![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastI want to be clear with this one. These Cases that I make aren't all efforts to get rid of the original. Early on in this series, I did a Case for re-remaking The Day The Earth Stood Still and, if at all possible, I will not allow that original to go away. Sometimes there are problems with the original that should be addressed in retelling. Sometimes, it's simply the case that there's more to be done with the idea.
In this case, it's both.
I want the original franchize to remain. All the movies are enjoyable. Yes, I even want to hold onto "Beyond Thunderdome", even with its kind of mess.
That said, the concept as a whole does have its issues and does have some untapped potential.
For those who haven't seen the original movie, Mad Max is the story of a young cop in a small town. This is a small town on the brink of destruction due to an invading motorcycle gang. Max doesn't initially go mad, but does feel his job and ranking officers encouraging anger in him, encouraging him to become someone he doesn't want to be. So, he takes a vacation with his wife and child. He goes the opposite of mad as he rests, recuperates, chats with his wife, plays with his son.
And, then said motorcycle gang comes and kills his wife and child. They also blow up his partner on the beat. The rest of the movie is Max going mad and taking revenge upon the biker-gang.
It's a good movie, and more thoughtful than you think. What the story eventually became with sequels, a police officer attempting to keep law and sanity as society is colapsing, has some great potential. But, there is a mistake that starts there and follows into the sequels.
Mad Max shares this mistake with other movies. Dirty Harry was about a grizzled detective using "tough" tactics in order to kill the bad guys. Predator 2 foresaw a future wherein, in response to out of control crime, the police escalated to military equipment and tactics, fighting a literal war on the streets. There's an entire "Death Wish" movie series all about a particular response to criminals, based around the first word in that title.
The idea of crime being so out of control that it merits an escalation beyond all constitutional sense is a base assumption of so many movies. And yet, we're seeing that escalation today... without the out-of-control crime.
In Fergusun, for instance, peaceful protestors faced police with military weapons, including guns mounted on turrets atop humvees. There's footage of an officer, as his vehicle drives around a crowd of protestors, aiming the weapon at the, I will repeat, peaceful protestors.
That's just a random example off the top of my head.
We are experiencing the escalation to military tactics and war-mentality even though crime is at historic lows. Crime is down, but people feel like it's up. They feel like it's up for a number of reasons. They're used to feeling like crime is up. The rhetoric of the political party and political temperament that best fits themselves assumes that crime is up. There's a desire to be strong and an understanding of strength that depends upon a context of war, both home and abroad.
People feel like crime is up so that they can justify their fears and so they can be afraid in the first place.
And this leads us to the first movie in the new franchize.
Our main character (who we'll call Max, for now, though this doesn't need to be a full on remake) is a young cop who's just moved into a small town. It's not a suburb, it's a legitimate small town with its own struggling economy. One of the first things that Max goes through in his new precinct is a tour of the facilities and equipment.
Those facilities include a fortified bunker, as well as the mobile pieces to create bullet-proof barricades. There are military grade Humvee, as they're purchased directly from the military. There are military armaments meant to "put down" an entire army.
Max won't question any of this. When they say that this is all just what it takes to deal with the threats on the streets, he's already on board.
During this tour, Max will pass a couple TVs. In the break room, the TV will show somebody talking about how they, if elected, will crack down on all this crime. Inside the building, amidst the desks, someone will have a radio on and someone will respond to the question of "is there really an epidemic?" with "just look on the streets. And, finally, back to the break room where, just before the TV is turned off, the news will be on another topic. One reporter will ask an expert, "Just how much oil do we have left?"
Max will give a call home, where we'll verify that he has a wife and small child who are, themselves, settling into the neighborhood.
Max will have his first patrol with his partner. They'll pull over someone for speeding and have a tense interaction even with just a warning. They'll respond to a domestic disturbance. No violence will be necessary, but the high probability of there having been domestic violence will set a tone for Max's first day.
Enter the biker gang. Biker gangs have a reputation, but they're a mixed bag. There are the criminals, yes. There are also the general enthusiasts and there are even the groups who perform acts of public service, such as standing guard for children testifying in matters of abuse.
