The Cruel World of S. Craig Zahler
Вставка
- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- In only three films Zahler's morbid fascination with a cruel world has moved from pure genre exercises into a darkly reactionary reflection of real society; damaging his previously laser focused storytelling and character work.
It's a crime that more people haven't seen or give credit to Zahler. He's breathing a new life into the Exploitation genre.
Exploitation? Meh. Real life for many
@@moisturisedgnome1181 Take that up with whoever named the genre many decades ago 😂
Incredible and unique film-maker. Shame that in the modern age of entertainment that is seen as a detriment, not an asset.
As a leftist, I'll say whole heartedly this man's work is proof conservatives can make amazing art!
Zahler is a diamond in the rough.
Im looking forward to more of his work.
His trilogy are 3 of my favorite movies.
I see him as a modern Sam Peckinpah
I'm sure he'd take that as high praise.
Great analysis! For me Zahler reminds me a bit of Verhoeven in that regard, that none of the actual meaning (meta-meaning if you will) is directly portraied in the movies.
All the desperate characters and violence seem like a warning vision of the worst that could be become of former good intentions. Also the brutal display of violence against uninvolved and helpless characters is often a worst nightmare come true. He will only give the audience the least tiny little happy ending within all horror to not totally dismiss the movie completely, but still desperate and tragic enough that it is clearly a desaster.
Still I feel there is actually a lot of care and hope in his movies almost a hidden morality, as if by showing how brutal the world can be he creates a catalyst to avoid that.
Don’t know if that’s just subjective but I find other writers/directors with way less obvious violence more distressing. Like Cronenberg and Lynch.
I like this appraisal and I agree. There is a hidden morality, for example SPOILERS...in Dragged Across Concrete the way Johns proves himself to be a man of his word by taking care of Ridgeman's family even after Ridgeman pulls the gun on him and the disappointment he feels that it came to that. In a way I actually think it's a "happy" ending in that the most honest and morally sound character gets a positive outcome. Johns is very interesting despite getting far less screentime than the cops, and really seems to be the main protagonist despite the fewer minutes on screen. I resonated with his frustration that people's words and deeds are typically so far out of sync.
I think perhaps what some people don't like about Zahler's movies is the way they make them look at themselves. Most point to the over the top & brutal violence. But I think it's actually that so many of the characters in his movies are morally grey, but with understandable motivations and characterization. So because these motivations are understandable and so well fleshed out, some don't like to admit that they would probably react the same as (or perhaps even worse than) these morally grey characters.
Great writer and director. His films are so much more than they appear to be at first glance.
Opportunities of just transfering to a better job & better community are more rare than you realize.
In the film, Lurasetti states that he is obligated to help Ridgeman because he said he would. This, along with his relationship hang-ups, leads me to think that he has old-fashioned values, despite the fact that Denise is clear-minded and would probably not give much value one way or the other to materialism over her genuine love for him. He wants to be able to provide for her on the level of her likely elitist friends.
Really good video but one pushback which you've missed is Ridgeman says his wage as a cop forces him to live in a rough neighbourhood and he has other options but you've overlooked his wife having MS which in the land of the free will not be free to treat. He's been at the same economic bracket due to his actions which keep him stuck on the street. He's in the same situation as Henry where both are smarter than people perceive but stuck in situations they cannot escape due to poor decisions and inescapable grip of capital. Capitalism has boxed both of them into situations which for them are inescapable, its more blatant in Brawl where capital has forced the auto shop Bradley works at to fire more staff and he has no skills but to go into crime, both are about capital removing options from people and rather than blaming the system blaming external factors. He's not affording the suburbs, the suburbs were priced out for him thirty years ago.
Zahler is pretty clearly a reactionary but more interested in ambiguity which is why his endings are so good, problematic art can still be great art and Zahler does creates worlds of random nihilistic violence but with a message behind them.
Well put.
Honestly if I had to pick zahlers strongest skill from every one of his movies, it would b how he writes and depicts the character of the complicated man (Gil, John brooder, and Brett ridgeman) every other director nowadays would depict characters like that as the big bads or a slimy side characters, but zahler makes heroes outta them in every movie, brooder killed Indians and is not the least bit ashamed about it, Gil insults minorities and peddles drugs, and Brett commits theft and also insults pretty much everything around😂 but seriously tho, no other director would have the balls to show those types of men as the hero’s (or antiheroes better yet) but not zahler, it’s honestly so refreshing to see a director not afraid or unashamed to depict rich characters like that, characters which, mind u, used to be depicted on screen a lot more commonly back then. I honestly look so very forward to his future projects with much anticipation!
