2012

Directed by: Pete Travis

Genre: Action, crime.

Dredd is a movie about a future cop in a future city. A cop gets called to investigate a triple homicide in a mega apartment complex and has to take a rookie with him. This job escalates into a full assault on the building when it turns out to be the manufacturing headquarters of a new drug.

The people that saw this movie usually have fond memories for it, as I did. But on a rewatch, I found it way more thought provoking than I initially assumed.

Dredd is excellent because of its limited scale. Despite its massive future world, there are no ridiculous stakes in the premise.

If Judge Dredd and rookie Anderson fail to stop the drug dealers, the only thing that would be lost would be their lives. Lena Headey’s character Mama has no great plans for the world. She’s just a petty drug dealer that wants to control a small section of the world.

But it’s due to these small stakes that we as an audience get a glimpse into what this future world is like: a cruel place where the law is made by those that enforce it. Cops are called Judges and are given authority to decide who is guilty and potentially execute them.

And these cops are not without flaws. They are easily bought by money, which is demonstrated in the movie when four corrupt judges are sent to kill our main characters.

One other example of worldbuilding in a smaller scale is the fact that the rookie character, Anderson is a psychic. She’s treated as unusual, a freak. But she gains respect as the film goes on. She’s not a superhero, just a strange abomination in this crazy world.

But enough of all that.

You don’t need me to tell you that this movie is good. Rewatch it and remember.

And if you’re not into action movies, give this one a shot. It’s easy to understand, treats the female characters as people, and has a satisfying conclusion.

Now, I want to talk about THE LAW.

As a society, we decide what is against the law and what the punishment is for breaking the rules we establish. Early in our human society, we decided that specific substances are against the law. Drugs.

Drugs can destroy lives. Families. Generations. So, it makes sense to try and control these substances and negate their usage, right?

I think an easy fact, often forgotten, is the truth that drug dealers are also employers. Mama employs almost all of the people in her megabuilding. They can pay rent and live in peace because of her.

Granted, she is willing to murder anyone for her own petty needs. But as I mentioned, this is her character. She is petty and needs to be put down.

But, why do all these people follow her? Is it because they are generic thugs? Crazy murderers? Addicts? No. I don’t think so. I think all of Mama’s followers are willing to kill for her because of the simple fact that she is their employer.

The world we live in now, in 2023, is crazy. Rent is insane. Employers are petty. Cops are bastards.

And, for a LOT of people, the only way to survive is to take a job in drug trafficking. Because that is literally the only way for them to feed their family.

So, what happens when cops take down a drug dealer? They are essentially forcing hundreds, if not thousands of people into unemployment. This, in turn, could lead to more violent crimes. People who have nothing to lose are more willing to cross the barrier of THE LAW in order to survive.

You may be asking me, what’s the right answer? To ignore drugs? To control them? I have no idea. Substances are dangerous. But so is a world where smoking a joint could get you put in prison. If you need a reminder, prisons are also extremely dangerous.

The answer shown in the movie is for individuals to use their own JUDGEMENT. Morality is not a simple binary decision.

Judge Dredd is merciless to the people that try to kill him. But he also chooses to save the majority of lives in the megabuilding. Including two kids that tried to kill him.

Anderson also uses her own judgement to free the person in control of the future tech in the megabuilding. Because of her psychic abilities, she can see that he was just a victim of Mama.

I think, calculating the lives that could be lost, versus the lives that were saved, is how these future judges cope with reality.

Just how the now hundreds of unemployed people may turn to drug use in order to cope with their new reality.

Phew! This went on for a while. Hopefully I gave you something to think about.

I just want to conclude with what Hollywood should learn from this film.

These days, hundred million dollar movies are flopping. The answer to this should be for Hollywood to scale back.

Start telling smaller stories that are set in larger worlds. Give of glimpses of the world rather than shoving it in our faces. That will save you a lot of money, but will still give the audience what they want.

And, you want to start telling “woke” stories? Here’s how you do it right. Anderson is a mutant. That means she could literally represent any silent minority. Anderson as a character is always in control, uses her abilities as a tool to survive, and never lectures anyone on how to treat her. She speaks through her actions and proves herself through her choices.

I never thought I’d have so much to say about a movie where the titular character is literally just a frown.

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