This gang is new in town, so it doesn't have any reputation at all, except for the assumptions of the locals and the local police. To remind, the local police are very ready to deal with grave threats on the streets.
The first interaction between the police and the gang will be hostile, but not violent. Max's partner will ask to search the bikes. Someone, either the gang's leader or the gang's spokesman, has only one response to that. "Warrant? No warrant, no search." It's clear that they have no love of the police. From the perspective of Max and partner, they don't have any respect either.
At the end of the day Max will go home to wife and child and try to relax, try not to bring work home with him. He'll feed his child and tell a bed-time story. He'll look over the smallish apartment in the sizeable apartment building and consider his choice to move to this small town. It seemed like the safe thing to do. But, he swears he saw someone walk in who was in that motorcycle gang he dealt with earlier that same day.
The next day we will have our two inciting incidents.
The first will be the answer to that question that was asked just before the television was turned off. The answer is, due to some unforeseen circumstance (crucial pipe-line rupture, explosion at key refineries, simply not having the accurate numbers, what have you) the answer is that we have far less oil than we thought we did. By immediate response, gasoline is no longer being shipped out to gas stations.
Gasoline is being rationed to military and emergency response vehicles. For everybody else, the gasoline that they, as a nation, have is the gasoline in their tanks... not more than that. And, the police in this small town don't have nearly as much as they, by their estimations, need.
You see, those military Humvee aren't the most fuel efficient vehicles. They need a significant gas investment in order to be ready to deal with the riots that they assume (not entirely without justification) are going to happen. In the current situation, that means getting gas wherever that gas is. That means commandeering that gas from civilian vehicles. Protecting the public means being able to move their equipment where they need to go, after all.
That will lead to the second inciting incident. The police already have something of a tense relationship with the local civilians. Going around commandeering gasoline is bound to set off confrontations, particularly from civilians who know that the police don't actually have that right.
Off screen, because Max isn't around for that moment, the officer who had lead Max on the tour has been shot and killed.
Tension was high enough already. It was shot up by an incredible degree as the gas shortage was announced. The death of an officer was the final straw that resulted in a town-wide war and riot.
Amidst the riot is a tense standoff between the police and the biker gang... in Max's own apartment building. Of course Max has to go there and find his way inside. Once inside, he'll confront the gang's leader and/or spokesman.
The gang leader will admit to it. Yes, he killed Max's partner. That's when we get the camera view of what happened, as the gang leader explains it. Max's partner had weapon drawn and aimed at an unarmed civilian. The first name will be dropped, but the camera won't show the unarmed civilian. The gang leader drew and aimed his own weapon on the officer, as well as a couple others.
The unarmed civilian got away, but the officer turned and aimed at the gang leader. The gang leader shot, killled, and survived.
Max will protest that that wasn't how you're supposed to act. You do what the police tell you to do. If you don't pose a threat, they won't pose a threat to you.
That will be laughable. What are you supposed to do? Calmly inform the police officer that, though you have a legally owned firearm, you are not reaching for it? Perhaps lie down on the street and put your arms in the air?
At this point, the gang leader will show Max the unarmed civilian that his partner had threatened. Said unarmed teenager is no older than twelve and wearing a t-shirt.
Of course his wife and child are safe, not even called hostages in a bluff. What kind of people does he think they are? They're just trying to keep people safe when the police have finally gone mad.
This is how civilization ends. It's not the loss of gasoline. We, as a society, can endure that easily. It's not as though we don't have alternate power sources.
No, what destroys a civilization is the burning need of a society to be at war with itself.
Next week, we discuss the sequel.
In this case, it's both.
I want the original franchize to remain. All the movies are enjoyable. Yes, I even want to hold onto "Beyond Thunderdome", even with its kind of mess.
That said, the concept as a whole does have its issues and does have some untapped potential.
