RUNNING SCARED
US, 2006, 122 minutes, Colour.
Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Vera Farmiga, Chazz Palminteri, Johnny Messner, Michael Cudlitz, Alex Neuberger, Ivana Milicevic.
Directed by Wayne Kramer.
This is the kind of violent film that poses a lot of problems, not in the sense that it is mindless violence but, rather, that it is mindful violence and so much of it. And the same with the language. How to assess it well as a film and its ethical implications?
First of all, like Robert Rodriguez’s technical tour-de-force, Sin City, it is a very striking visual experience. Writer-director, Wayne Kramer, who made quite an impact with his first feature, The Cooler, set in the casinos of Las Vegas, is a storyboard artist. But, unlike Sin City, it relies on a more complex moral code. Sometimes press notes are not a reliable source of information, indulging, as they do, in hyperbole and praise, but the notes for Running Scared are useful in providing a description of what Kramer was trying to do with the look and sound of his film,
Before quoting him, it is useful to say that this is a crime thriller, set in New Jersey (although interiors were filmed in Prague!), a gangster underworld of Italian families and incoming Russian mafia, corrupt police and no holds barred brutality. The everyday language of these characters tends to gravitate towards f variations than ‘dear, oh, dear’. (Though, like that swearing comedy, The Big Lebowski, characters keep referring to the excessive language and objecting to it, making our response even more ambiguous.)
Kramer asked his director of photography to create ‘a very cool, underworld, after-hours kind of look’. He wanted its palette (and that is a relevant word because his steadicam camera swirls and swishes, zooms and retreats to make the screen look like a palette) to be gritty but very modern, desaturated. Jim Whitaker, the director of photography says it is a ‘bruised palette, a reflection of the bruised and battered state of many of the characters’.
And, so, the moral issues? This is a police investigation story where they have to go into a world that is ugly, brutal and unforgiving. This is the Lethal Weapon theory! As we criticise and bemoan the violence, we have to remember that these worlds exist, that men and women enter these worlds, sometimes at great personal and psychological risk as undercover agents, and that we can be safe and not have to go there. This should be a sobering thought for those of us whose lives tend to be more comfortable and cushioned rather than not.
The film begins and ends with full-on massacres. Most of the characters are people we would hope never to have to meet. But, there is an underlying integrity in the narrative and in some of the characters – and some who have to learn integrity before they are lost. At one point there is a reference to a character as a Charles Bronson type – and one of the difficulties is that there are some vigilante shootings which are psychologically comprehensible but legally and morally wrong.
Part of the complexity is that two of the principal characters are ten year old boys, one of them being pursued by the hero and the villains. His odyssey is seen through his eyes and includes a respectable looking couple who are, in fact, abusers. Not only is it a gangster world but one of pimps and prostitutes. This is a very discomforting world. (Kramer has dedicated his film to Sam Peckinpah, Brian de Palma and Walter Hill.)
Paul Walker has specialised in tough ambiguous-hero roles. Cameron Bright is the Russian ten year old on the run. Vera Farmiga is Walker’s wife who is drawn into the search for the boy.
There used to be a classification, Adults with Reservations. This is one of those films.
1.The impact of the drama? Style? Content?
2.The film as an American drama, New Jersey? Lives, crime, the ethical dimensions?
3.The visual impact: the Steadicam, the general camera work, Prague standing in for New Jersey, the New Jersey exteriors? The colour, desaturated? The different stylistic techniques, the zooms, retreats, the screen awash with colour? The sound style, music, noise, the shootings?
4.The title, the reference to Oleg, to Joey, to Teresa, to Nicky?
5.The structure: the immediate incident, Joey and Oleg and their hurrying to the car, the drive, the collision with the cyclist? The flashback and the events, eighteen hours, the continual build-up of tension given the time limit?
6.The tone of the film? The visual violence, the massacres, the brutality? The language (and the continued comments about the use of bad language)? Sexual scenes? Police corruption?
7.The vigilante issues, the killing of the paedophiles, issues of law, morality and justice?
8.Jimmy and Oleg, the wounds, expectations, their being chased, the crash?
9.The eighteen hours: the group and the money-laundering, the masked attack on the group, the gibes, the shouts, the Jamaicans intruding on the Italians, the tough stances, posturing? The shooting and kicking, the deaths? The use of the guns, Tommy’s gun given to Joey to get rid of? The consequences? The end of the film and audiences knowing that there were double-crossings, betrayals, more detailed information about who was who, the corrupt police, the Italian family, Joey and his being an undercover policeman, the friend doing the double-cross?
