this year exploring the psychological effects of sexual abuse (and it's possible to say that Carolyn from Dark Shadows is the result of the same thing); when numerous artistic sources collide over the same topic, such as Lovely Molly, due out this month, there is cause for concern: 

Fortunately, there are still films being made such as The Intouchables reminding us how vulnerable we truly are beneath our grab for power and artificial facades: 

With an all, all-star cast, People Like Us (opening June 29) takes a hard look at what money problems and debt has done to this country, and how sometimes we only gain by sacrificing:

Lots of great films to look forward to (FYI, the Hansel & Gretl Witch Hunters starring Jeremy Renner has been moved to 2013, as well as Jack the Giant Killer; to bad, they won't be nearly as relevant next year).

Dark Shadows: Birthing Hips & the French Revolution

Because many of the anti-capitalist films of the year will be coming from director Tim Burton, we should pay attention to the rhetoric and complaints lodged in Dark Shadows because we will be hearing it all again in Frankenweenie and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. The thesis of Dark Shadows is: capitalism enslaves everyone and is a monster, and because it has created the American economy in its own outdated image, there is no other way to save the economy and the country but to do what the French did and destroy the upper-class and their power base.
How does Dark Shadows create this thesis?

To some degree, Dark Shadows and I agree about what happened to society, but we disagree about when it happened and the causes. Dark Shadows would site the beginning of America's decline as being "built upon blood" (which not only means the American Revolution, but the blood of American workers, I guess; this is sited when Angelique and Barnabas have their bloody fight in Collinswood Manor and Angelique makes the portraits bleed). I site the degrading of society with World War II, the atrocities Americans witnessed (and were committing to end the war) killed the soul of America that then buried itself in material goods and capitalism. After the sins and horrors of World War II, economic crimes didn't seem so bad and Americans went from bad to worse. Dark Shadows seems to hold up Elizabeth Stoddard as the exemplary female of the film, but I prefer David's mother; we do, however, seem to agree on young female sexuality, specifically Carolyn and her being turned into a werewolf (more on all this below).

Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) and his family sail from England to the "New World" to start the fishing industry which they do and name the town after themselves. One of the Collins' servants, Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) falls in love with Barnabas and while he enjoys physically indulging himself with Angelique, he doesn't reciprocate her love; Barnabas falls in love, instead with Josette (Bella Heathcote) and, in her envious fury, Angelique--employing witchcraft--hypnotizes Josette to walk off a cliff and, unable to save her, Barnabas jumps after her. Landing on the rocks below and not being dead, he discovers that Angelique has turned him into a vampire, turns the town against him, locks him in a coffin and buries him alive for 196 years.

The cast members in the Collins' home. What's interesting is the architecture, which is ribbed vaulting, a feature of Romanesque churches, signifying to the audience that these people have become the "new church" of America so who are they? From right to left, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), her brother Roger Collins, Willie Loomis (the butler/groundskeeper), Mrs Johnson (the maid), Barnabas Collins, Victoria Winters/Maggie Evans/Josette (she plays both Barnabas' early love and his re-incarnated love and the nanny to David), David Collins (son of Roger and his mother died at the bottom of the sea), Angelique, Carolyn Stoddard (Elizabeth's daughter) and Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) who is the therapist to David that has been with the family for three years. The great wealth the Collins incurred made it possible to build the Collins Manor so it becomes a symbol of America and capitalism, and has fallen into terrible ruin, like America today.

Barnabas symbolizes the early forms of capitalism which started America because of his family's migration to make a new start and the wealth they accumulated. Angelique was a servant in the Collins' house who took up witchcraft to get what she wanted; because she has a monopoly on the fisheries of Angel Bay when Barnabas is freed from his coffin, she aptly symbolizes monopolies, that ugly head of capitalism. Josette/Victoria, because of her "birthing hips" (TBD below) symbolizes America and what America gives birth to, the form of the economy and its people. The question of the film, then, is Josette's/Victoria's birthing hips going to give birth to the future America, or Angelique's monopolizing breasts?
Neither.

