Dredd

Dredd (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from www.freefall-productions.com) 

2012 / UK-South Africa / 95 minutes

“Save me a lot of paperwork if you’d just confess right now…”

Director: Pete Travis / Screenplay: Alex Garland, based on characters created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra / Director of Photography: Anthony Dod Mantle / Music: Paul Leonard Morgan / Production: Andrew MacDonald, Alex Garland and Allon Reich for DNA Films / Cast: Karl Urban (Judge Dredd), Olivia Thirlby (Anderson), Lena Headey (Madeline “Ma-Ma” Madrigal), Wood Harris (Kay), Warrick Grier (Caleb), Domhnall Gleeson (Clan Techie), Rakie Ayola (Chief Judge), Jason Cope (Zwirner).

In the irradiated wasteland of a future United States, the people have moved into walled Mega- Cities and live in 200- storey tower blocks. With poverty through the roof and violent crime out of control, Mega- City One is policed by specially trained “Judges”, heavily armed law enforcers who act as judge, jury and executioner, dispensing summary “Justice” on the spot.

   Judge Dredd, one of the most feared, respected and well- known veteran Judges on the force, is assessing a new recruit, Judge Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), in the field when the two of them are called to a crime scene in Peach Trees, one of the city’s most dangerous blocks.

   Arriving at Peach Trees, Dredd and Anderson (who is a mutant with psychic powers) discover the bodies of several small- time drug dealers, likely murdered by the rival Ma-Ma Clan, a relatively new but extremely violent gang led by Madeline “Ma-Ma” Madrigal (Lena Headey). The manufacturers of a new drug called “Slow- Mo”, the clan  control almost the entire building from their territory on the top floors.

   Dredd and Anderson begin searching for the gang, making their way up the floors of Peach Trees. But when they capture Ma- Ma’s lieutenant Kay (Wood Harris), Ma-Ma orders the complete lockdown of the building to trap the Judges inside and instructs all of the residents to help hunt them down or suffer the consequences…

   A refreshingly raw and brutal comic book adaptation in the era of standard issue PG- 13 / 12 certificate superhero CG- fests, Dredd feels like a film from 25 years earlier, recalling the likes of Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (1990) and Robocop (1987, the original Judge Dredd comics ironically having partly inspired its title character).

   Unfortunately, Dredd also came out at the same time that Gareth Evans’ outstanding Indonesian martial arts actioner The Raid (2011) got its breakout international release and the two films have virtually identical plots. Both heavily inspired by arcade- era video games, neither production was aware of the other and it seems to have been a case of unlikely but unlucky bad timing.

   Of course, that wasn’t the only obstacle Dredd faced. There was also the spectre of the previous attempt to bring its eponymous antihero to the screen, 1995’s Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone. More of a Stallone film than a Dredd film, Judge Dredd was set in a much more fantastical Sci- Fi future and considerably sanitised the character, smoothing off all his roughest edges to make him more likable (thereby missing most of the point).

   In contrast, Karl Urban’s Dredd is all about getting the character right. Like Robocop, it’s debatable whether he’s a hero or a villain as he’s really just the (literally) faceless agent of the state. Although he never removes his helmet (Dredd never has in decades of comic books either), Urban delivers an exceptional performance. A standout in both Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and the “Alternate Reality” Star Trek films (where he was the only principal cast member to really nail the original portrayal of his character), Urban approached the role as just a man doing his job on an average day.

   Olivia Thirlby and Lena Heady are also brilliant in the supporting roles of Anderson and Ma-Ma. The rookie Judge’s introduction to the job lets her serve as the audience’s conscience throughout the journey into this terrifying world while Headey’s clearly having a great time playing a much more low rent villainess than Queen Cersei on Game of Thrones.

   In a cool homage to the comic’s ’70’s origins, both actresses’ looks for Dredd were modelled on Punk icons- Anderson is based on Debbie Harry and Ma-Ma on Patti Smith. And for my money, Headey in this film is a classic “Shouldn’t but Would”- like Kristin Scott Thomas in Only God Forgives a year later, she’s an actress that still looks extremely good even when trying to look a right state playing a maniacal bitch from hell.

   Largely shot in Johannesburg (most of the supporting parts are played by local actors who were later dubbed) to depict a photo- realistic future city, Dredd got round budget constraints by setting almost all the action inside a single location (The Raid had been devised the same way for the same reasons).

   After the film was released, it gradually started to emerge that credited director Pete Travis (who had always seemed an unusual choice with only unremarkable TV work behind him) had actually co- directed Dredd with screenwriter Alex Garland, the two having agreed on an “Unorthodox Collaboration” before production began. Urban has even gone so far as to say Garland was the “Real” director and that Dredd should be considered his directorial debut (officially it’s 2013’s Ex Machina).

   A fan of the comics since his youth, Garland had worked on the script for years and extensively consulted with Dredd’s creator, the American born but Scottish raised John Wagner, who had originally conceived the character as a Sci- Fi Dirty Harry. This makes perfect sense when one considers Dredd’s almost fascistic attitude and actions, most obviously illustrated in the film as he beats a black suspect with the stars and stripes prominently displayed in the background (he could also be considered antifeminist given that Ma-Ma’s a self- made business success who fought her way up from prostitution in the block’s “Pleasure Districts”).

   Whilst it could be argued that, like Harry Callahan, Dredd’s simply the product of his time and place (albeit a fictional one in his case), Wagner always considered his stories to be satire (another element the ’95 film completely missed). It is, however, debateable that all- or even the majority- of viewers get this, especially in the US where most audience members unquestionably cheered Dredd on throughout.

   Another good example of such subtleties going way over peoples’ heads in the same genre is Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers (1997) where the future military dictatorship was modelled on the director’s memories of the Nazi occupation of Holland but a lot of fans took the film’s in- universe propaganda entirely seriously and many were closer to full- on admiration than they were to realising the true intent.

   Dredd got great reviews upon release but didn’t make enough money so it’s R / 18 rating predictably got the blame (although personally, I just assumed it would be another toned and dumbed down reimagining so didn’t bother until I saw the DVD certificate, so such assumptions do work both ways).

   The film has built up a considerable following since though, so a sequel of some kind now looks increasingly likely, with both Urban and Garland keen to return. Nowadays, it would make the most sense to do it as a streaming series (which would completely eliminate the rating problem) and there are certainly plenty more stories to explore in Dredd’s world.

   Surely the ideal concept would be Dredd vs. Snake Plissken though? Of course, there’d be rights issues and the future setting would have to be slightly reworked (Dredd lives around the turn of the next century while both Plissken films were set in what would now be an alternate past). But the dystopia’s hardest borderline sociopathic state enforcer going up against its hardest borderline sociopathic outlaw would be pure SF / Action gold.