Pencak Silat master Iko Yuwais faces a seemingly impossible task in THE RAID: REDEMPTION
THE RAID: REDEMPTION (SERBUAN MAUT) (Gareth Huw Evans, 2011)
Thursday, March 22, MoMA, 11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves., $14, 6:00
Thursday, March 22, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave., $14, 11:00 pm
Opens in theaters Friday, March 23
newdirectors.org
www.sonyclassics.com
The Raid: Redemption is a nonstop claustrophobic thrill ride through a fifteen-story apartment complex where danger lurks around every corner and behind nearly every door. The gated, heavily protected building is run by Tama (Ray Sahetapy), a well-connected drug lord who enjoys terrorizing and killing traitors and enemies. Early one morning Jaka (Joe Taslim) leads his elite special forces unit on a raid of the complex, ordered to get Tama and end his brutal reign. As Jaka’s team falls one by one, it is left to a determined young rookie, Rama (Iko Uwais), to complete the mission, which is not quite what it appears to be. Written, directed, and edited by Welsh-born Gareth Huw Evans, The Raid: Redemption is a furious, testosterone-heavy action flick filled with breathtaking scenes of ultraviolence countered by moments of intense, quiet drama where one wrong move will be a character’s last. Primarily shot with a handheld camera that puts the audience in the middle of the battle, the film uses a variety of weapons in the well-choreographed fight scenes, from machine guns and pistols to serrated knives and machetes, while focusing on the martial art of Pencak Silat. Uwais, a former truck driver and Silat champion who was discovered by Evans while the director was researching a documentary on the martial art — the two previously teamed up on 2009’s Merantau — is outstanding as Rama, a father-to-be who might have met his match in Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian), one of Tama’s chief operatives and a killer who prefers using his hands, fists, and feet to eliminate his opponents. (Uwais, Ruhian, and Evans collaborated on the action choreography.) Buoyed by a pulsating score by Joseph Trapanese and Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and evoking elements of the first Die Hard, Assault on Precinct 13, and New Jack City, The Raid: Redemption is a pulse-pounding, wildly successful film that has kicked off a franchise, with two sequels in the works. (Here’s hoping the translator does a better job in the next two movies, taking a much-needed crash course in punctuation.) Even the credits are awesome, with dozens of characters listed as Hole Drop Attacker, Riot Van Shooter, Carrying Bowo Fighter, Machete Gang, AK47 Attacker, Panic Man, Tortured Man, and Junkie Guy. “I deal in blood and mayhem,” Evans, who has been based in Indonesia since 2007, states in the film’s production notes. Indeed he does.
The Raid: Redemption opens in theaters March 23, but you can catch it a day early as part of the “New Directors, New Films” series taking place at MoMA (6:00) and the Film Society of Lincoln Center (11:00), with director Evans on hand for Q&As following both screenings. The festival runs March 21 – April 1 and also includes such films as Pablo Giorgelli’s Las Acacias, Julia Marat’s Found Memories, Adam Leon’s Gimme the Loot, Stanley Kubrick’s Fear and Desire, and Nadine Labak’s Where Do We Go Now?