Barnabas standing beneath his portrait done about 196 years previously to demonstrate that he is Barnabas Collins. The point of this moment is, capitalism hasn't changed since the early days of America, a point I disagree with. Barnabas' constant astonishment of the world of 1972--when the story takes place--is meant to make capitalism seem totally outdated and old-fashioned and it's only the more dangerous form of capitalism--the monopoly--which has kept up with the times.  Just today, President Obama is calling Republican Mitt Romney an "economic vampire" which is language that will not be going away even though many Republicans see Obama's socialist programs as economic vampirism draining the economy of money and building up the debt (one of the ways that both sides utilize the same image to articulate their own arguments). Dark Shadows argues that because people are working for the Collinses or for Angelique, that makes the capitalists vampires; does it make Tim Burton a vampire because people helped him to make Dark Shadows? Tim Burton might be a vampire for other reasons, but if he makes that the threshold of monstrosity, he should be careful about where he points his camera and what it records.

Young Barnabas is torn between two French women: Josette DuPres and Angelique Bouchard. Josette, seemingly an upper-class woman, and Angelique, a servant and lower-class worker, represent two faces of the French Revolution (because both have French names and vie for the love of wealthy Barnabas at a time in history when revolution was popular). Josette would be the higher ideals of the Revolution (being the "true love" of Barnabas and the one for whom he would willingly die, like many of the academic French as well) while Angelique with her blood-lust would be the decapitation and murderous forces for which the Revolution is still famed.

"Victoria Winters" (really Maggie Evans, who is really Josette 196 years later) first entering Collingswood Manor. She hitched a ride with some hippies to get there, and we meet up with them again later in the film when Carolyn tells Barnabas he needs to hang out with people who are cool (and Barnabas ends up draining them all of their blood). The idealism of the "unshaven youth" is literally Victoria's/Maggie's vehicle to returning to Collinswood Manor to be re-united with her true self (Josette). Like the idealistic French in the beginning of the Revolution, the hippies believe in peace and love and equality, qualities which Barnabas politely smiles at before he drains them of his blood, as the makers of Dark Shadows believe capitalists do to any concept that is not religious in origin or economically based (i.e., such as gay marriage, socialism, abortion, free birth control, etc.).

In the early days of America, we were so debt-ridden we could be of no assistance to the revolutionaries in France; America was very much modeled on the English economy and society, not the French because the atrocities taking place turned people away from the French as a potential model. The death of young Josette seems to be a thesis that, had the respectable/academic face of the French Revolution not died so young, America might be more French in manner today, than English and, if those ideals had been adopted, we wouldn't have the vampire capitalists we have today (since, I suppose, there are no millionaires in France, oh, wait, I guess there are...).

Bella Heathcote plays two different characters with three identities: Josette and Victoria who is really named Maggie Evans. Little Maggie saw Josette's ghost when she was growing up so her parents had her sent to an asylum (symbolically, people who believed in the "higher ideals" of the French Revolution and supported them). Escaping from the asylum (the Hippie Generation freeing people to talk about those ideals again) Maggie goes to Maine to apply for the governess position at Collingwood Manor under the name of Victoria Winters, Victoria because of Queen Victoria and America's close economic ties with England and Winters so as to give the idea of one, Victorian morality as "frigid" and two, because of the seemingly coldness some perceive in the British demeanor. The Barnabas waking up in 1972 falls in love with Victoria Winters because the British model is what he sees as the realization of youthful ideals in 1972 (yes, it is confusing), but when he realizes Victoria is really Maggie, and Maggie is a part of Josette, he wants Josette back.

In this sense, Josette--as the higher ideals of the French Revolution--can be understood to be hypnotized and walk off the cliff  because the blood-thirst of the Revolution took over (Angelique) the higher ideals (Josette). At the end of the film, Collingswood Manor--the sign of wealth and power for the Collins' family--has been destroyed and once again, Victoria/Josette is walking off the cliff when Barnabas stops her and she tells him, knowing he's a vampire, that she lives in light and he lives in darkness so they can't be together; she jumps (probably symbolic of the "fall of the economy") and Barnabas jumps after her, turning her into a vampire before she hits the rocks below. When she awakens, she says her name is Josette, meaning, the ties to the English economy have been severed (Victoria is no longer alive) and the higher ideals of the French Revolution have been "raised from the dead" even as the upper-class has been destroyed (Collingswood Manor as the power of the upper-class) and this is what Dark Shadows wants: no upper-class and the dead ideals to live again.    