For those who haven't seen the original movie, Mad Max is the story of a young cop in a small town. This is a small town on the brink of destruction due to an invading motorcycle gang. Max doesn't initially go mad, but does feel his job and ranking officers encouraging anger in him, encouraging him to become someone he doesn't want to be. So, he takes a vacation with his wife and child. He goes the opposite of mad as he rests, recuperates, chats with his wife, plays with his son.
And, then said motorcycle gang comes and kills his wife and child. They also blow up his partner on the beat. The rest of the movie is Max going mad and taking revenge upon the biker-gang.
It's a good movie, and more thoughtful than you think. What the story eventually became with sequels, a police officer attempting to keep law and sanity as society is colapsing, has some great potential. But, there is a mistake that starts there and follows into the sequels.
Mad Max shares this mistake with other movies. Dirty Harry was about a grizzled detective using "tough" tactics in order to kill the bad guys. Predator 2 foresaw a future wherein, in response to out of control crime, the police escalated to military equipment and tactics, fighting a literal war on the streets. There's an entire "Death Wish" movie series all about a particular response to criminals, based around the first word in that title.
The idea of crime being so out of control that it merits an escalation beyond all constitutional sense is a base assumption of so many movies. And yet, we're seeing that escalation today... without the out-of-control crime.
In Fergusun, for instance, peaceful protestors faced police with military weapons, including guns mounted on turrets atop humvees. There's footage of an officer, as his vehicle drives around a crowd of protestors, aiming the weapon at the, I will repeat, peaceful protestors.
That's just a random example off the top of my head.
We are experiencing the escalation to military tactics and war-mentality even though crime is at historic lows. Crime is down, but people feel like it's up. They feel like it's up for a number of reasons. They're used to feeling like crime is up. The rhetoric of the political party and political temperament that best fits themselves assumes that crime is up. There's a desire to be strong and an understanding of strength that depends upon a context of war, both home and abroad.
People feel like crime is up so that they can justify their fears and so they can be afraid in the first place.
And this leads us to the first movie in the new franchize.
Our main character (who we'll call Max, for now, though this doesn't need to be a full on remake) is a young cop who's just moved into a small town. It's not a suburb, it's a legitimate small town with its own struggling economy. One of the first things that Max goes through in his new precinct is a tour of the facilities and equipment.
Those facilities include a fortified bunker, as well as the mobile pieces to create bullet-proof barricades. There are military grade Humvee, as they're purchased directly from the military. There are military armaments meant to "put down" an entire army.
Max won't question any of this. When they say that this is all just what it takes to deal with the threats on the streets, he's already on board.
During this tour, Max will pass a couple TVs. In the break room, the TV will show somebody talking about how they, if elected, will crack down on all this crime. Inside the building, amidst the desks, someone will have a radio on and someone will respond to the question of "is there really an epidemic?" with "just look on the streets. And, finally, back to the break room where, just before the TV is turned off, the news will be on another topic. One reporter will ask an expert, "Just how much oil do we have left?"
Max will give a call home, where we'll verify that he has a wife and small child who are, themselves, settling into the neighborhood.
Max will have his first patrol with his partner. They'll pull over someone for speeding and have a tense interaction even with just a warning. They'll respond to a domestic disturbance. No violence will be necessary, but the high probability of there having been domestic violence will set a tone for Max's first day.
Enter the biker gang. Biker gangs have a reputation, but they're a mixed bag. There are the criminals, yes. There are also the general enthusiasts and there are even the groups who perform acts of public service, such as standing guard for children testifying in matters of abuse.
This gang is new in town, so it doesn't have any reputation at all, except for the assumptions of the locals and the local police. To remind, the local police are very ready to deal with grave threats on the streets.
The first interaction between the police and the gang will be hostile, but not violent. Max's partner will ask to search the bikes. Someone, either the gang's leader or the gang's spokesman, has only one response to that. "Warrant? No warrant, no search." It's clear that they have no love of the police. From the perspective of Max and partner, they don't have any respect either.
At the end of the day Max will go home to wife and child and try to relax, try not to bring work home with him. He'll feed his child and tell a bed-time story. He'll look over the smallish apartment in the sizeable apartment building and consider his choice to move to this small town. It seemed like the safe thing to do. But, he swears he saw someone walk in who was in that motorcycle gang he dealt with earlier that same day.
