It is hard to convince most American audiences to watch foreign films because of the inconvenience of having to pay attention to subtitles. However, in order to see the best action film in the past decade, they are going to have to put up with them. “The Raid: Redemption” is an Indonesian martial arts film that delivers the most thrilling action set pieces since “The Matrix,” and will leave viewers out of breath and on the edge of their seats.
The set-up to the film is very basic and borderline cliché. Rama (Iko Uwais) is a young Indonesian cop who has a pregnant wife at home. He is a member of a SWAT team that plans on infiltrating a 30-story apartment building in the Jakarta slums, which has been taken over by a ruthless crime lord named Tama (Ray Sahetapy) and his gang of violent criminals. Unfortunately, every person in the building conveniently knows the ancient martial art of “Silat” and is armed with numerous machetes, knives and machine guns.
The action starts almost immediately, as the SWAT team members start to punch, kick, throw, stab and shoot their ways through the various floors of the apartment block on their way to execute Tama. Each fight uses the scenery to its full extent, with chairs, doors, tables and refrigerators being used to dispose of gang members.
The fight choreography is incredible and nearly flawless. Welsh director Gareth Evans knows how to shoot action scenes without letting the camera sit still for a minute. Evans reportedly fell in love with the martial art of Silat while filming a documentary in Indonesia, and decided to make an entire movie around it. All the actors are unknowns who are skilled in the art of Silat, and it shows. Viewers can almost feel every punch, and the actors don’t seem to hold back much as they throw people around the room. It’s not often that one watches an American film and wonders how many bones were broken while they made it, but this film definitely caused some injuries.
The violence in the film is extremely brutal. The amount of creativity that went into the various deaths is grotesquely brilliant. Very few people die from a simple gunshot or stab wound. People get impaled, thrown off buildings, broken in half, stabbed, machete-whacked an, of course, beaten to a bloodied pulp.
The soundtrack fits the film perfectly. Mike Shinoda, of the rock band Linkin Park, composed the music. The tracks give the film a constant sense of urgency and excitement. It is definitely a film soundtrack that can be listened to with or without the film.
Of course, like all good foreign films, the movie has been picked up for an American remake. This makes absolutely no sense because most of what makes this film unique is the skills of the actors. I doubt any American actors will be able to replicate the intensity of these fight scenes. Also, there isn’t much dialogue in the film anyway. At least 90 percent of the film is action, so the subtitles shouldn’t bother anyone who at least has third grade reading skills.
Before you see an Americanized, watered down version of this movie a few years from now, try to see the original while it’s still in theaters. It is bound to be the most exciting movie-watching experience you’ve had in a while, even though it does require some reading.
