Redemption Day (2021)

After terrorists kidnap his wife, a war hero races against time to get her back.

I’ve written before about opening sequences and protracted shots, and I’ve said that they raise the bar for what comes next. On Redemption Day, what comes next is too American and cliché for my standards, so it becomes the exception to the rule. Regarding the narrative, everything you expect to happen does happen, and so does the time you expect it to happen. There are no twists or no difficulties in completing the mission. The characters are forgettable, with the “good” being highly skilled and the “bad” ones highly incompetent and stupid, which makes an extreme disanalogy. The dialogue is worse than the “bad” ones mentioned above, so no further comment. Then, directing, acting, choreography, and editing are mediocre at best.

My distaste for the film has nothing to do with anything I’ve mentioned so far, though. People do what they can with what they have. My distaste is because of its propagandistic intentions. The film’s oversimplification of who is “good” and who is “bad” is borderline insulting. The world doesn’t work this way, and Islam, or any other religion for that matter, has nothing to do with the monstrosities the human species is capable of. That is something that the film is trying hard to show but fails to do so.

I would prefer if co-writer/director Hicham Hajji made a film on the two innocent, young female, Scandinavian hikers who were found beheaded in Morocco two years ago. That would be a challenge, wouldn’t it? No superfluous heroism, no formulaic scripts, no childish gunfights, no need for constant background music to dictate to the audience how to feel, and no goddamn propaganda that nobody needs. Filmmaking should be, among others, challenging, intriguing, and innovative. As fun and entertaining as the days of Commando (1985) may have been, they are long gone, and we all have moved on. I hope some studios do the same.

P.S. Andy Garcia has no place in this film.

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Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!

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