THE CONDEMNED
US, 2007, 113 minutes, Colour.
Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Robert Mammone, Victoria Mussett.
Directed by Scott Wiper.
Gladiatorial contests were popular 2000 years ago and, in one form or another, have continued to be popular. Warriors, or victims, are placed in an arena to fight to the death. Only one survivor.
This theme has been taken up by a number of films, including Gladiator and modern stories with the same title. It is used in Turkey Shoot, with the 2014 version going to the arena of reality television. This is the case with this film, once again reality television, available online, aiming for millions of viewers, battle to the death. In a more upmarket film, The Hunger Games, the same theme is used but for political satirical purposes.
While the film has an international setting, it was filmed in Australia, giving opportunity for some Australian actors, especially Robert Mammone, who has a significant role as the callous young entrepreneur, with too much money, who organises the games for The Condemned. The hero of the piece is action star (rather than actor), Steve Austin, a big strong determined presence. And the villain in the fights, is ex-British footballer, Vinnie Jones. A number of international actors form a group of 10 who are to fight to the death, everything being filmed and broadcast live, from Japan, Central America, the US, including a black fighter.
All the chosen fighters have been condemned to death for killings or other atrocities. The film opens with the entrepreneur looking at the treatment of a prisoner from Belarus whom he immediately hires. When an American prisoner comes on line and he researches his background – and then alters the biography completely – he hires him. This is Steve Austin, but he has this Secret Ops background which has required him to be imprisoned in Central America for year, some of his authorities in the US not wanting him released. There are scenes of his family background in the US which gives the film a touch of the poignant. Two of the captors have a Hispanic background, a husband and wife and the film focuses somewhat on their relationship and their helping each other to survive.
This is the kind of film that has its cake and eats it as well: a television interviewer discusses the whole process with the entrepreneur, condemning it as immoral. She appears at the end of the film, commenting that immorality is part of the morality of the viewers who watch this kind of thing. During the program, the female assistant continues to object to the games, wanting them stopped, but the entrepreneur refuses. His main technical man also makes objections, saying that he has crossed the line, but ultimately he submits.
By the end, it is Steve Austin versus Vinnie Jones in some bone-cracking, harsh violent encounters. Just when Jones thinks he has won and proceeds to slaughter everybody in the production team, it emerges that Steve Austin is still around, the build-up to get another final confrontation. In the meantime, the entrepreneur tries to make his escape by helicopter.
While the contest is a fight to the death, each of the warriors has a mechanism on their leg for explosions when they are killed or when they exceed the time limit for the contest. In a kind of poetic justice, Steve Austin loosens his tag and throws it into the helicopter, destroying the entrepreneur.
And it all ends happily with Austin returning to loved ones.
Audiences who would look online at such a program will enjoy this film. There are some challenges to conscience. Otherwise, the story and the execution are probably too brutal for the average audience.
