Suicide Squad; Abuse, comedy and box office hits
Suicide Squad rolled into cinemas last week, netting itself a sizeable amount of the box office after months of enigmatic, well-edited trailers and a cleverly targeted marketing campaign. Audiences seemed to lap it up, indicating that DC finally have the hit they wanted on their hands. But on viewing it, I couldn’t help but think that there was a more interesting film in it than the pop-culture baiting movie showcased. Hints of a stronger theme underneath the gloss, something that would be incredibly difficult to pull off; and I had to wonder if it was something that it had been at some point in the past.
Prior to release there had been talk that David Ayer had previously turned in a darker film than what ended up onscreen. I can believe that. Tonally the film shifts between lighthearted humour and comic-book antics and a study of one of the darker sides of the human condition, that of abuse.
This takes many forms throughout the film, through the domestic abuse of El Diablo towards his family, the abusive relationship between Joker and Harley and the emotionally manipulative nature of Deadshot toward his daughter and ex-wife. Then there’s the physical abuse of Killer Croc, June Moon being wracked mentally by an uncaring, possessive spirit and the main story of a team being forced into action by a military figurehead. The film deals with the abuse of prisoners, of the system; the entire movie seems predicated toward the theme by its very nature. Every main character is put-upon, bullied and hated, which makes the movie sit uncomfortably with the idea of a bunch of villains off on some “jolly japes”.
Of course, there’s other issues if you’re studying it clinically. The editing at the beginning of the film is a choppy mess; not helped by the music tracks chopping and changing, constant flashbacks and After Effects lighting smearing the screen. There’s also a truncated feel, probably due to the above stories being edited down considerably.
Certainly, from the list of deleted scenes you can see that there was definitely a lot more to the film than presented on release. Even an apparent side-character, Captain Boomerang, had a wider role, making other members squirm via his racist and sexist comments and become a thorn in Harley’s side. And this is among other, longer scenes that really nail the theme of abuse to the door.
These included Joker subjecting Harley Quinn to physical violence and further delving into a one-sided, thoroughly nasty relationship. This may have been removed because creating a fictional drama about any abusive relationship is a naturally difficult subject to do so with care, moreso in the light of a comic-book blockbuster. Of course it heavily depends on the messaging. Harley being a victim who rises above it through her own strength and leaves Joker to set out on her own is an essentially positive message, even if the journey would be difficult to portray without playing down or softening the subject.
In the final edit he abuses her to “create” her via electro-shock in the asylum, so that backstory its still there, lingering in the mind of the viewer. But by not touching on it at all afterwards, leaving it unspoken, is almost as uncomfortable as dealing properly with that aspect of her background, and it could be said that touching on a subject that’s taboo in mainstream cinema would bring it to the fore and help create discussion.
That said, this might have put Warner Brothers, with an edit that cut so deeply into such an ugly side of the human condition, in a difficult position. Suicide Squad, as it is, isn’t the breezy, comedic blockbuster they sold in the trailers, and while you could argue the theme of abuse gives an otherwise brainless film some much-needed depth, it’s not a typical theme of a big budget comic-book movie. Yet by not dealing with it past a certain point, and by the time the film has devolved into a prototypical CGI “big finish”, it feels like an incredibly conspicuous dropped ball. You can’t leave such an important theme hanging.
Personally I believe that Warners should have had some faith in that first edit, if the deleted scenes are anything to go by. It might’ve been a difficult film to view but it wouldn’t feel so uncomfortably unfinished. Filmmakers being brought onto tentpole projects only for their vision to conflict with that of the studio isn’t anything new; you only have to look as far as last year to see Fantastic Four as a prime example. And while Suicide Squad certainly doesn’t suffer in the same way for all of its reshoots and edits, one has to wonder why directors get such free reign early in production only for it to get so far before these issues came up. Josh Trank’s original vision for Fantastic Four sounds pretty compelling, a darker take that delves into Cronenberg-esque body-horror, but it certainly doesn’t sound like the sort of film a studio would greenlight.
Suicide Squad is another film that feels like it could’ve been so much more. Now Geoff Johns takes the reigns at Warner, sidelining Zack Snyder, it’ll be interesting to see as to whether the films start taking a lighter tone more in line with the marketing. I personally don’t think that’s necessarily the best idea, given reaching parity with Marvel might further create an atmosphere of homogenisation, but in the light of Suicide Squad’s success as a “comedy” post-reshoot/edit, it’ll be interesting to see what route they take and whether or not it succeeds.
