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‘Harsh Times’
By Cole Smithey
Movie Trailer
Jim Davis (Christian Bale) is
a tweaked-out discharged Army
Ranger who returns from the Gulf
War to his childhood South Central
neighborhood in Los Angeles to
stir up trouble with his best
friend Mike (Freddy Rodriguez)
in this devastating drama by writer/director
David Ayer (writer on “Training
Day”). Jim’s plans to marry his
Mexican peasant girlfriend Marta
(Tammy Trull) and bring her across
the border are eclipsed by his
desire to join the LAPD. Fate
throws Jim a curveball, after
he’s turned down to be a cop,
in the form of a Homeland Security
job offer to work in Colombia
as an anti-drug enforcer, even
as Bale’s drugged-out character
descends into a volatile madness
that leaves a swath of destruction
in its wake. “Harsh Times” is
a modern and raw reflection of
the disastrous effects of war
on the soldiers that survive them
and the potential danger they
pose.
Since he was discovered by Steven
Spielberg to play the young lead
in “Empire of the Sun” (1987)
Christian Bale’s already broad
acting range has expanded to a
place that few actors achieve.
He is a commanding force of nature
carrying the full moral weight
of his tormented characters like
an isolated atom full of speeding
electrons in anticipation of being
split into a mushroom cloud. As
a movie star, Bale is such a man
of the world that he has no peer.
He could just as easily play James
Bond as he could the next President
of the United States, Mexico or
Russia.
The Gulf War robbed Jim Davis
of his humanity, but he still
feels phantom traces of his former
innocence that evaporate whenever
he attempts to communicate with
people who knew him before the
war. He has a gag reflex toward
his innate personal nature. Jim’s
friend Mike is attempting to marry
above his social class with his
intelligent and attractive attorney
girlfriend Sylvia (Eva Longoria)
but when Jim comes crashing back
into Mike’s life Sylvia is painted
as an obstacle blocking all aspects
of liberty, loyalty and brotherhood.
Jim derails Mike from his promised
mission of finding a job, and
orchestrates phony job opportunities
through fabricated phone messages
designed to throw Sylvia off of
their trail of drugging and drinking.
You could make a case that “Harsh
Times” is essentially the same
story as “Training Day,” but there’s
far less Hollywood fantasy here.
Both are powerful morality plays
that share more than a few elements
in common with Abel Ferrara’s
“Bad Lieutenant” and Martin Scorsese’s
“Taxi Driver.” The difference
is that “Harsh Times” is a Bush
era story that applies specifically
to the ways that both Bush administrations
repurpose the human wreckage that
they created.
After failing a urine test while
applying for a Homeland Security
job, Jim wins over his put-off
would-be employers by admitting
that he smoked some pot in a fit
of rebellious frustration. Of
course, Jim has been doing a good
deal more than just smoking pot
in an effort to block out the
post-war trauma that increasingly
turns his charismatic personality
toward reckless violent acts.
A stomach-churning double climax
ratchets up the third act ending
to a nearly unbearable level of
latent and realized brutality.
Like the final act of “Taxi Driver,”
it is a shocking series of events
that releases the drama’s built-up
tension like a brain surgeon cutting
into a constricted skull. It is
necessarily bloody but, more importantly,
it allows the audience to breathe
again. We are left to wonder what
future shocks await us outside
of the cinema. CV
‘Saw III’
Jesse Hassenger
Movie Trailer
The “Saw” series, like most horror
franchises, uses a lot of constants
in its formula — even when those
constants don’t seem particularly
vital to the quality of the series.
“Saw III,” for example, matches
its predecessors in the dubious
categories of histrionic yelling,
equally histrionic smash-editing
(often incorporating a generous
helping of re-used footage, from
the previous films or even from
earlier in this one), and plot
twists that depend on those histrionics
to drown out implausibility.
But “Saw III” does actually
have a plot to twist, which, like
its predecessors, sets it apart
from most slasher films. When
we last left Jigsaw (Tobin Bell,
the only cast member who doesn’t
have to scream half his dialogue),
he was dying, and taking young
Amanda (Shawnee Smith) under his
wing to continue his work. “Saw
III” picks up with Jigsaw in even
worse shape, his body breaking
down while his moralizing creepiness
remains more or less intact. Amanda
brings in an unhappy doctor (Bahar
Soomekh) to keep Jigsaw alive
long enough to see one of his
most elaborate games played all
the way through.
The subject of this game is
Jeff (Angus Macfadyen), who is
tortured not by, say, a series
of chains hooked into his flesh
that must be ripped out to avoid
a ticking time bomb (that’s reserved
for a side character), but by
the memory of his young son, killed
by a drunk driver, and his desire
for vengeance. Jeff is sent through
one of Jigsaw’s by-now-patented
house of horrors (he must make
all of his torture seed money
in real estate) for twisted lessons
in, um, well, the screenplay goes
with “forgiveness.” I’d probably
say “anatomy” or possibly “physics.”
Not all of the story makes sense,
but the plain fact that this horror
movie cuts between two stories,
rather than following the standard
explore/ get stalked/ get killed
model (with optional “capture/
torture,” and even more optional
“rescue,” add-ons), is sort of
gratifying. Bell may be given
a similar assignment each time
around — whisper, don’t ever surrender
control, and act a little smug
about it — but to the filmmakers’
credit, his character’s story
does have a progression of sorts
from film to film. To Bell’s credit,
he gives evil an enjoyably calm,
human façade. A couple
of brief, wordless flashbacks
in “Saw III” seem to hint at further
backstory, presumably to be explored
in “Saws 4” through “6.” This
is impressive for a slasher villain;
some other franchises don’t bother
to have the same actor play the
bad guy more than once or twice
in a row.
Indeed, the “Saw” films pay
an inordinate amount of attention
to continuity, such that the gaping
plot holes from the first “Saw”
are still being plugged in number
three. It’s almost as if the filmmakers
know they’re half-assing it, and
what they can’t fix in post is
saved for future sequels. These
movies are slapped together with
love.
The exception is Jigsaw’s games,
of course, which are clearly given
far more thought than the characters
and story put together. They’re
perverse, but also more inventive
by now than figuring out ways
for a child’s ghost to pop out
and screech at people. The “Saw”
series is, by this point, pretty
far removed from being scary,
but its self-guided torture sessions
at least promote visceral shudders.
“Saw III” may be more of the same,
but its can-do spirit — yes, we
can make three movies in three
years, each making more money
than the last — is engagingly
American. CV
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