Summary:
After two cops are put on administrative leave, they turn to the underworld in order to make ends meet.
My Thoughts:
I’ve seen all of director S. Craig Zahler’s movies (“Bone Tomahawk” (2015), “Brawl in Cell Block 99” (2017)… he also wrote “Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich” (2018)). While I don’t think his movies are perfect, I do find them to be very entertaining. I’ve come to think of him as kind of a poor man’s Quentin Tarantino; he’s got some of the snappy dialogue down, some of the action and brutal violence, but his films tend to be a bit on the lengthy side, and his pacing could definitely use some improvement.
With a title like “Dragged Across Concrete”, I almost expected a movie akin to “The Raid: Redemption” (2011) or “John Wick” (2014): that is, a fast paced action film with plenty of crazy stunts and a high body count. This movie is not that. While I wouldn’t say that “Dragged Across Concrete” was slow for the first hour and a half, not much happens other than character development. We take time to develop characters’ friends and family members, their bosses and coworkers, and in some instances, we do get to care about them. The problem is that Zahler weighs down the film with too many characters and gives us so much information that the film starts to suffer under its own weight.
But, while it’s not perfect, there is a lot to love in this movie. For those who can appreciate increasingly intense dramas with high stakes and an eventual brutal payoff, this movie will probably entertain you quite a bit; it mostly worked for me.
“This is a bad idea.”
After Officer Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson, “Signs” (2002)) and his younger partner Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn, “Fighting With My Family” (2019)) are placed on administrative leave after using excessive force during an arrest, Brett contacts an individual from his past (Udo Kier, “Suspiria” (1977)) whom has contacts in the underworld, so that the two partners can find a way to make some money. Meanwhile, recently released felon Henry Johns (Tory Kittles, “Olympus Has Fallen” (2013)) returns home and tries to find a way to make enough money to bring his family out of poverty.
First and foremost, I loved seeing Mel Gibson back onscreen. Hate me all you want, but I think the guy is a decent actor and a great director. I know that he has made some mistakes, and those mistakes are even addressed in this film during a monologue by Don Johnson (“Django Unchained” (2012)). Johnson compares being labeled as a racist today to being branded as a communist during the McCarthy era, even making reference to how a personal phone call could be misconstrued. I’ve heard that phone call, and it was nasty. I don’t care what the context was; what he said was appalling, and there’s no way around that. At the same time, I feel like redemption is a very human, very Christian thing to believe in. If we as humans and Christians aren’t able to forgive those that have shown real changed, then how can we say we’re living in Christ’s image? Blacklisting someone for a drunken incident that happened almost a decade ago seems a little harsh to me, but if you can’t get over the hump of watching Mel in a film, simply don’t watch this movie
Mel’s character in this film was tailor-made for him. Ridgeman is tired and worn out. When he’s on the case, he gets results, but he’s a bit too rough around the edges. In a way, he feels like a relic from times past, like an action hero from the 80s stuck in today’s confused political climate (like if Martin Riggs from “Lethal Weapon” (1987) got old and cantankerous). The way that Mel plays this character is wonderful- he constantly seems like he’s at the end of his rope and he’s scrambling to make things work. His character is getting older, his wife is sick, and his daughter keeps getting beat up in the crappy neighborhood where they live. The amount of character development that goes into Mel’s character was absolutely necessary to make me feel for and understand this person.
Vince Vaughn’s character is also well developed, but I felt as if some of the time we devoted to him was spent going over things we already knew, and it starts to feel a touch redundant. Vaughn himself is great. He plays his character with a hesitance that adds intensity and depth. I want to see Vaughn in more roles like this or “Hacksaw Ridge” (2016); the guy can really act if you give him a chance. Tony Kittles, our other POV character, was probably the most subtly developed and also the most sympathetic. Even though he starts off as a criminal, and our other protagonists, cops, I found myself rooting for this man, and that’s pretty impressive. Kittles holds his own against the vets.
The way this story develops is slow and methodic. As far as pacing goes, it feels a lot like Zahler’s sophomore entry, “Brawl in Cell Block” 99, but it never matches the level of epicness that “Brawl” so effortlessly achieves. This film strains hard to achieve a level of greatness by tacking on scenes that Zahler probably believed would add emotional weight, but unfortunately, as a result it feels bloated. We spend far too much time with characters that aren’t at all important to the story, like (Spoilers follow) Jennifer Carpenter’s (“The Exorcism of Emily Rose” (2005)) character. Why do we spend fifteen minutes developing a character and her husband and her baby if we’re just going to shoot in the face, especially when those scenes really slow down the film? There are a few other scenes focusing on minor characters that last a bit too long as well.
While I did feel like some of the scenes were a bit lengthy, none of the dialog felt onanistic or superfluous like a lot of indie directors aspiring to write lines like Tarantino. Dialogue is certainly one of Zahler’s strengths; I don’t know if he’ll ever rise to the level of greatness so few touch, but he’s proven himself to be a director worth watching.
Verdict:
This isn’t Zahler’s best movie (I believe “Brawl” has his others beat by a yardstick), but it’s a very decent movie and it has a few really good scenes. I believe this film really could’ve cut twenty minutes and it would’ve been a lot better, but as it is, it’s still worth watching.
As for Zahler, he’s got my attention. Can’t wait to see what comes next.
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