'The Raid' Raids - Why People Keep Copying Evans
Original posters, 2011 and 2014.
Intro
What makes a movie a Raid child? I ask this, because ever since The Raid and The Raid 2 were released in 2011 and 2014, there's been a spate of action films borrowing its elements, most of them OVERTLY, and getting away with it, and even starring the same actors and talent. Why? How? For what reason? These are all questions I'm going to answer momentarily, as well as what makes the films so worth aping.
To make it explicit: what makes a movie a Raid child? Here are the unique criteria:
- Being set in South/Southeast Asia
- Having lots of bloody violence with guns and knives IN ADDITION to martial arts
- Being set in a metropolis (anything from a city to the outskirts of a city)
- Being set in a world where CRIMINALS are the ones in charge, period, creating a very bleak tone
- Using silat - the Indonesian martial art - to any degree
- Having leading man/martial artist Iko Uwais as a hero
- Having camerawork that could best be described as “making the camera a participant”
- Any straight-up steals of moments from The Raid films
- Having any other - lead - actors from the Raid films
There are eight films (and one show) off the top of my head that qualify for these, being:
Dr. Strange (a little)
Any movie must meet at least four of these criteria in order to qualify as Raid-influenced. We can also qualify some films as “Heavy Raid-influenced” (4 points or more) and “Light Raid-influenced” (anything lower than 4, the combination more likely a coincidence combined with reference than an outright homage).
Dr. Strange sparring in his titular film; the stances likely a coincidence, but not dissimilar to The Raid's.
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Body
Thus, in descending order of Raidiness, we get:
- Headshot and The Night Comes For Us tied for first place, meeting all criteria except camerawork. 7/8 points.
- Wu Assassins, oddly, in second place, meeting all criteria except camerawork and an East Asia setting. 6/8 points.
- Extraction, at a soft three, meeting five criteria, only missing Raid actors, Iko, and silat, so far as I know. 5/8 points.
- Triple Threat at four, with the city, silat, Iko, criminality, and a BIT of violence, netting it 4.5
- Jailbreak is probably the best pure homage to Raid, since it's the exact same EVERYTHING except in a Cambodian prison. It has everything except Raid actors, but interestingly manages to strike an original tone by significantly dialing down half (the criminality, martial arts, violence, and city) of the elements. It thus gets two pure points (East Asia, camerawork) and four half points, netting a score of 4 points.
- John Wick 3 at six, with Raid actors and silat, criminality, and violence, although the latter two take a decidedly less obvious place, netting it a 3 total points.
- The Gate at seven, having a Raid actor and silat, netting it 2 points.
- And then Dr. Strange in 8, featuring only a brief pose I’ve seen in the Raid that seems like a silat stance, (although I could be wrong) and being set in a metropolis in an Asian/Asian-inspired setting. So although these three are very weak, I’m netting it a LIGHT 1 point total. This is mostly here for variety
A show is likely to receive half points because the criterium in question was probably something thought of independently, not directly inspired by Raid. John Wick, for example, featured violence and criminality well before the big Raid elements came in, so it’s likely not the inspiration for those elements.
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Analysis
Iko Uwais in Headshot (2016)
The point of deducing all this? Well, I think it’s interesting to see what has been copied, how, why, and honestly, to see why most of them don’t hit the sweet spot of the original. A lot of these have had some of The Raid’s talent working on them, but none of them seem to hit right. I’m willing to admit that the Raid films aren’t actually perfect; there’s flaws in the pacing and the story, and the bleakness can seem really pointless in the end. But they still seem on another level compared to the spin-offs, and it’s profitable to think out why.
John Wick 3 features The Raids' villains
as two hard-to-beat henchmen.
When I think about it pure and simple, The Raid seems like poetry compared to the others. There’s an ability to create empathy, tell stories via sequencing, and sheer energy in the camerawork and athleticism that none of its children ever match. It's a fact that most martial arts films steal moves from the good ones, but rarely do they try to steal the story BEHIND the action, and so they end up falling short. The Raid notably establishes deep empathy for its lead in the first few minutes, so we’re hooked for the rest of the film - Iko is seen training, praying, and reassuring his pregnant wife that he’ll be safe today while he’s at work as a cop (spoilers - he won't). Contrast this with Extraction, Headshot, and Triple Threat, which don’t establish empathy for the lead for a good fifteen minutes or so. Extraction's hero mentions that he lost his son FIFTY minutes in, when that should’ve been in the first ten minutes! John Wick and The Night Comes For Us are good at this in contrast, starting with a character-centric scene to get us on their side.