The next day we will have our two inciting incidents.
The first will be the answer to that question that was asked just before the television was turned off. The answer is, due to some unforeseen circumstance (crucial pipe-line rupture, explosion at key refineries, simply not having the accurate numbers, what have you) the answer is that we have far less oil than we thought we did. By immediate response, gasoline is no longer being shipped out to gas stations.
Gasoline is being rationed to military and emergency response vehicles. For everybody else, the gasoline that they, as a nation, have is the gasoline in their tanks... not more than that. And, the police in this small town don't have nearly as much as they, by their estimations, need.
You see, those military Humvee aren't the most fuel efficient vehicles. They need a significant gas investment in order to be ready to deal with the riots that they assume (not entirely without justification) are going to happen. In the current situation, that means getting gas wherever that gas is. That means commandeering that gas from civilian vehicles. Protecting the public means being able to move their equipment where they need to go, after all.
That will lead to the second inciting incident. The police already have something of a tense relationship with the local civilians. Going around commandeering gasoline is bound to set off confrontations, particularly from civilians who know that the police don't actually have that right.
Off screen, because Max isn't around for that moment, the officer who had lead Max on the tour has been shot and killed.
Tension was high enough already. It was shot up by an incredible degree as the gas shortage was announced. The death of an officer was the final straw that resulted in a town-wide war and riot.
Amidst the riot is a tense standoff between the police and the biker gang... in Max's own apartment building. Of course Max has to go there and find his way inside. Once inside, he'll confront the gang's leader and/or spokesman.
The gang leader will admit to it. Yes, he killed Max's partner. That's when we get the camera view of what happened, as the gang leader explains it. Max's partner had weapon drawn and aimed at an unarmed civilian. The first name will be dropped, but the camera won't show the unarmed civilian. The gang leader drew and aimed his own weapon on the officer, as well as a couple others.
The unarmed civilian got away, but the officer turned and aimed at the gang leader. The gang leader shot, killled, and survived.
Max will protest that that wasn't how you're supposed to act. You do what the police tell you to do. If you don't pose a threat, they won't pose a threat to you.
That will be laughable. What are you supposed to do? Calmly inform the police officer that, though you have a legally owned firearm, you are not reaching for it? Perhaps lie down on the street and put your arms in the air?
At this point, the gang leader will show Max the unarmed civilian that his partner had threatened. Said unarmed teenager is no older than twelve and wearing a t-shirt.
Of course his wife and child are safe, not even called hostages in a bluff. What kind of people does he think they are? They're just trying to keep people safe when the police have finally gone mad.
This is how civilization ends. It's not the loss of gasoline. We, as a society, can endure that easily. It's not as though we don't have alternate power sources.
No, what destroys a civilization is the burning need of a society to be at war with itself.
Next week, we discuss the sequel.
no subject
Date: 2017-10-12 03:40 am (UTC)I don't know how familiar you are with the Dirty Harry franchise, but that franchise itself is an interesting example of this escalation mentality. The protagonist of the original Dirty Harry movie was intended to be an anti-hero, plain and simple. He was a rogue cop who used dirty means to get guys he assumed were dirtbags, scum, criminals. Police brutality, racial profiling, illegal search & seizure, that was what Harry Callahan was all about. Of course, the villain was a completely over-the-top murderous psychopath who gamed the system that was intended to protect citizens from rogue cops, to stop Dirty Harry. The message of the movie ended up being "only by stomping all over your rights can cops protect you from murderous psychos, and only whiny hippies who care more about coddling murderers than saving little kids would object to that".
no subject
Date: 2017-10-12 12:11 pm (UTC)And, while media isn't good at changing your behavior directly (cops don't watch Dirty Harry and think "hey, I should use police brutality and racial profiling"), it is good at changing your expectations of the world. (That is, they see that kind of movie and it helps build an expectation of "that is what criminals are like".)
In line with that expectation and/or fantasy, they escalate.