Corridors of Disparity in Cinema:-Parable of Our Times?

In 2011, The Raid: Redemption an Indonesian Film was released by a Welsh Film Maker Gareth Evans living in Jakarta. The film never claims to have any noble moral ambition in mind; It is a fast-paced action film with State-of-the-Art Martial Art Action Sequences, Blood, Gore, Hot-Headed criminals, Over-Zealous Cops, casual brutality, and extreme violence. All of it is done with such finesse the like the Sistine-Chapel standard of what a Martial Arts movie should look like. What it never intends to inspire or rouse ironically turns attention to a message which resonates uncomfortably yet powerfully. This is in the crowded and congested streets of Jakarta where violent yet calculating Crime Lords preside over rusty apartment Buildings holding their sway amongst the citizenry through either force, collusion, or sheer power of charisma (the latter two being more common). This in turn is enabled by a broken judicial and political system. This is not new in many ways. It is a reality in many developing countries, even normal democracies where the social and administrative breakdown is an everyday reality, inequality is rife and navigating life through the clustered challenges of crime, corruption, and social instability is a daily challenge.

All this reflected not through the medium of a poignant and moving tale of a struggling hero trying to succeed and make it big in an imperfect society but a police officer and his 20 companions who are subjected to a torturous 12- hour ordeal trapped in a 30 floor dilapidated building with criminals keen on massacring them. The movie begins with Rama (protagonist) doing his prayers and bidding farewell to his pregnant wife before heading for a targeted operation in a 30 Floor Building controlled by Crime-Lord Tama. From the beginning, the trap seems to be already set with Rama and his companions heading straight into a slaughterhouse. Within a sliver of a moment Tama cuts off the lights seals the building and prevents entry or exit for anyone within the building. What ensues is a slew of bullets, extraordinarily choreographed Martial Arts Scenes with Rama battling some of the most aggressive henchmen to probably ever be seen on live television all while seeing almost his entire crew slaughtered right in front of his eyes.

What probably is brought out more unintentionally than intentionally is the kind of environment that Rama battles in and where most of the action takes place. A part of the city of Jakarta where inequality, political neglect, and social breakdown have spawned a breeding ground for crime and violence. Innocent or not almost everyone is trapped in the storm. The dilapidated building where Rama and his companions fight the criminals becomes a metaphor for the claustrophobic circumstances that most citizens live in cities around the developing world marked by fear, anger, helplessness, and a lack of opportunity. In the very same building owned by the Underworld Criminal Tama and leased out to other criminals a Middle-Aged man who has little to do with the strife struggles to take care of his wife and selflessly tries to take care of the wounded policemen. Most of Tama’s henchmen are young and unemployed and several are recruited below legal age. Life becomes cheap in an environment where there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by turning to crime. Crime is and always will be not just an act but also an institution. It is revealed that the trap set in the building was pre-meditated and was struck as a result of a deal between the Tama and the Chief Superintendent of the Elite Indonesian Police force. Dialogues become revealing when a henchman says “You don’t kill Cops, you bribe them”. The fraternity of crime becomes inseparably intertwined with the complicity of State Institutions.

Many times cinema is often unique in its setting out to deliver what its audience wants whilst conveying a subliminal message. This is one of the reasons why many all-time classics when seen from hindsight evoke fascination as well as pride. From Wild Western Movies to more Serious Dramas behind the content that the movie intends to deliver is a deeper and more layered context where complex realities, unresolved struggles, and social context weave themselves into the narrative in ways that the audience enjoys and can relate to. In The Raid: Redemption a straightforward plot becomes a more complex foray into the social realities of an unequal country in which good and bad become entwined with the protagonist’s struggle against his adversaries. A social reality comes alive viscerally through the frenzied battle of a Policeman and his companions in a dangerous and violent environment where life and death are at stake. What sets out to be an unapologetic action movie with an initial Low-budget just shy of a million dollars promising to deliver nothing but the finest Martial Arts Moves, in turn, becomes provides a provocative and unbridled insight into the social realities of 21st Century Indonesia which in many ways can also be applied to many other developing countries in the Asia-Pacific.