Why is the vampire not seeing his reflection important? As we discussed last October in False Light: Interview With the Vampire, vampires can't reflect because they kill mindlessly (they don't know what they are doing) and Barnabas can't see his reflection because he doesn't see what his capitalism is doing (so goes the logic of the film regarding the main hero). When Barnabas wakes up after 196 years, it's because a construction crew digging finds his coffin and opens it and he drains them all of their blood, translating, that capitalism by its nature not only drains workers of their blood, but enslaves them, as Barnabas does to Willie, the Collingswood Manor butler/housekeeper/groundskeeper. Of course, I am an ardent capitalist myself, and I find the same fault with Dark Shadows that I did with The Hunger Games: show us a viable, desirable alternative to capitalism? Both films are happy to critique capitalism, but neither can offer a system in its place. Dark Shadows assumes that people do not have a free will and we do not choose to work, we do not choose our line of work and we are enslaved to the dollar; without these conditions, the arguments of Dark Shadows don't really stand unless it defines humans as empty-headed animals.

Let's temporarily put the economic discussion on hold and discuss some of the other characters. Why is Carolyn Stoddard a werewolf? Angelique claims she sent a werewolf to bite Carolyn when she was still in the crib; we might deduce that the werewolf was her uncle, Roger Collins, because we see him going through the coat pockets of the guests during the "happening" and stealing, just as Carolyn's innocence must have been stolen from her when she was still in the crib (sexual molestation could have prematurely started her sexual development unnaturally). This isn't such a stretch because, when Victoria sits down to dinner the first time with the Collins family, David says, at the dinner table, that Carolyn touches herself (masturbates) and that would mean Carolyn Stoddard has something in common with a girl from 1973: Regan McNeil (The Exorcist). 

Barnabas has just come into Collingwood and found Carolyn and David, referring to the young Carolyn as a "woman of the night" to which Carolyn understands she's been called a prostitute. More than anything, this probably signals where Carolyn is going in life if her current course is not halted and she's steered in a different direction. The sensitivity to Carolyn's problems as a young female and the damage that has been done to her sexual identity is something I wasn't expecting from Dark Shadows, but Dark Shadows does seem to undermine the importance of it when Carolyn tells her mother, "I'm a werewolf, let's not make a big deal out of it," because it is a big deal, but Elizabeth's carrying her daughter out of the destroyed house symbolizes that Carolyn can still be "saved" through the strength of her mother's love for her.

Besides  their sexual habits, Regan of The Exorcist and Carolyn of Dark Shadows have another interesting commonality: neither has a father in their lives. In The Exorcist, Regan's mother calls Regan's father on her birthday and can't get a hold of him; in Dark Shadows, Carolyn takes the microphone after Alice Cooper's performance and asks Carolyn in a sexy voice, "When's daddy coming back? He's been gone such a long time?" and Elizabeth can only glare at her daughter. Just as Regan is possessed by the devil in The Exorcist, so Carolyn becomes a werewolf in Dark Shadows. The consequence of this is that neither girl has her father in her life to anchor her identity in a genuine love and self-worth so she turns instead to culture and the occult to replace what's missing in her life (please see The Exorcist: Absent Fathers).

Barnabas in Carolyn's room getting advice on how to court Victoria. Carolyn tells Barnabas she's 16 and he's surprised she isn't married yet. We can tell by her room, however, that she is married to popular culture. Just as her room is filled with Iggy Pop and Alice Cooper, so she is filled with them also. When we first see Carolyn as a werewolf, she's upside-down, meaning, her perversity has made her into a werewolf (perverse means upside-down) and that translates into how she has used her body for her own sexual pleasure rather than saving herself for marriage and, since she's all ready sexually active, it's definite that she won't wait until marriage to have intercourse.

Previously, meaning before 2012, werewolves were always male because a werewolf is a man who has given free reign to his sexual appetites to rule over him and so he is turned from a rational man into an irrational animal (please see The Bright Autumn Moon: The Wolf Man). In the recently released The Cabin In the Woods, however, a werewolf attacks Dana towards the end, suggesting that she has werewolf-like sexual appetites (please see The Cabin In the Woods: Free Will, Husband Bulges and Jim Carrey). There is another dimension to establish Dark Shadows with The Cabin In the Woods: husband bulges and birthing hips.

