Posted on 10/31/2009 1:46:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
There’s something weird about Law Abiding Citizen, and it isn’t simply the movie’s attempt to gussy up the legal thriller genre with gruesome, Saw-style theatrics. No, the most notable thing about the film is how it appears to inadvertently channel the recent, inchoate Republican anger at the Obama administration and use it to power a violent revenge fantasy. Don’t believe me? Here are four ways Law Abiding Citizen feels like a Republican wet dream. Mild spoilers ahead:
Sympathy with the Devil
Jamie Foxx’s district attorney Nick Rice is ostensibly our hero, struggling to put an end to the murderous schemes enacted by the imprisoned Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), but it’s clear that the film favors Clyde over Nick, who’s caricatured as a “soft on crime” liberal that let the killers of Clyde’s family walk free. Clyde, by contrast, is a death-penalty-enforcing warrior hero who hates lawyers and is distrustful of the government (unless he’s being hired to conduct shadowy black ops for an unnamed administration — that stuff’s OK). In fact, he goes to trial and angles for bail specifically so that once he receives it, he can call the judge too lenient. You get the feeling that the only thing he may hate more than all this is the public option.
Weird Racial Undertones
It’s a little queasy-making, too, for Republican analogue Clyde to delight in torturing a successful, politically ambitious black man. In fact, both of the film’s ultimate authority figures are black if you include Viola Davis, a mayor that Clyde is targeting for (gulp) assassination. That’s right: an entire set piece generates suspense from whether Nick can foil Clyde’s plot to kill a black, female, presumably liberal politician. There’s no sympathy generated for Davis’s terse character; in fact, I had more sympathy for the actress for having to play her.
Retrograde Gender Stereotyping
Then again, the only female characters venerated in the film are the ones killed off in the opening sequence. When Clyde is granted bail and launches a tirade against his judge, he adds a gratuitous insult at the end — “I bet you like it up the ass, don’t you?” — simply because she’s a woman (what’s worse is how director F. Gary Gray sets the line up to receive supportive laughs and cheers from the audience). Later, Nick’s pretty, thirtysomething coworker (Leslie Bibb) is so perturbed by the murders around her that she openly questions whether she should have sacrificed having a family to pursue career advancement. It’s a question the men in the film don’t have to ask, since they’ve all managed to have families; only women must choose one or the other.
Unintentional Homoerotica
It wouldn’t be an aggressively conservative movie if it didn’t somehow sneak in some gay eye candy, would it? Top Gun had its bro-on-bro shirtless volleyball scene, and Law Abiding Citizen goes it one better by asking Gerard Butler to strip fully naked as Clyde surrenders to the authorities. Why? No reason, except to provide a butt shot — as if Law Abiding Citizen wasn’t already Republican masturbation material enough.
That’s all right Kyle. You can admit that you see everything with a gay eye. Your liberal audience won’t mind.
That’s all right Kyle. You can admit that you see everything with a gay eye. Your liberal audience won’t mind.
Yeah. I remember in the 70’s when all feminists were claiming that all cylinders were “patriarchal phallic symbols”. Editors are supposed to help avoid such . . . lapses.
Not being an aficionado of such, I can only presume that this is a Hollywood effort with all of their connotations, right? If that is the case is this a critic’s projection of what he thinks that this movie is trying to say it feels about what a putative straight white male of conservative inclinations might react to an act of treachery and injustice? Gee what a reach! I think I will keep my sawbuck in my pocket.
My God, what a tortured mind. This guy Kyle is beyond creepy, this crap is sick.
Maybe he prefers Richard Gere movies instead?
It takes a tortured mind to write such juvenile, thoughtless crap.
I suppose Mr. Buchanan doesn’t realize that we hetero guys don’t get “gay” stuff unless it’s just in your face obvious, because we’re HETEROS. Now if you have a scene with a woman who’s been exposed to a bit too much cold air, I can tell you which frame her reaction started in, and the approximate temperature of the air she was exposed to.
Personally I thought the strip down had to do with showing how smart he was and emphasized or at least placed a building block to show how he is in control and has given everything forethought (not foreskin as mentioned above). But hey my interpretation would mean that it would be a story based on character motivation and plot. Apparently not according to this trashtastic analysis/film review.
I’d tell this Kyle to “get bent”, but I think he’s already in position....
He REALLY isn’t going to like any real-life backlash after real “law-abiding citizens” have finally had enough of the scum this that creep worships and grovels to. (The sooner the better).
I long ago matured to much to go see this liberal crap. My wife and I go to very few movies and would rather go to dollar show so as not to support hollywierd any more than we have to.
There’s a pretty big problem with his whole racism angle:
For the two years of planning, Jamie Foxx was the angry husband and Gerard Butler was the deal-making attorney. It wasn’t until the last minute that they decided to swap, and it was Jamie Foxx’s idea.
But I’m guessing the author of this article would’ve called the original version just as racist for the exact opposite reason.
The original TV Series, Wild Wild West starred Robert Conrad as James West. The producers noticed that women found Conrad attractive and always managed a shirtless scene, 'for the ladies'. I guess this writer is too stupid to notice that half of the world's population is not men.
In order for the author to see things this way, he would also had to have a gnawing sense that someheow, SOMETHING is very wrong.
His liberal beliefs make this realization a source of discomfort, and this act of lashing out at the movie is an attempt to reinforce the cracking foundation of his outdated ideology.
A similar movie long ago was “Falling Down”, I think, with Michael Douglas —white guys are pissed-off ticking time-bombs, blah, blah, blah...
My question is, why did they decide to swap? Was it more effective as propaganda against angry white conservatives (men) to do so?
My guess is, yes. Look for more of the same coming from Hollyweird.
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