The Raid Holds Up

The Raid ends with the remnants of the two parties—a Jakarta drug cartel and a special task force—parting ways, with a still camera splitting the two and driving home the incompatibility of the two lifestyles. There’s something a bit poetic and inevitable about the moralizing division, and it cuts even deeper with a brother on each side of the camera’s axis.

The main brother, Rama, is played by the now-bonafide action luminary Iko Uwais. He plays a rookie officer on the task force sent to raid the building owned and operated by cartel leader Tama (Ray Sahetapy). The objective is simple: fight to the top floor, find Tama, and kill or capture him. And with a few complicators thrown in the mix—like dirty cops, do-good civilians, and familial loyalty—the premise enfranchises some of the best action of the century.

Like almost every Jackie Chan flick, every household item, whether it be a chair or a piece of a lightbulb, is something to be wielded for violence; like a Bruce Lee (or, even better, Tony Jaa) film, every blow is meant to maim, emasculate, or murder; and, like a John Woo film, the guns become swords—extensions of the body, used like a punch carrying more finality with it. The one-building production forces the action into close quarters and gives clear and physical geographical goals to each violent encounter: to get from one end of the hall to the other or from one floor to the next without being killed. Since ammunition is a limited resource, this calls for some spectacular use of pencak silat, the Indonesian family of martial arts. The raiding squad fights (and, in one of the film’s best scenes, hides) by any and all means to preserve the negative space between them and the gang’s thugs. Rama and the other officers’ movement to the top floor, with every mark of vertical progression, then earns the same jubilation as does a well-done overture.

Continue reading at the Boston Hassle.