If you’re looking for something ‘off the beaten path’, S. Craig Zahler’s latest film Dragged Across Concrete is something worth wasting your time on.
Zahler, a jack of all trades as it were with being a novelist, screenwriter, musician, and now film director, helmed his first feature in 2015 titled Bone Tomahawk and has now already within four years followed up with two films. As the latest of his endeavours, Dragged Across Concrete is a film that not only hides under the radar, but breaks down barriers, ignores the current climate of traditional casting, and on a more interesting note regarding the industries current predicaments, completely evades political undertones and moral messages alike all together.
This latest picture stars veteran Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, as well as familiar faces like the esteemed and renown martial artist Michael Jai White, and seasoned stage and film actor Tory Kittles.
Not traditional Hollywood
The actors under the care and direction of Zahler, all collaborate to form a production that is not traditional of Hollywood, or seemingly, most films for that part. The plot is fairly basic and not unheard of, yet the delivery of said incidents is what sets the film apart from the norm.
With technically two separate plots taking place, this movie requires your attention, and indeed it demands your patience. That aside, you won’t see any spoilers in this but perhaps just some details to peak your interest ever so slightly.
Gibson and Vaughn play partner police offers ‘Brett Ridgeman’ and ‘Anthony Lurasetti’. They’ve just received suspension due to misconduct regarding their, shall we say, overzealous behaviour in apprehending their perp. Without giving too much away it can be implicated via this scene (and later scenes) that there is a hint of racism living within the older of the two officers, both of whom we can almost characterize as “anti-heroes”. Later conversations with said elder officer and his wife involving their prejudices also allude to racial themes and how it shapes his current behaviour.
Vaughn’s character on the other hand seems to softly tolerate such things (or possibly ignore it..) in maintaining his professional relationship with his partner in spite of having an African American girlfriend, she of whom he hopes to wed as soon as possible.
Though the film seems to give more time in the development of our two officers, Tory Kittle’s interpretation of ‘Henry Johns’ cannot be ignored.
The actor turns in a solid performance about a man returned from prison, only to potentially put himself in a position just to go right back. With no money, and his mother living out her own sins just to make rent in order to provide for Henry’s crippled brother, Kittles teams up with Michael Jai White’s character ‘Biscuit’, an estranged childhood friend, in order to pull off a job that can make them rich and solve all of their current problems.
Again, plots that aren’t necessarily unheard of.
However, Zahler’s approach of executing two stories that will inevitably collide takes a much different path than we’re used to seeing on the big screen. Though there is definitely some back in forth, switching from one to the next, it’s not done so in predictable fashion. This is to Zahler’s credit, as the typical audience goer seems to take issue with “knowing what is going to happen next”.
It can be asserted without question, this is not a concern to have going in. All one must do, is be prepared to wait.
A build – not fast-paced, but not boring
Zahler’s films, and particularly this one, are not fast paced nor are they boring. Dragged Across Concrete is a build. It takes its time. It assures the audience that as long as you’re paying attention, the chance for a ‘plot hole’ is essentially a billion to one in odds. Everything is in its proper place, and one thing cannot be taken out, or it would only take away.
S. Craig Zahler is certainly on a path to solidifying his own style, with close but not so obvious parallels to Quentin Tarantino. The dialogue is sharp but has its own dryness, and his scenes including violence will surely remind you of films made by Quentin. Similar, yet not the same. His casting is also interesting, as he seems to have no regard for public opinion in who he decides to put in his films which, when examining things unbiasedly, is something to be admired.
Lead by a man who does things his own way, and with whomever he chooses to do with it, take some time out of your day and catch Dragged Across Concrete. If your interest is in characters, THEIR stories, THEIR development, then this film is for you.
Enjoy.