This is a great shot. In the novel Dracula, the Count goes up and down the castle walls like a lizard, reflecting his "unnatural" state of existence within nature (like Carolyn hanging upside down from the wall when we first see that she is a werewolf; please see For the Dead Travel Fast: Dracula for more). In this shot, it's the "happening," or party, at Collingwood and Roger has gone through the coats of all the guests robbing them while getting the "female coat attendant" high on weed and proceeds to make out with her. This incident is part of what leads Barnabas later to putting to Roger to either be a good father to his son David or leave the house and Roger chooses to leave. The point of the shot is (surprisingly) that even someone who is unnatural (Barnabas) can see that Roger is unnatural himself in not being a father to David, surprising, because Tim Burton is not married to his children's mother, Helena Bonham Carter, nor was Johnny Depp married to his daughters' mother, Vanessa Paradis; since fatherhood and the quality of fatherhood is brought up in the film through Barnabas banishing Roger and Elizabeth's silence on Carolyn's father, (although Barnabas himself had a wonderful father) the standards of fatherhood and masculinity should have been better realized in the film.

In The Cabin In the Woods, a "husband bulge" is a term used to describe a man's erection which should be reserved for natural desire for his wife within the bonds of matrimony; in Dark Shadows, "birthing hips" refers to the natural end of a woman's body to give birth to children. Of course, Feminists and the film itself mocks the concept of "birthing hips," but even in mockery, just bringing up such a concept (against Carolyn's unnatural sexuality, as well as Julia Hoffman's and Angelique's sexual appetites) and its close junction in time with husband bulges should give us pause to consider the alternatives females have today besides becoming mothers.... like Angelique, and whether the film is really undermining its own presentation of what women should aspire to be.

Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, a psychiatrist who was hired by Elizabeth to help David overcome his talking to his mother's ghost but three years later, David still talks to his mother's ghost and Dr. Hoffman is still there. When Elizabeth introduces Dr. Hoffman to Barnabas, he exclaims his amazement that there is a female doctor in "this day and age" (of 1972); the film depicts Julia Hoffman, however, as being a rather weak female (something I would be very upset about if I were a Democrat/Feminist). She has no professional standards (she steals Barnabas' vampire blood to turn herself into a vampire after she has performed oral sex upon him even while he's her patient, violating the codes of ethical conduct). Dr. Hoffman has neither been able to help David in three years (professional failure)--has she even tried?--and she can't reverse the vampirism in Barnabas through transfusions--did she even want to? In short, Dr. Julia Hoffman isn't much of a woman nor a role model and makes one wonder (as in Pirates! Band Of Misfits) what Liberal/Democratic men really think of women today.

Angelique's identity in the film changes depending on her context: she can be a servant girl, the bloody French Revolution, the monopolizing tendency of capitalism or a slut and, in this last identity, we should explore her in her threats against Barnabas. Angelique attempts buying Collins Canning Co. for $1.75 million (an enormous sum in 1972) and Barnabas refuses the offer; she then threatens him that she will kill Victoria if he doesn't give into her, so he does and has sex with her; this is prostitution, and that money doesn't exchange hands is irrelevant because Angelique uses sex as a weapon (a commentary on Feminist sexuality?). This understanding is important because, when Angelique turns the townspeople against the Collins family (as in the French Revolution) Carolyn--as a werewolf--tries to take on Angelique and fails, not being powerful enough to overtake her.

What is it that Angelique really envies the Collins family for? Class. At the beginning and end of the film, Barnabas as narrator says that blood identifies us, the blood of the upper-class means they have a life of leisure, while the blood of the lower class condemns them to a life of servitude and work. Personally, I think this is a gross mis-understanding of American history (so much so that it looks like an intentional mis-understanding) but there is an interesting detail in Angelique's office. Back when Barnabas' family first comes over from England, we see the figure-head of the ship upon which they travel, and Angelique later has that figure-head in her office, meaning, the ship allowing her to immigrate was the vehicle of her upward mobility in American society over 196 years. Angelique seems to hold onto the idea of the upper-class like it's the peerage in England, something which never existed in America, but seems to be tied in the film makers' mind as the real evil of capitalism. Even though Angelique has an immense amount of money, she doesn't seem to feel like a member of the upper-class, that is reserved for the Collins, and that kind of "old family money" seems to be the real target of Dark Shadows but who is to determine who has worked for their wealth and who hasn't?  At the end of the film, however, it doesn't matter, because anyone who had money is dead.

