The Raid, the landmark action film is now on YouTube

A benchmark in action films made 12 years ago, still insurmountable.

Why blame the Romans? Modern versions of the Gladiator battles still exist. At least in the case of the Romans there was yet another reason why spectators and the warring generals used to encourage them and that is to harden the minds and hearts of the peoples who were exposed to so much war and strife in those times. With the over-the-top gore that is filling movies today one wonders if film makers cannot make a blockbuster without the mindless violence and bloodshed. I am reminded of Aldous Huxley’s quote, “Cruelty and compassion come with the chromosomes. All men are merciful and all are murderers. Doting on dogs, they build their Dachaus. Fire whole cities and fondle the orphans…Whom shall we persecute, for whom feel pity?”

I haven’t watched the recent Tamil, Kannada and Telugu slasher films (am actually avoiding the crap) but while watching a small YouTube teaser of the recently made “Vikram”, I noticed that one shot was actually copied from this landmark action film from Indonesia, the one where a hidden machete is pulled from underneath a table. When it was released in 2011 the world woke up to the martial arts of Indonesia, Pencak silat. The film is directed by Welsh film maker Gareth Evans who also went on to make a sequel, The Raid 2 which went even over the top of Raid (released in the U.S.A as The Raid Redemption). If not for one scene I would have recommended that film too. Iko Uwais shines in this film as he does in the other Gareth Evans’ films, Merantau and Raid 2. Though talk about making a Hollywood sequel was in the pipeline, that never happened and I guess for good reason.

Now that it has been uploaded in full with English subtitles, go for it and yes it takes some stomach to watch but then again remember this is a martial arts film not just mindless slash and gore as over glorified by our slashers from India.