Moving on; sequencing. The Raid’s director describes one sequence — which is wordless — as this:
A) The undercover cop hero thinking a hit is coming for him in prison, to;
B) A riot breaking out, to;
C) Him realizing the hit ISN’T coming for him, but for his espionage target, so he’ll now have to;
D) Save his target or fail his mission and be stuck in jail away from his wife and baby
The moment of realization
This sequence isn’t perfect — there’s visibility issues that could REALLY be solved with some better costuming or hairstyling — but it holds together and gives the scene urgency. It’s been said that action auteur Quentin Tarantino makes suspense by giving characters in a scene a common point of interest that's then mulled over for maximum suspense - "Does the Nazi know she's Jewish?" is a good example. It creates tension and extends the scene. Lots - of auteurs - do this. Compare that, in contrast, to Extraction’s main stand-out scene; a TWELVE-minute apparent long take where Chris Hemsworth flees with his target from a pursuer, drives through town, fights his way through a building of mooks, and beats his pursuer in a fight. There’s no real change of mindset for the character - no realization or change of mind, no character beats being thrown out; just a lot of moves. We aren’t immersed in his thinking beyond “run, don’t die”, and there’s no realization or change in his thinking, so the emotional stakes never change. Nor is the oner really part of a main theme, the way oners are - in other films. Extraction’s one of the better films on here, but even it fails to reach the complexity of the first, or even its contemporary Atomic Blonde, which features a similarly long fight scene protecting a target through a building, but which manages to have character moments galore and real urgency for the sake of the target, 'cause he’s a supporting character not a main one. Half the films on this list don’t even bear mentioning in this regard, since they do it so poorly.
This leads into the third aspect - camerawork and athleticism. After watching Extraction, I’m truly convinced the fighting skill and the camerawork of the fight scenes matters a great deal; because Extraction had GOOD talent behind both, but didn’t manage to match it and thus fell behind slightly. The Raid is famous for using a bivvy bag of camera tricks to enhance its action; quick turns, axis tilts, under-cranking, frame-dropping. This sort of thing is referred to as "Cam Chi" by enthusiasts, and only Jailbreak manages to replicate it in any meaningful way.
The Raid 2's climactic duel - Iko Uwais on the left
The Raid is also famous for employing national champions in its martial art for the heroes/villains. A LOT of these other films have tried to replicate this, usually by hiring the same actors and letting ‘em loose, but most of them lack the same effect; The Night Comes For Us, Wu Assassins, Headshot, AND Triple Threat all have the championship fighter/leading man Iko Uwais, But all of them fall flat; they lack the talented partners for him AND the inspiring camerawork the originals used to great effect. Jailbreak - which was notably a Cambodian film, not an Indonesian or American one - is the only spinoff to fully replicate the style, and that notably elevates its quality among most of these. The Raid films LOVE their style, since the director uses it in everything else he's made, but it’s clear most films either don't match that or are worried about being seen as TOO much like their inspiration, so they tone it down, to their detriment.
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Conclusion
But then all of THIS makes you wonder what the point is, anyway, since the films are already made and there’s no point to trying to remake them.
Well, this ties into my first assertion, which is that when it comes down to it, the Raid films aren’t that great - the fight scenes in The Raid are technical and the characters notable, but the products as a whole are quite messy. But martial arts fans hold them up as masterpieces ‘cause we love them. But as true pieces of drama that are ALSO fight films show, true fight films come from good character drama AND a good, coherent theme. And the Raids definitely have SOME coherent theme, but it isn’t a good one; all it boils down to is, “sometimes everyone is trying to kill you and all you can do is kill everyone you come across to come out of it the winner and the good guy, instead of just another victim.” Contrast that with a film like Ip Man 2 (an unfairly high standard, to be honest), which could be summarized as a layered depiction of international prejudice and tradition and how we must learn to respect each other. Coherent, positive, and applicable to one's life.
It would be great if we could get a film that had the good qualities of The Raid combined with a good drama like Ip Man, but so far, we’ve imitated tons of its aspects without REALLY capturing the magic even of the Raids, not even thinking of any improvement on it. And that’s why I wrote this article; so that someone out there will make a film LIKE the Raids, but not the Raids, and with good themes, and hopefully, create an even better story than they. Adventure is out there!
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I've dropped a TON of links and made a LOT of assertions; there's even more stuff I didn't get into that I'd like to, but it'll have to wait for now. Thanks for reading. Comment, like, recommend, and if you think I'm wrong let's fight it out in the comments ;)
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