There are only two ways for the Collins family to defeat Angelique when she comes into the Collins' home bent on destroying it and all within it: to be infinitely superior to her in goodness, or to be infinitely superior to her in wickedness. That Carolyn's perverse sexuality (bad enough that she's characterized as a werewolf, a woman with the appetites of a man) isn't as bad as Angelique, only deepens the wickedness of Angelique more (and the business woman she is); that Elizabeth isn't good enough/strong enough to overcome Angelique means that the "female heroine" of the film isn't really good at all (the self-declared Feminist head of the family), which leads us to our two last characters, two mothers.

Another bad representation of women by Dark Shadows (and by "bad" I mean bad for Feminists, because I actually agree with how these women are being depicted, but Feminists have other ideas): just as Julia Hoffman used her psychiatrist's office for sexual relations with Barnabas, so Angelique has used her office for sexual relations as well (pictured above).  Dark Shadows suggests, then, that the work place has become a den of sexuality for women who have moved into the professional world, which is really saying that sex is all women are really good for after all (regardless of education or business achievement).

Elizabeth is the head of the Collins family; what happened to her husband, we don't know and Elizabeth doesn't care. Elizabeth is probably the film's ideal of a woman because she always appears in a scene from the top of the staircase (the level of higher consciousness). Elizabeth also wears notably false eyelashes, and, since they draw attention to her eyes, in this case, probably refers to her wisdom and ability to see (perceive and discern). Contrariwise, Dr. Julia Hoffman also wears false eyelashes, yet her lashes clump, symbolizing her lack of wisdom because she can't see well, as in wanting to become a vampire and the foolishness that means. But Elizabeth can't be "all that" because she isn't strong enough to overcome Angelique.

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard with her shot gun she uses as Angelique tries to destroy the house at the end. When Barnabas first introduces himself, it's to Elizabeth, and he confesses he is a vampire and proves he is a member of the Collins family through his knowledge of the house's many secret chambers and passageways, one of which leads to where Elizabeth keeps her collection of macrame (weaving). Macrame would be the only traditionally feminine activity we see Elizabeth engaging (and we don't see it) so her femininity, like the macrame, is kept locked away.

David Collins lost his mother at sea and tells everyone that he can see her and she talks to him, for example, the second time Angelique locks Barnabas up in the coffin, David comes to save Barnabas because David tells Barnabas that his mother told David Barnabas needed help. After Carolyn has failed to stop Angelique in the destruction of Collingswood, David tells Angelique to stop, and the audience might half-way expect David to turn into some monster; rather, he tells Angelique that his mother will stop her and she does.

David and Barnabas; I don't think this actual scene is in the film, but after David's father Roger has tried to find the secret stash of wealth Barnabas uses to restore Collinswood and the family business, Roger tries to find it for himself and that's when Barnabas gives him the choice of staying and being a good father to David or leaving and Roger chooses to leave. When Roger leaves, David holds a pink triceratops dinosaur; the dinosaur invokes an ancient identity and the pink is femininity (at one point, Barnabas looks at Alice Cooper and says, "That is the ugliest woman I have ever seen," and the gender switching [also with Dr. Julia Hoffman] is intentional) suggesting that, with no real male role model in his life, David is going to grow up and not fulfill his male identity. To underline this, as David runs off after his father has left him, the "mirror ball" from the party nearly drops on him (mirrors symbolize meditation and reflection) and it nearly destroys David because David has all ready started "reflecting" on not having a father and being an orphan now; Barnabas saves David from being killed by the ball, but enters the sunlight and catches on fire, meaning, Barnabas can't be a good role model for David either because he's a vampire.