I'd hardly call them heroes
Simple denialism. He gives them enough traits both sympathetic and disgusting that whenever anyone turns a critical eye to the characters and themes and actions his films portray that he and anyone who sees what he is *really* doing (and agrees to maintain euphemism) can deny the political vein running through all of his films.
I like all three films. He has a great sense for cutting and charakter development.... old school. Would like to Statham in his films.
no offense to Statham but that Bradley guy would probably snap him like a twig lmao
In my opinion Dragged across concrete is his best film....the whole initially pace give to me a feeling of earnest since the moment they mention the name of the villain....the movie give a whole sense of reality that send shivers down my spine just by any possible outcomes of a "simple Stakeout" vigilance drill...but when the bank scene hit...you are more than hook....and i dont even gonna talk about what comes after...
Nice analysis. My favorite director working toady!
Zahler's dialogue is not mannered. David Mamet's dialogue is mannered. Zahler's films are refreshing antidotes to Hollywood mainstream CGI fare, & them some. I could go on at great length about this, but I shant blabber as of now. Zahler is a rare bird. His films will undergo the same kind of reconsideration & reassessment as Jean Renoir's "Rules of the Game', Robert Altman's "The Long Goodbye" & other misunderstood classics had to endure over time. The narrator of this video is imposing academic & journalistic considerations that Zahler hasn't been terribly concerned with. Artists don't think about "genre", they just do the work that they can't help being given to do.
"Artists don't think about "genre", they just do the work that they can't help being given to do."
Zahler talks about genre all the time in press junkets/interviews. lol
@@JacobCorenthose Never trust what an artist says to the press. Rainer Werner Fassbinder always milked the press, talking nonsense to them, which they always ate up.
When ever you talk to someone that has seen bone tomahawk, there is an immediate to bring up "that scene" without even saying it
Cool analysis!! I'm not sure I agree with some of criticism of Dragged here, as it didn't seem to me that the cops were "forsaken" by the civilians; I think the movie makes it pretty clear at the start that they're two corrupt assholes anyway. Which yes, looking at how the whole story pans out it's a very nihilistic worldview as you say, but I guess that's what made it so interesting to me. Also, I think those cops would totally be the kind of dudes who'd say shitty macho boomer jokes. In that context it seemed funny and appropriate to me.
Bad take, your left politics affected your analysis
Your left wing poltics really got in the way with this movie. Bad take btw the ending was due to left wing politics
I agree. Especially the 2nd civil war part. I think Europeans shouldn’t feign to understand American politics.
Lol yOuR lEfT wInG pOliTics. Quit crying snowy and go to your room Biden is your president and will be for five more years
@@YungBeezeryeah they never understand it
I show people these movies and they all come back saying it was “boring”. I stopped being friends with them afterwards.
This is great dude.
yes. thanks.
just a gorehound selling grossout scenes, he's been obsessed with that shit since he was a kid
What a petty & inadequate assessment. He is an extremely talented writer and ignoring that because you don't like the blood and guts grindhouse approach is simply dishonest.
@@andrewwaldock he's a sick little clown, that's gets off over the grossest crap he can think of, and then writes a story to justify it. Pisses me off.
@@HiredGoonage then persist in your simple feelings. I wasted my time trying to speak with you as if you even the most rudimentary intelligence.
@@HiredGoonage Have you read his books?
They are gory, sure, but they really do have interesting characters (and writing to back them up).
I'll give an example, it's not even relevant to the main plot of the book I'm going to spoil.
Mean Business On North Ganson Street, pro-tag investigates a cold case, finds some red hearing (cannot remember) and in the end is told everything.
This is the part where the intelligent writing shines, turns out all those dead girls died in a gang initiation, and the way it works is that X gang, in order to initiate you, gets you to kidnap a rival gangs prostitute, kill them, film yourself defiling the corpse while saying your name out loud.
Three reasons, A) Proves you're loyal (you're raping a dead girl, filiming it and calling you're name out... self explanatory) , B) Black mail (the footage proves you killed the prostitutes, and even if it didn't go to the cops, you're on tape as a necrophiliac rapist) C) Damages the rival gang, you are killing their hookers after all.
Some unrelated gang in Zahlers novel came up with something far more intelligent, and for far more intelligent reasons, then alot of other writers could even dream of for their protagonists, let alone their villains or even some (almost entirely) unrelated gang.
that would be "serbian film" and other edgy crap. Zahler makes believable stories with substance and not just what we see. especially in DAC, much of the dark stuff happens off screen. the implications are dark and that's what makes this film, not just its graphic content
Lololol