If you are unfamiliar with the Indonesian film Serbuan Maut (which was renamed The Raid: Redemption for American audiences), I INSIST that you stop reading right now and watch this trailer:
This is the second film by Welsh director Gareth Evans to feature the Indonesian martial art known as Pencak Silat. The story is simple. A group of elite cops raid a rundown apartment building in order to take down a murderous crime lord who lives and works on the top floor. The building is protected by bloodthirsty goons and the cops must shoot, hack and brutally fight their way up, floor after floor.
The movie starts slowly. At first the men are heavily armed, and I found myself thinking "for a martial arts flick there sure isn't a lot of hand-to-hand combat." But when the bullets were spent, the real fighting began. It was the most vicious, intricately choreographed, mind-blowingly, ass-kickingly intense fighting I've ever seen on screen. The fights seem to be impossibly long and just when you think they can't get any more explosive, something will happen that makes you emit sounds you didn't know you could make. I watched the movie in theaters with a group of six men (my husband and his coworkers), who all fancy themselves martial arts movie aficionados. All six were squirming in their seats, shouting at the screen, clapping, gasping, oohing and aahing. As we walked out of the theater, they all agreed that this film raised the bar for all fighting movies that come after it. It has forever changed the game.
So, naturally, Hollywood wants it and will inevitably ruin it. Screen Gems is currently in negotiations to create an American remake, which makes my blood boil. There is absolutely no need for us to even attempt to create what Evans masterfully produced. His actors, most notably Iko Uwais, are professional martial artists trained in Silat. What American actor is going to be able to pull off the superhuman moves that these athletes brought to Raid: Redemption? Are Americans so against a few subtitles that they can't just watch the original? There really isn't much dialogue to begin with!
I urge you to see the original film in theaters, if possible. At the very least, catch it on DVD.
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