Angelique suggests that David's mother was not of a good breeding and that she had his mother thrown overboard, causing her death. What's important is, David's mother still loves him and watches out for him, and is determined to protect him. She might have been from the lower-class, but her love is strong enough to permanently defeat Angelique's powers and save the family (although the Manor is now lost). David, a child, is the only one believing in his mother and that she's still communicating with him; like little Maggie Evans (Victoria Winters/Josette) who sees Josette's ghost with her everywhere (symbolizing the ideals of the French Revolution that died) David is seeing the ideals of motherhood that have died but is still there to protect him.

In conclusion, the "curse" of Barnabas Collins is lifted when he's joined to his love, Josette, when she has been raised from the dead and Barnabas has lost all his wealth and status. This indictment of the upper-class, whether historically accurate or not, and the romanticizing of the French Revolution, whether viable or not, is not even the point, but that we are in a political and cultural era when such ideas and thoughts have entered into mainstream entertainment; each of us have to answer these questions for ourselves because they will be decided in November, one way or the other. The issues raised by Dark Shadows will only gain momentum and voice, not diminish, with each new film being released, as everyone takes a side and a stance.

Why is it so difficult for Barnabas to find a place to sleep at Collinswood? Because there is "no place for him" in this day and age, a subtle but important point the film makers want to make about capitalism. Willie, the butler/groundskeeper, tells Victoria as she looks at a portrait of Barnabas, that "His name is Barnaby or something like that, there's a barn in there somewhere," and that "barn" refers to how Barnabas and his kind (the upper-class) stored up riches for themselves (like the treasures buried under the house).

Just Saw Dark Shadows...

Just saw Dark Shadows,...
Obviously, have not gotten the post up, but am still considering the film. It's definitely anti-capitalist, without a doubt, and, like many anti-capitalist films, doesn't offer any system in its place, just what a lousy system capitalism is (and they got paid a lot of money to say that).  Sorry, I am getting sicker instead of better, and just need a bit more rest, but I am working on the analysis for the film.

The House Of Islam: The Raid Redemption

It's difficult to say at exactly what point you realize you're watching a masterpiece during The Raid: Redemption, because there just hasn't been a film like it: it's not just the incredible fight scenes, but the unusual violence and the fear of this kind of situation the film sets-up being real, and you being trapped within it. Then, at some point, you realize, "It is real, and I am trapped in it."

The apartment building that has been "off limits" to the law of Jakarta because of the absolute sway the crime lord holds over it. At the end of the film, the apartment hasn't been won, but it's crumbling and the crime lord is dead, so it won't take much for a group to go in and, as Andi says, take it down brick by brick, which is the intention.

This is the story of Rama, a rookie elite cop in Jakarta, Indonesia, getting ready to go into work, to make the raid. The first image is of a watch, ticking, then we see Rama on his prayer rug, reciting the Muslim prayers, Rama does a grueling physical work out and says to an old man, "I'll bring him back." Great film makers know the first images are always the most important because they form and shape the audience's expectations; it's also a way of giving the audience information.

Rama during his morning workout. It's imperative for us to understand that his prayers and spiritual strength are every bit as important to the upcoming battle as his physical strength, even more so, because at one point, his physical strength is about to give out, but remembering his wife and baby strengthens his heart and soul so he can go on.

In Indonesia, Muslims are a majority of the population, Christians being greatly outnumbered, and Muslims are advancing in taking over the country. It's significant, then, that the first image of the main character is in the religious majority. The watch we first hear and see in the opening, however, is a symbol of history (as well as the old man Rama speaks to) and no one keeps better track of their history than the Muslims. So we all ready know that this story will be about Muslims on a larger scale and what is that? Restoring the House Of Islam to Muslim rule through a political jihad.

I am a convert to Roman Catholicism and this makes a difference in my viewing of the film; I would like to say again that this film is really a masterpiece, it's just incredible how good it is, and I agree, wholeheartedly, with all the praise it has received from various awards committees because it deserves every bit. (Many people simply hate anything that has to do with religion, whether it's Christianity or not, and will adamantly protest my incorporation of a religious interpretation of the film simply because of their dislike; please note, however, the title of the film, The Raid: Redemption, "redemption" is a religious term and that invites a religious understanding of the events as well, again, as Rama on his prayer rug).