10.The Gazelles’ home life, Teresa and her being nice, her closing her eyes to what Joey did, saying that he was not a bad man even if he was sleazy? The irony that she never new that he was undercover police? His relationship with Nicky, Nicky’s age? The friendship with Oleg? Oleg and Nicky playing, hiding from their father, seeing him deposit the guns? Joey and his relationship with his wife, the sex scene? Cooking, the meals? Hearing the shots? The consequences – and Joey going into the house, searching for the bullets, using the chewing gum to get the shell, concealing the evidence, the police interrogations? His need to find Oleg, his need to placate Tommy? Taking his son? Running scared?
11.The Russian household, Oleg and his age, being at home with the Gazelles, Nicky as his best friend, the sport support, hockey? Being at Nicky’s house, watching the deposit of the guns? His not staying for the meal? His love for his mother, his antagonism towards Anzor, Anzor’s brutality, bashing the mother, not eating the food? His preoccupation with John Wayne, John Wayne dying in The Cowboys? His story about the old days in Russia, getting the video, the censored version, John Wayne not dying, his reaction to seeing John Wayne die? His drug use and the drugs out the back? His being shot? His being wounded, not dying, going to the hospital? Mila and her story, explaining her life to Teresa, her prostitution, Anzor saving her, bringing her to America, her feeling that he owned her, no matter what? Anzor going to hospital, the inquiries, his uncle and the Russian Mafia? His later confronting Oleg, trying to persuade him to say what happened to the guns, his anger? The finale, on the ice hockey rink, his being commanded to shoot Oleg, his inability to, his final words about John Wayne, his uncle killing him? The pathos of his wife, not being able to cope, setting up the explosion and her death?
12.Oleg and his running away, taking the gun, going to the park, the hideaway in the trees? The encounter with the prostitute, his saving her from the brutality of the pimp, the pimp and his anger, the later encounter, the pimp wanting to shoot Oleg? The prostitute taking him to have the hamburger? The irony of Nicky coming in, their hiding the gun in the toilet? His leaving, his hiding from pursuit, going into the van, the well-dressed and sweet couple, the ice cream? Their taking him home, the experience, the making of the video, his suspicions, stealing the phone, ringing Teresa from the bathroom, giving her the address? His escape with Teresa? The pathos of his mother’s death? Driving with Joey, Joey persuading him that he was an American, not a Russian? With Joey, the hockey rink, his being threatened? His shooting again? The escape, with Joey in the diner, the encounter with the pimp, the confrontation, audiences thinking he was wounded, Joey being wounded? The portrait of a young boy in a crisis?
13.Joey and the chase, with Nick in the park, the tree house, his anger and tension, going to the hospital, his shrewdness in disguise, but the police knowing that he was there? Nicky and his hunger, going back to the burger joint, searching for the gun in the toilets, looking through the files, taking Nicky home? The information about Manny, going to the card game, threatening the pregnant wife, the men playing, going to the garage, the fight with the garage owner, the information about the pimp? The growing desperation?
14.Tom, his place in the Italian family, his brutality, his sneer? Friendship with Joey? With Sal? Sal and Tommy and their continued pursuit of Joey? Getting the clues? Tommy shooting Sal, the revelation that he was betraying them? In the hockey rink, his brutality, his father? The deaths?
15.The Russians and the Italian godfather, their rivalry, doing deals? Their falling out, their fight, the deaths? Tommy and his being killed, his father desperate? The brutality of the hockey players and their bashing Joey? Joey’s reaction to the threats to Oleg, wanting to tell them everything? Oleg and his shooting?
16.The police, the corrupt police, Rydell? His going to the hospital, his following Joey, the confrontations, his knowing everything that happened? The confrontations, Tommy giving him the information – the lock-up and the explosion and his death?
17.The kindly prostitute? Her studies? The pimp and his dominance, brutality, Oleg and his saving her? Her taking him for the burger, trying to protect him from the police, getting him to run?
18.Manny and the card game, taking the gun? Joey’s brutality with the players? The garage owner, their fight, burnings?
19.The pimp, his wealth, brutality – and the confrontation in the diner, the irony of his getting the gun?
20.The paedophile couple, their charm, the ice cream, pleasant, suburban? Taking Oleg home? The playing of the games, the video? Oleg being smart, getting the phone, the information? Teresa’s arrival, the threats to the couple, the search? Teresa using her wits about no photos of the children? The lies of the couple, the strength of the woman, the husband weak and offering money? The pathos of seeing where they had killed the children? The suddenness of Teresa shooting them?
21.The car chase, Joey being wounded, the erratic driving? Audiences assuming he was dead? The funeral, the folding of the flag? The irony of the witness protection program – Joey and Teresa, Nicky and Oleg? Family?
22.Audiences immerged in a squalid and sordid world? The people who have to work in this world – and who survive?
