Some would argue that the slow pace of Dragged Across Concrete was intentional (which it was) for the sake of style. But damn it was so slow. This film barely gets a recommendation only because it finally gets interesting at the end. The gory violence is also stylistically crucial to the film as well, but if I were ever confronted with the issue of whether violence in cinema is gratuitous, this is the movie I’d point to as proof we can become desensitized to gun violence and lose several levels of sympathy toward the death of its victims.
Dragged Across Concrete (2019) Written and directed by S. Craig Zahler. Starring Torry Kittles, Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Michael Jai White, Laurie Holden, Thomas Kretschmann, Fred Melamed. Dragged Across Concrete screened at the 2019 Palm Springs International Film Festival.
6 out of 10 stars
You said..
“Vogelmann manipulates and murders his victims are memorizing, troubling, and dare I say gratuitous at times.”
I think you meant “mesmerizing”.
bone tomahawk desensitized me to cannibalism and cutting people in half tbh