On Action Films and Genre Tolerance

by Yayaati Joshi

[box]In his monthly column, Film Freak, Yayaati Joshi, this month, picks two films to illustrate how movies in the ‘action’ genre need not be all about gore and violence but could also be about nuanced and subtle filmmaking. He insists that people who do not tolerate ‘action’ as a genre and dismiss many good movies that broadly fall under this category, indeed miss a lot by not watching such films. Catch him discussing Bronson and Violent Cop.[/box]

Some people find violence in movies so repulsive that when asked to pick their favourite film, their mind immediately blocks off all films in the ‘action’ genre. But filmmaking is such a complex task, and has so many different variables involved that the final product, at times, can hardly be labelled as an ‘action film’, the violence notwithstanding. Now, this is only a serious film watcher’s lament, because for most people, films are fillers—distractions that provide their minds some relief from the regular humdrum of their lives.

This time around, I’d like to pick two films—broadly falling in the action genre, but great examples of how nuanced and subtle filmmaking can become—even when dealing with gruesome protagonists. I found the task of drawing parallels between these two films very entertaining—not only because the “action” is a mere incidental “prop” in both these films, but also because their protagonists are somewhat mangled in their ideologies themselves. One is on the wrong side of the law, and yet manages to win our sympathies, while the other on the right side of the law (in fact a cop) might not appeal to the previously described people who take genres at face value, not wanting to look beyond them at a film, on its own terms.

Bronson, made to depict the life of Charles Bronson, facilely known as the “most violent prisoner in Britain,” is almost aptly named: any tagline might have given away the charm that emanates from a single-worded film, that too when it is named after a notorious character. Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn, the Danish director who shot to fame later with Drive, the film is presented with many abstractions—sometimes in the linear narrative, sometimes as a soliloquy, and amidst the back and forth lapses of time, one finds Tom Hardy at his best (at the time of writing this, The Dark Knight Rises was not released, and Hardy’s much anticipated role in the film has not been taken into account). Raw, violent, maniacal, and even child-like in some shots, Hardy gives the loathsome character a streak of weakness—making him more appealing. The “most violent prisoner in Britain” has a soft side to him too. Here’s an instance. When a woman who he had been fornicating, tells him that she’s about to get married, the look on Hardy’s face shows dismay and embarrassment—an acknowledgement that he might be strong, but is not capable (“You’ve no ambition,” says the woman).

Belonging to the same subset of ideologies, but on the other side of the fence is Detective Azuma (played by Takeshi Kitano), the protagonist of the Japanese film Violent Cop, who in the very first shot of the film, chases a feisty teenager down to his room and manhandles him like a regular criminal (the teenager was troubling a handicapped person). For someone steeped in action films, this scene is important—it establishes the ruthlessness of the character without the unnecessary gore that some Indian films have lately indulged in. Very soon we find out that like Bronson, Azuma too is a misfit— because both Brosnon and Azuma do not fit completely into the definitions of an ideal prisoner and an ideal cop, respectively. Another similarity between both the characters is that people do respect them, but because of their violent ways, they keep their distance.

As for the movies, action films often have very high ratings on IMDB (and Rotten Tomatoes), but the “act” always suffers when priority is given to action. But both these films are exceptions to the rule—compare the dramatic performance on stage in Bronson and Detective Azuma’s serious gaze and terse dialogue delivery  in Violent Cop  to any high-brow award winning film, and you have a winner. Both films show protagonists in positions of power, yet trapped by circumstance; they make strong-handed, but feeble-hearted attempts to escape their own mental prisons. While motives for Bronson are not clear, Azuma obviously wants to be a man of the law—and in doing so, wants to leave no stone unturned to get the right thing done. His bane is that like Bronson, he is never clearly understood—most viewers see him as a man on an unnamed mission with uncalled-for violent activity. The threads between them are etched deeper than it seems on the surface.

Take my advice: watch both these films in succession—to free your mind of the usual action that is served to the film-watcher with guns blazing and curses echoing in chaotic situations. For some kind of films, the only publicity is through word-of-mouth. Watching these films will make you realise that Oscars never truly represent filmmaking as an art on a holistic basis—and make you understand what people who are not genre-tolerant miss—to them, an action film embodies the violence that they personally dislike—and in this strict selection of movies, gems like these get left out, and are written and spoken about only by real film freaks.

Film Freak is an exclusive monthly column by Yayaati Joshi, who, well, is a film freak. It features movie reviews and essays on various aspects of Indian and world cinema.

Yayaati Joshi is a man with simple tastes and intense beliefs. Contrary to the bling associated with the capital city, he prefers the company of close friends, an engaging book or an Alfred Hitchcock movie. His placid demeanour is often mistaken for reticence; Yayaati is a self- proclaimed loner, whose recent pursuits include his foray as a budding writer. Yayaati blogs at http://rantingsofadelusionalmind.wordpress.com

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