As the cops are entering the apartment building, they see a man who lives there trying to get in; they stop him and the captain doesn't want to let him go into the building, but the man insists that his wife is sick and he has to get her medicine. Rama protects the man so he can get back to her, then later, Rama brings one of his wounded friends to the apartment where the man and his sick wife live and beg shelter of them. Reluctantly, they agree, Rama's friend cursing Rama that the couple will turn them over to the crime lord and Rama insisting, "He's not one of them." It's an interesting situation because, if following this line of analysis, the man can be taken as a Christian, his sick wife would be the Church (probably ill because of the sins of her members, myself included). The man hides Rama and his friend in a false wall, symbolically translated could be, from a Islamic perspective, a reservoir of sympathy towards Islam (for Christians, it would be more like we do good unto others because of the Good Christ did for us, and because what we do for another, we do for Christ, but this is why it's an interesting film, these kinds of "discrepancies"). In hiding, one of the crime lord's thugs sticks his sword into the wall where Rama's face is, running the blade into his cheek. This becomes an interesting situation to interpret because Rama, it appears has "lost face" or been "defaced" by accepting the help of a non-Muslim, whereas the non-Muslim are rewarded with their lives because they helped the Muslims in need..?

Having aired my biases publicly, it's really a simple, but effective, plot: the apartment house symbolizes Indonesia itself, being run by a "democratic constitution" that should be run by Muslims (territory controlled by Islam is considered "the house of Islam"); the 20 elite cops symbolize the Muslim effort in Indonesia to take control. That Christians are the "ruthless outlaws" because anyone outside the law of Islam (Sharia Law) is an outlaw. So the purpose of the film is to get control over the House of Islam (the apartment building) and establish law and order (Sharia Law and Islam).

Tama, the crime lord holding full reign over the 30 stories of apartment the elite--but rookie--cop team enters to try and wipe him out. The problem is, he knew they were coming. There are at least two levels of corruption in the film, the type of personal corruption exhibited by Andi, Rama's brother (more on that below) and the professional corruption seen in the cops being bought and paid to leave the apartment and Tama alone. In this sense, going with the religious interpretation, the film can be seen as a critique of Muslim leaders who deal with Christian leaders instead of fulfilling the requirements of Islam (Rama, who is pure and who has a wife with child, symbolizes the unadulterated future of Islam in Indonesia once all the corruption is wiped out). Young Muslims might be tempted to criticize an old practice of Islam, that is, non-Muslims being allowed to worship in their own religion with the paying of a fine for not converting to Islam; devotees of Islam might be wanting that to be eradicated so there is a stricter policy of conversion for the non-Muslim population; why? In The Raid: Redemption there is a nearly intolerable level of corruption, and that would be inexcusable in Islam, hence, a potential movement to end the option of fining non-Muslims. The barbarity of Tama reflects the way Muslims view the history of Islamic-Christian relations (especially colored by The Crusades).

What I most appreciate about the film is the way physical violence is translated into spiritual warfare, the battles we see, individually and collectively, are really the clashes of the spiritual world and not physical fights; materialists--specifically atheists--will denounce this viewpoint, however, I hold that nearly all violence in art can be traced back to inner-turmoil being expressed, either spiritually, politically or emotionally, and doesn't exist for the sake of violence, rather, violence is always about making a statement on where violence comes from within the culture. The Raid: Redemption carefully constructs scene after scene of gruelling violence that you think just can't get any worse,... until it does. Here is one small scene of the film:

An interesting detail regarding the apartment is that Tama, the crime lord, promises to give free rent and permanent residency to anyone killing the cops, most of the residents being criminals themselves. In Christianity, this makes sense, because all Christians know they are sinners (criminals, basically, against God's commandments and laws) and Tama's invitation to his residents is rather comparable to the promise made to suicide-bombers that they will go to heaven for witnessing for Allah. (Christians aren't rewarded for taking life, but for giving their life for Christ, and this is a slight, but definite disagreement between the two religions on the shared, but differently understood, concept of martyrdom).

Andi (Rama's brother) on the left with a similar wound on his face and "Mad Dog" on the right who is small, but an incredible fighter and really, really mean.

