|
|
|
The
Condemned
(2007)
The Condemned (directed by Scott Wiper) stars
WWE wrestler ‘Stone
Cold’ Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, and a cast of lesser-known
actors as death row prisoners who are purchased by television
producer Ian Breckel (Robert Mammone) and forced to fight
each other to the death on a secret island. The sole survivor
gets to live and make off with “a pocketful of cash”. Breckel's
crew include miscellaneous technicians, his best friend Goldman
(Rick Hoffman), and girlfriend Julie (Victoria Mussett)--and
that's about all there is to know about them. In this film,
characterisation isn't just sketchy; it's a dot on the horizon.
Additionally, The Condemned freely borrows from better films,
and it even might have had potential in more capable hands.
Though it suffers from pretensions to relevance and social
commentary, it's just an incompetent mash-up of Battle
Royale and The Running Man.
Reminiscent of Battle Royale, the film’s condemned are at the mercy of tracking devices-cum-explosives strapped around their ankles; unlike Battle Royale, their actions are captured by video cameras installed all over the island and are then streamed live over the internet. Accompanying this half-baked premise is a slew of stereotypical and offensive characters. Jack Conrad, played by Austin, is an American roughneck of few words, which, given Austin’s limited acting skills, is a good thing. Australian player Ewan McStarley, played to over-the-top shrillness by Jones—is the game’s most sadistic (and deranged) contestant. And of course, the wacky Aussie McStarley has a sidekick: aiding him in his rampages is a (token) Japanese player, Saiga (Masa Yamaguchi). Predictably, Saiga is also a martial arts expert.
The Condemned doesn’t stop at racial stereotyping. Its treatment of women is virtually primitive, even for a genre not known for its progressive depiction of female characters. Both of the female players are young and attractive, and both are raped or almost raped by some of their male counterparts. Even worse, the attempted/actual rapes are presented like visual appetizers: they’re choice bits of titillation sprinkled right through the film to lead up to the ultimate showdown.
In fact, each violent scene is more sadistic and cruel than the last; and yet I find it impossible to sympathise with the characters. Conrad isn’t the good guy; he’s the morally confused guy. All of the players, including Conrad, are murderers (unlike the protagonist in The Running Man, who is sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit); but Conrad is the only player about whom we know anything, thanks to a sub-plot about his estranged girlfriend. Perhaps the unsympathetic nature of these characters is inherent to the story. Disregarding whether or not you think that all human lives are equal, the players in The Condemned are vicious criminals with no common history. How they kill each other is hardly as dramatically affecting as how the classmates and friends in Battle Royale become monsters to survive the game.
Furthermore, not one of the characters in The Condemned seem real. As an example, one particularly brutal rape—it occurs off-screen, although the audio track and the reactions of other characters are suggestive enough—suddenly triggers remorse or guilt in Julie and Goldman. (How do you know when movie characters are experiencing tumultuous and upsetting emotions? They vomit.) They were fully aware of the project's implications, yet am I to believe that they had no inkling that human hunting might be terrible and, as Goldman says, “hard to watch” until shown the images? Somehow, that might be the point—that for some, perhaps even reality is not real until it’s broadcast on TV or the internet.
The execution reality show in The Running Man and the militarised game of Battle Royale—both set in futuristic dystopias—are memorable examples of the human hunting sub-genre. The same cannot be said of The Condemned, which is at best as banal as an episode of Survivor. At its worst, it criticises the very behaviour in which it makes the audience complicit. Near the end of the film, a television journalist accuses those who watch violence for entertainment, such as the movie’s internet video subscribers and by extension, the moviegoer, of being “the ones who are truly condemned”. Had the film not spent the preceding ninety minutes glorifying the very thing it tries to denounce, it might have been just stupid and offensive. Instead, it's all that and one of the most hypocritical films I've ever seen.
-Irene
Tanner-Yuen
|
|
|
|
All contents ©
2004-2009 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
|
|
 |
Director:
Scott
Wiper
Writer: Scott Wiper, Rob Hedden, Andy Hedden
Starring: Steve
Austin, Vinnie Jones, Rick Hoffman, Robert Mammone, Tory Mussett
Distributor: Lions
Gate Films
Runtime: 113
min
Rating: R
Release Date: April
27, 2007
|
|
 |
|
