The Raid, also known as The Raid: Redemption, is a bone-crunching, blood-splattering, visceral display of pure unadulterated action. Set in Jakarta, Indonesia, it follows a SWAT team as they become trapped in a hostile local tenement. A building which is run by a sadistic mobster and inhabited by his many henchmen.
Action Above All Else
The Raid is unabashedly an action film. It doesn’t shy away from the fact. The pacing very rarely lets up, with gun battles followed by bare-handed brawls, followed by machete fights, and so on, and so on. It rarely tries to be anything more grandiose. Director Gareth Evans showed a lot of confidence in focusing on doing exactly what he wanted to. A simple set-up where our protagonists have to ascend an apartment block, floor by floor. Yet this gives so much scope for variety and experimentation.
Every hit looks like a real hit. Obviously, this isn’t the case, and every fight was carefully choreographed. But when you have people who can really fight going full tilt at one another, it raises things to another level. This could not be more evident than in the final fight sequence. It is a two-on-one battle, with our lead protagonist and his brother taking on the formidable Mad Dog. The action all takes place in just one room, but the intensity and severity of the action is out of this world.
That’s not to say there is no depth to proceedings. Each of the characters gets enough of a short back story to make us care. Whether that’s impending fatherhood, sibling rivalry, or just the fact that Mad Dog is as mad as a dog. It does enough to make the brutal fights have enough riding on them, and it feels far from just mindless violence. It’s efficient storytelling at its best.
Development
Director Gareth Evans may not be the most likely candidate to direct a film such as The Raid. A white man, born and raised in the quiet and idyllic Welsh Valleys of the UK, his career took an unexpected trajectory after directing his first film. He was hired as a freelance director for a documentary about the Indonesian martial art Pencak Silat. This led to him moving to Indonesia and becoming fascinated with the martial art itself. It also led to the discovery of the lead actor on The Raid, Iko Uwais.
The two worked together on the film Merantau before Evans set his sights on something bigger. A large-scale prison gangster film, featuring many international fight stars. After a year and a half, the project found itself in production hell, and it was eventually canceled. Evans scaled things back, deciding to focus on a smaller-scale story with a smaller budget, and the idea for The Raid was born. All was not wasted though, as Evans’ initial larger-scale idea eventually went on to form the basis for the sequel, The Raid 2.
It took an unexpected career move and many chance encounters, but as the stars aligned it seemed like fate that we got to the point where the world could enjoy The Raid.
Pencak Silat
Movies have the power to inspire and captivate audiences in a variety of ways. But they can also showcase unique cultures and arts that might otherwise go unnoticed.
A type of martial art that I can’t say I was familiar with before watching The Raid, Pencak Silat is a full-body fighting form incorporating strikes, grappling, and throwing, in addition to weaponry. Every part of the body is used and subject to attack. In The Raid we see knee, elbow, fist and foot strikes, joint manipulation, weaponry, and all these things combined in some scenes.
Lead actor Iko Uwais’ grandfather was a Silat master and went on to found a Silat school. Uwais himself practised the art form from the age of 10, and he was in a Silat training hall at the time he was discovered by Gareth Evans.
It’s a fighting style that feels familiar, yet completely unique. And that’s why you can’t take your eyes off it.
What The Raid Means to Us
Anyone who knows me knows that I consider 2012 to be the best year for film ever. Or rather, it’s the year I consider my favorite. So many of my favorite films of the last 25 years came out within that twelve month period. So many, that a film I genuinely believe revolutionized the martial arts genre, doesn’t even crack my top ten. Set mostly within a high-rise building controlled by a ruthless crime lord, the film follows a police squad tasked with infiltrating the building to capture him. Things go wrong quickly, and the team finds themselves trapped, with wave after wave of gangsters and mercenaries attacking them. The film has just enough plot to explain the non-stop action. One of the film’s standout aspects is its intense, raw action choreography. The fight scenes, mainly involving Pencak Silat (an Indonesian martial art), are fast, brutal, and incredibly well-shot, making each hit and move feel visceral. Iko Uwais, who plays the lead character, Rama, delivers a standout performance, both as an actor and martial artist. The film’s pacing is relentless. It doesn’t rely much on dialogue or backstory, instead letting the action and tension drive the story. Despite the limited setting, the film manages to keep me engaged despite how many times I’ve rewatched it through inventive fight sequences, suspenseful moments, and a sense of escalating danger. Ignore Roger Ebert’s bafflingly low score of this and jump in with both feet if you’ve never experienced it. I promise you, you’ll be a different person on the other side. A new worshipper of the Church of Action whose founder is Gareth Evans.
–Sailor Monsoon
This should come as no surprise that I’m not the biggest fan of foreign films. I have nothing against it, I just have so many classic English-language films on my watchlist that I’d prefer to knock off first. However, every once in a while, a standout foreign film comes along that demands to be seen, and The Raid was that for me. Once I heard about the setting and insane action sequences, I knew I had to check it out… and it did not disappoint. I don’t know if The Raid was the first movie to use the “one man vs. an entire building of goons” story idea (I actually doubt it was), but it is certainly now the first thing moviegoers think of when someone brings up that scenario. The Raid taught me that I probably should stop sleeping on foreign film. I mean, Run Lola Run had taught me that first, so I guess The Raid just proved that teaching.
–Marmaduke Karlston
Legacy
The Raid raised the bar for what an action film could be. Nearly every action-focused movie I’ve watched since seems to be influenced by some element of it. If we look at the 2012 film Dredd, it’s clear to see what its inspiration was.
The film’s success also kicked off a mini-boom in Indonesian action cinema and transformed actors Iko Uwais and Joe Taslim into recognizable stars. It’s a rewatchable classic that regularly features on any of the best action movies of all time lists that float around the Internet. And deservedly so.
Have you seen The Raid? What did you think of the film? Do you have a fun fact or piece of trivia about the making of the film? Share it in the comments below!
