The author/dork
Posted on 09/09/2018 2:05:49 PM PDT by Drew68
VENICE, Italy—Two years ago, the Venice Film Festival hosted the world premiere of Hacksaw Ridge, a World War II drama directed by Mel Gibson. The film marked Gibson’s first turn behind the camera in a decade, since he’d drunkenly slurred “the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” pleaded guilty to battering his then-partner Oksana Grigorieva, and was caught on audio saying she was “asking” to be “raped by a pack of n****rs.” Despite never demonstrating much in the way of genuine contrition, he was treated to a prolonged standing ovation on the Lido—the opening salvo of a “comeback tour” replete with rave reviews, a $175 million box office gross, and six Academy Award nominations. This f**k you attitude, coupled with a rich history of racism, misogyny and homophobia, has elevated Gibson to folk-hero status among the far-right. He is their Oprah.
And they’re going to be very happy with his new film.
Making its world premiere in Venice, Dragged Across Concrete’s premise is as follows: a pair of detectives, Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) are caught on tape applying excessive force to a Hispanic prisoner in handcuffs, in the form of Ridgeman grinding his boot into the man’s neck until it emits a cracking sound. (During the bust, Ridgeman and Lurasetti also mock a scared, naked Latina suspect, claiming they can’t understand what she’s saying due to her accent. Both scenes are played for laughs.) With the tape destined to go viral, Ridgeman and Lurasetti are suspended for six weeks without pay, though the chief of police (Don Johnson) is sympathetic to their plight, delivering a rambling sermon about how being branded a “racist” today is akin to getting labeled a “communist” in the 1950s—or, to quote the president, this is a WITCH HUNT! and these two violent cops are the real victims.
Though a six-week suspension seems like a mild punishment, especially considering this is the third time Ridgeman’s been busted for using excessive force, he is in desperate need of cash. You see, his wife Melanie (Laurie Holden) has MS and his daughter is bullied by black kids on her four-block trek to school. Worried that those same black kids will rape their daughter once she matures, they vow to move to a better neighborhood (presumably one with less black people). “I never thought I was a racist until living in this area,” Melanie says, her husband nodding in agreement. So Ridgeman cooks up a plan to rob an out-of-town crook, and ropes in Lurasetti with a Forgotten Man spiel: “I don’t politick and I don’t change with the times,” he explains, lamenting how that matters more in today’s world than “good, honest work.”
Things don’t go as planned, of course.
Dragged Across Concrete is written and directed by S. Craig Zahler, whose previous film, Brawl in Cell Block 99, also bowed in Venice. Unlike Brawl, a slick work of poetic brutality about a hard-on-his-luck pugilist (Vaughn) who’s forced to smash in skulls to save his pregnant wife, Zahler’s latest is a cold-blooded saga that revels in the violence it inflicts on women and minorities, in particular. Its two most sadistic scenes consist of a newly-minted mom whose fingers and face are shredded off with a machine gun, and a black man (Michael Jai White’s Biscuit) who is graphically disemboweled in order to retrieve a swallowed key. After removing his heart and intestines, a white henchman warns another not to puncture his liver because “it stinks… black guys especially.”
There’s a lot more objectionable nonsense in this film, from Gibson and Vaughn’s characters prattling on about how gender lines have been erased, to a black character (Tory Kittles’ Henry Johns) whose grammar is constantly corrected by the white men around him, to a black woman who rails against her “cock-sucking faggot” of a husband for leaving her for another man. Defenders of Dragged will argue that its general sense of nihilism—or its ending—will justify such hate. They’ll be wrong. This is one ugly film. And at 158 minutes, with a script that shoehorns words like “assuage” and “lament” into its tough-guy banter, it’s a chore to get through.
“I’m not chasing the biggest audience and I’m comfortable with losing some of them. There are obviously remarks that are throwaway jokes and there are lines that aren’t politically correct,” offered Zahler at a press conference for the film. “There are lines that will get people to hate me, and that is your right to do so.”
I wouldn't be surprised if the studios are dragging their feet on releasing it, afraid that a "vile, racist, right-wing" hit film might be exactly what happens
There could be no higher endorsement from the racial-entrepreneurial class!
I know Zahler. He’s an awesome guy. Dont want to get into details on FR or he’ll be outed..
He’s been on Left’s crosshairs since “The Passion”.
Seems to me Gibson is just relating what leftists say is actual reality these days. Why would they complain about that?
Get the Gringo was pretty good, although under-appreciated at the box office. I hope this does better, box office-wise.
I’m in.
I’d be glad to watch it on PPV.
Hmm...not exactly a review out of a Stanley Kauffmann/Andrew Sarris/Janet Maslin...
Not that I’ll be going anyway.
She ought not talk about Q-Anon like that!
"Get The Gringo" wasn't theatrically-released in the U.S. It came out when Gibson was in the doghouse and went straight to video-on-demand.
Doesn’t sound interesting...
The author/dork
Mel Gibson didn’t batter anyone.
“He is their Oprah.” Absurd. They really don’t know anything about us.
Vince Vaughn is in Langers Deli almost as much as me
Based on the descriptions in the article I don’t understand this movie and certainly won’t pay to see it. WTH?
Sounds like “Fargo,” where no one is a good guy, except for maybe one chick cop. There might be some good one-liners, though.
If the article is accurate, it looks like a leftist dream propaganda film, so I’m a little stumped, here. Why would I want to see a movie that portrays cops as THAT evil, and more importantly, why would Gibson MAKE a movie showing that? I’m guessing that either the author of this piece, is leaving out a huge chunk of relevant material, here, or Gibson’s trying to suck up to Hollywood; I’m inclined to go with the former.
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