Dredd (2012) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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I am the law, but not in that cheesy Sylvester Stallone way.

While violent and harsh, Dredd is laser-focused on its story, adapting the world of Judge Dredd in the most respectful and honorable way. The story involves a strongly moral officer in a truly amoral world, carrying out his duty at all costs. And he does so without ever taking his helmet off.

First Impressions

In a dystopian future, a whole city is addicted to a new drug, supplied by a single woman in charge. Luckily, there’s a tough police officer who is judge, jury, and executioner. He rides into the block-like mega structure and proceeds to bring Justice to anyone who needs it. He has some dry one-liners as he wreaks havoc with anyone in his way. This is Dredd, and he is the law.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

The world in this film is a post-apocalyptic America, where one large city exists, stretching from Boston to Washington, DC–Mega City One. Within the city, justice is served by officers called Judges who mete out sentencing and punishment at the same time. Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is in pursuit of a van full of criminals high on a new drug called Slo-Mo. The drug allows them to perceive time at one percent the speed of normal time. He causes the van to crash, killing two of the perpetrators, and follows the last one into a mall where he passes sentence and kills the man. He is called back to the precinct by the Chief Judge (Rakie Ayola).

Dredd is assigned to patrol with a rookie Judge, Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), who has psychic abilities. Even though she barely failed the aptitude test for becoming a Judge, the department believes her abilities will balance out her book knowledge. Dredd is less than enthused. The two Judges respond to a homicide of three men at the Peach Trees block, a giant housing complex, 200 levels tall, holding thousands of individuals. They proceed to the 39th floor, where they discover a drug den for Slo-Mo. Raiding the unit, they kill most of the people inside, arresting Kay (Wood Harris), who Anderson believes is 99% guilty.

A clan techie (Domhnall Gleeson) reports to the drug kingpin Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) that two Judges are in the block and have arrested Kay. She orders the techie to circumvent building security and lock the block up. Blast doors across all entrances shut as Ma-Ma gets on the PA to announce a bounty on the deaths of the two Judges. Without comms to the outside, Dredd and Anderson, with Kay in tow, head to the block’s medical center, but are unable to gain admittance. As citizens take up weapons, the Judges are ambushed and kill several hostiles. Kay tries to bait Anderson, playing into her fear and lack of experience. The pair survives an explosion, which rips a hole in the side of the building. Dredd calls for backup now that he can get a signal.

Ma-Ma is scared, Dredd realizes, so he asks Anderson to search Kay’s mind for clues. She finds that Peach Trees is the manufacturing center for Slo-Mo, and Ma-Ma is the kingpin running the operation. Ma-Ma also realizes that with Kay alive, her business is in trouble. Dredd tells Anderson to protect Kay as Ma-Ma’s men come for them, but he’s not where they think he is, and he uses an incendiary device to burn a dozen thugs. With Dredd getting closer, Ma-Ma coerces the techie to call 911 and bring more Judges. However, the four Judges who arrive are on her payroll and go hunting for Dredd and Anderson.

Kay gets the drop on Anderson and takes her gun. His DNA is not a match for the sensor on the firearm, and it explodes in his hand. Dredd encounters Judge Chan (Karl Thaning) but realizes he’s dirty and kills him. He soon finds Judge Alvarez (Edwin Perry) and kills him, too. Judge Kaplan (Michele Levin) finds Anderson, hoping the rookie will lower her guard when she sees another Judge. But the young Judge scans the other’s mind and shoots the dirty cop before anything bad can happen. Dredd runs out of ammo and is shot by Judge Lex (Langley Kirkwood), who waits before killing Dredd, allowing Anderson time to sneak up and shoot him.

Anderson patches up Dredd as best she can, and they head to the 200th floor. They encounter the techie. Before Dredd can kill him, Anderson reads his mind and sees that he is a victim in the process, letting him go. Ma-Ma ties herself to a dead-man switch, threatening to blow up the top 50 stories. Dredd shoots her in the side, incapacitating her, and then doses her with Slo-Mo and throws her off the balcony. She falls in apparent slow motion, tuning into a puddle of goo when she hits the lobby floor 200 stories down. The signal from the dead man’s switch cannot reach the bomb. People saved. Dredd informs Anderson that the assessment is over, and she turns in her badge, believing she has failed. Dredd informs the Chief Judge that Anderson has passed.

“In case you people have forgotten, this block operates under the same rules as the rest of the city. Ma-Ma is not the law… I am the law.” – Judge Dredd

History in the Making

As science-fiction films were becoming more complex, Dredd goes in the opposite direction. It presents a straightforward and linear story that adapts the world of Judge Dredd, from the 2000 AD comic series. Dredd, as a character, debuted in the second issue of 2000 AD in March 1977. It was a satirical take on a near-future dystopian world where violence and crime run rampant, and the police are outnumbered. Created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, it was inspired by 70s movie heroes like Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey (Death Wish), and Max Rockatansky (Mad Max). Dredd would go on to influence other comic book anti-heroes and tales through the 80s and beyond.

Dredd presents an interesting adaptation of the source material by not adapting a specific storyline from the comics. Instead, writer Alex Garland (more on him later) took several elements from the 2000 AD stories to craft the violent world in which Dredd lives. Obviously, the character of Dredd is modeled after his comic counterpart, as is Judge Anderson and her telepathy. The locations of Mega City One and Peach Trees come from the comics, as well as Slo-Mo, the Lawgiver (Dredd’s Gun), and the Lawmaster (his motorcycle). Surprisingly, Ma-Ma, also known as Madeline Madrigal, was a creation for the film–but certainly based on the style and types of villains from Dredd’s stories. The world appears extremely tough and brutal, along with the justice system, but if anything, the story might seem a little less over-the-top than it would have during Dredd’s advent. With the various violent dystopian films and stories released since 1977, audiences may actually have become desensitized to tales such as this.

While the story of Dredd is not directly adapted from the comics, that doesn’t mean it’s an original idea. Dredd pulls heavily from Howard Hakes’ 1959 Western Rio Bravo. In that film, John Wayne is a sheriff who has to cobble together a team made up of a drunk (Dean Martin), an old man (Walter Brennan), and a young gunfighter (Ricky Nelson) to hold a criminal until the US Marshall can arrive. This story inspired two other Hawkes & Wayne collaborations, El Dorado (1967) and Rio Lobo (1970), along with the 1976 John Carpenter film Assault on Precinct 13. Building a sci-fi film around a Western is nothing new, with films like Battle Beyond the Stars (based on The Magnificent Seven, with that being based on Seven Samurai) to the actual Western Cowboys & Aliens. Providing a familiar structure to the film gives Dredd a sense of familiarity, especially in the face of its wild characters, weapons, and justice system.

Genre-fication

This was the second, and most successful, adaptation of the Judge Dredd source material. Viewers may be familiar with a 1995 Sylvester Stallone version called Judge Dredd, which is DINO, “Dredd in Name Only.” This version contained much of the same source elements, Mega City One, the technology, and the Cursed Earth, but was more of a parody of the 2000 AD stories. Rob Schneider played a comedic sidekick to Dredd, as the film elevated the situations and characters into camp. Interestingly, a theme of the original adaptation involves the questioning of the violent justice system that exists in the world of Judge Dredd. Something that 1995 filmmakers probably added, along with the comedy, to tone things down to appease groups protesting overt violence in movies.

By far the biggest complaint of this original film is the portrayal of Judge Dredd by Stallone, who was playing less of Judge Dredd and more of Sylvester Stallone. The character of Dredd is defined by his costume, specifically his helmet–which he never removes! Ten minutes into the film, Stallone removes his helmet and spends much of the film without it. Of course, studios don’t greenlight a film with a major star only to hide that actor’s face for 90 minutes. Except…here they do. Because that is who Judge Dredd is. It’s not that Karl Urban wasn’t a known star. The choice was made because it’s a hallmark of his character in the same way Darth Vader, Boba Fett, or Michael Myers never remove their masks. It would be like adapting a Superman film where the Man of Steel doesn’t fight for truth, justice, and a better tomorrow and he becomes a gritty character who doesn’t care as much about protecting human life.

Dredd excels at creating a solid dystopia within the time given. Considering that the action takes place almost wholly at the Peach Trees block, there’s still plenty of exposition and setting to explain about the world of Mega City One. It takes elements from other social dystopias like Children of Men, Mad Max, Brazil, and Escape from New York, and combines them into a dingy and bleak look at the future. It’s a world where the city stretches from Boston to Washington, DC, and everything outside the walls is an irradiated wasteland. Gang violence overtakes the city-sized blocks, leaving most people the choice to fend for themselves or to join up with the bad people. The police are understaffed for the amount of crime that occurs, so their methods have become about instant justice. There are reasons that the American idea of the justice system is divided into distinct parts. It allows for checks and balances to the system, to prevent any one person from going rogue and carrying out their own sense of justice. Luckily, Dredd lives and dies by the rules, having a strict moral compass to guide him.

Societal Commentary

Dredd is the culmination of 40 years of cinema justice, refining a morally grey antihero to serve as judge, jury, and executioner. Clint Eastwood’s ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan would mete out his version of extreme justice within the confines (and occasionally outside) of the law. In his films, the bad guy was very clearly bad, but often out of reach of normal law enforcement. Harry played by the rules, but knew when to bend the law to suit his needs of punishing the criminal. His stories led to characters that Charles Bronson would play, where they were clearly working outside the law. Again, dishing out their interpretation of justice against clear bad guys. A rapist gets away from the cops who can’t arrest or prosecute him due to some technicality. Harry and Bronson don’t care. They know what is morally right and choose to punish those guilty of transgressions.

With Judge Dredd evolving from the comics, he’s most like another extreme justice seeker from those pages: The Punisher. Frank Castle is a vigilante who works outside the law and by his moral code. His stories usually contain obvious bad guys, leading the audience along a revenge/fantasy style of storyline as the villains are suitably punished. More recently, his stories have taken a different twist, focusing on how the character of The Punisher has been adopted by military and police groups as a symbol for their unit. An idea that seems antithetical to the rule of law and order that they’ve sworn an oath to uphold. Judge Dredd’s use of excessive force comes as a necessity for surviving in his world.

The overpopulation and violent nature of Mega City One, coupled with the disdain for police officers, require that the police of this world can quickly enforce the law and determine the punishment. Oftentimes, that punishment is death, as handed out by the Judge’s lawgiver. But that’s not always the case. The reason Dredd keeps Kay alive throughout the film is so that they can get testimony on further crimes higher up the food chain. Killing every bad guy would result in allowing the smartest and shrewdest villains to survive and flourish. But unlike the other fictional vigilantes mentioned above, Dredd does not serve his own code. He serves the law. More specifically, he identifies himself as the law. In his mind, there is no distinction or separation between the words written in his penal code and his execution of those laws. They are one and the same. Dredd is an extension of the law. He is it, and it is him. Thus, he is the perfect enforcement machine, neither swayed by money (as with the four dishonorable judges that work for Ma-Ma) nor by pity. He plays fairly under the rules in all circumstances. The audience does see him offer some leniency to the vagrant at the Peach Trees entrance, telling him to be gone when he returns. Unfortunately, the man does not listen. But before Dredd can arrest him, the man is killed by the closing blast door. An unnecessary death, but not one initiated by Dredd.

The Science in The Fiction

Dredd focuses on designer drugs that are a new addition to Mega City One. The effects of Slo-Mo reportedly allow the user to experience events at 1% the speed of normal time. But it’s only an experience. Time still progresses normally. That means Slo-Mo is actually speeding up the synapses in the brain, stretching a second into minutes. Aside from the self-sustained injuries of the Slo-Mo users being chased by Dredd in the opening chase, and the deaths of people thrown from balconies or shot by Dredd, no other side effects of the drug are noted, save for a slight ‘cold-burn” caused by the inhaler delivery system.

The technology of this future world is equally impressive. The Lawgiver gun contains DNA detection that is coded to either the officer using the gun or at least a database of Judges. In a normal system that invented such a device, the gun would just not work. But in the world of Judge Dredd, when detecting the use by an unauthorized user, the gun turns into a small bomb, detonating itself in the hand of the would-be killer. Excessive for sure, but very much in line with the instant judgment for crimes. The Lawgiver can also carry multiple types of rounds. From normal bullets, in semi or fully automatic delivery, it also features a silencer mode, and can shoot high explosives and “hot shots,” incendiary rounds. These mode switches are accomplished by voice commands, which is impressive, especially in the chaos of an actual firefight.

The Final Frontier

The screenplay for Dredd was written by Alex Garland. He is best known today for directing the genre films Ex Machina, Annihilation, and Men, but when this film was released, he had only written two films, both well-received: the modern zombie thriller 28 Days Later and the sci-fi thriller Sunshine. Dredd shows great respect for the source material, as well as a solid story structure and characterizations. It may not be the most famous film for Karl Urban, but it puts his talents on display. Urban was known for his roles in The Lord of the Rings films and as Dr. McCoy in the reboot of Star Trek. He is most known now for the role of Billy Butcher in the satirical superhero show The Boys, which shares some similarities with the character in this film, just not his moral code.

Fans of the 2000 AD Judge Dredd stories are sure to get satisfaction from this film. It’s certainly a step up from the 1995 adaptation. For a modern sci-fi or action film, it does run rather short, at only 95 minutes. But that only underscores the tight scripting and editing of the film in order to pack everything contained between the title and the credits. Dredd is a refreshing and straightforward sci-fi action film that stays laser-focused on its goal, which is to tell the best story possible. Of that, it’s totally guilty.

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