There are two more characters needing to be discussed: Andi and Mad Dog. Tama, the crime lord, has two right hands, Andi the brains and Mad Dog the enforcer. Andi happens to be Rama's brother and, seeing his estranged brother in the apartment's security cameras, goes to save him. When Andi goes down into the elevator to the floor upon which he expects to find Rama, on the elevator wall is written in large, graffitied letters, "GAUL." In what today is largely France, old Gaul was a region which was Christianized (and could be an encoded reference to "the West"and the medieval conflicts between Islam and Christianity from deep within history). Andi's "being away from his family" means that he converted over to Christianity (a real crime in Islam) and Andi refuses to return with Rama even when Rama tells his brother that he's "going to be an uncle" which is a prophecy: children symbolize the future, the next generation, and Rama tells Andi that the future is Islam, not Christianity in Jakarta, and Andi needs to make his decision.

Jaka, the police squad leader, and Mad Dog. Mad Dog could easily pull the trigger and kill Jaka, however, he tells Jaka that the hand-to-hand combat is where his rush comes from and insists on fighting Jaka to the death; poor Jaka doesn't stand a chance. Like a dog, Mad Dog drags Jaka's dead body back to Tama to show his boss what he has done for him, whereas Andi will come back empty-handed.

Andi returns to Tama after his brief conversation with his brother and Tama is furious that Andi has returned "empty-handed," so Tama takes a knife and stabs it through Andi's hand (an act familiar to Christians because Christ was stabbed through the hand with the nails). Tama then gives Andi to Mad Dog and Mad Dog works at beating Andi up, slowly killing him.

Andi, Rama's brother and Tama's right-hand.

So who is Mad Dog?
"Mad dog" in Catholicism probably refers to the Dominicans which is formed of two Latin words for "dogs of God," who were created to tackle heresies both inside and outside of Christianity. Writings by various Dominicans have... upset Muslims over the centuries and the Church's continual dependence on their learning and sanctity has made them a bane to those who attack the Church. When Mad Dog has Jaka at gun point, and it would be easier to pull the trigger and kill him, but Mad Dog wants to fight him instead, that clearly references the Dominican love of Scholasticism and the "argument for the sake of the argument" which they are so famous for, even to this day.

Tama and the sergeant of the police force, Wahyu, who is there (risking the lives of all the rookie cops) because he wants a big payoff from Tama who refuses to give it to him. Tama was alerted that Wahyu would be coming by his superiors who wanted to get rid of him. This is the kind of "corruption" which devout Muslims may be critiquing in the film, that Islam is being used as a vehicle for personal gain, rather than spiritual redemption.

When Rama walks into the meat locker and sees Mad Dog beating on his brother, he silently challenges Mad Dog to a fight, to fight both Rama and Andi at the same time. It's perhaps the most intense fight sequence I have ever seen, but one of the injuries which Mad Dog sustains in the battle is a fluorescent light bulb is rammed into his neck. Because the neck symbolizes what guides us, or that to which we are yoked (the way an ox is yoked to the plow, for example) it shows Mad Dog is yoked to "illumination" because the light bulb, being a source of light, symbolizes Light, i.e, truth and inner-illumination; hence, Mad Dog's (Dominicans') desire for illumination is really his death because the light bulb is broken, they seek illumination from the Broken Body of Jesus, instead of the teachings of Islam. Throughout the film, a person's physical strength and fighting capability communicates to the audience the character's deeper, spiritual level, so then it's all reconciled. That injury, the light bulb in the neck, is at least something I have never seen before, and the uniqueness of the inflicted injury speaks volumes to those willing to listen.

Mad Dog taking someone down.

Back in February, I posted a trailer for an internationally acclaimed documentary called Position Among the Stars which follows an elderly Christian woman in Indonesia where Muslims are gaining power and wanting more:

Which ever side we are on in the battle, we are all involved, and no one can excuse themselves. Again, The Raid: Redemption is an absolutely fantastic film, incredibly well done and I suggest you watch it regardless of your religious beliefs (or lack of). I've advocated many times in the past the use of violence in art as a means of conveying deeper, internal struggles, and The Raid: Redemption certainly does that and then brings the inner-struggles back into the public, political arena for the whole world to watch and we should be watching. The extended clip below contains four different fight scenes: