“Once two overzealous cops get suspended from the force, they must delve into the criminal underworld to get their proper compensation.” – Official Synopsis
Dragged Across Concrete is S. Craig Zahler’s third feature film.
The story of the film is pretty good. It follows a couple of cops left on unpaid leave for roughing a suspect as they attempt to steal from some criminals to get some cash. It also follows an ex-con as he tries to take a job to help his mother and young brother. Both groups get in over their heads as the criminals leading the operation are more trigger-happy than anticipated.
The pacing was slower and allowed for the audience to think about what was happening with the characters.
There are a few plot holes. First being that the cops turn to robbing people in their free time. I guess those robbed from couldn’t report it to the cops that their drug money was stolen, but it felt a little too quick.
Also, when the ex-con character walks away with some of the money at the end, they are living a lifestyle that they wouldn’t be able to support with that income. It wasn’t clear if he got a high paying job after getting into a better neighborhood. They did state that he gifted away the rest of the money, so it’s unclear when he’ll blow through his assets.
The writing was well done for the most part. The most glaringly poor thing about it was that it was awkwardly racist. It seemed as if Zahler wanted to write characters that had heavy biases and give explanations why, but he didn’t know how to show it. So, it ends up with the characters monologuing random talking points that are just thinly-veiled racist statements. Gibson and Vaughn’s characters go on a tirade with the police chief about how a police officer can’t just do his job after they were filmed using excessive force on a Latino suspect. They did also torture a Latina woman immediately after that which wasn’t reported and they weren’t punished for.
The ex-cop wife of Gibson’s character also goes on a tirade after their daughter gets a large cup of soda thrown at her by some Black teens. She of course give the statement of, “I’m not racist but…”
Honestly it all seemed so out of place that it almost felt as if it was Zahler’s own opinions coming through his writing.
Which may not be true. Tory Kittles’ character is one of the wittiest and smartest in the whole film. He also goes out of his way to make the character seem like a real person. The first scene in the film is him giving a postcoital confession of his grade school crush to an old friend. They show him as being a protective sibling and a caring son.
However, just about every Black person in the film are poor, thugs, criminals, homophobes, negligent parents, or just too innocent for this world (and should be pitied).
Either way it’s not a Tarantino film, so at least Mel Gibson didn’t have to relive his past controversies.
The film was also a little tropey at times. There’s a character introduced who is on her first day back at the bank at the end of her maternity leave and she just wants to spend time with her baby. At this point in the film, the audience has been shown that the antagonists are ruthless killers, so we should assume that this woman is going to die because that would make us feel bad. One of the other characters buys a ring to propose to his girlfriend after they finish their heist. Again, you should assume this person will die.
There were also a lot of good details thrown into the film. The first I noticed was that Gibson’s character uses an old flip phone, which shows he is either too stubborn or too broke to get with the times compared to Vaughn’s character’s single-income, no children lifestyle.
Another was that the Kittles and White’s characters put on a lot of make-up to obscure their identity when they were fronting the bank heist in the movie. Which makes sense that the people who hired them would cross their ts on even that.
The cinematography was really good. It fit the gritty-noir feel very well. As well as having some interesting shot-reverse shots for the dialogue. One I remember in particular was at the end when Kittles’ character and Gibson’s were arguing about the money and Kittles’ full body was in frame and showed how relaxed he was even though he was in an arguably precarious situation.
The effects were good as well. The film was pleasantly gory. Again, not a Tarantino film, but enough to keep it gross.
They also mostly used strobe lights to signify muzzle flash which was very well done for the scenes that have gunshots happen out of frame.
The music was a lot of R&B, Jazz, and some Rock. It was interesting to see what musical choices they made for each individual character.
The sound mixing was well done. My only complaint is that a few of the sound effects felt very stock and unrealistic.
All in all, this was a pretty good film if you are looking for something gory and dark.
