Short Ramblings: CLOSE RANGE

CLOSE RANGE, directed by Isaac Florentine ( Undisputed 2-4, Ninja 1-2) and starring brit-kicker Scott Adkins (Undisputed 2-4, Ninja 1-2. The Expendables 2) is a short but sweet exercise in ass kicking. It has a nice  mix of martial arts and shootouts in a Western setting ; the Mexican border.

The plot is there to string the set pieces together no question about that. But it is refresheingly honest about itself. You may go "That´s it?! THAT is the plot?! Jesus, that is thin!"

But if you do, this is most likely not for you. It is almost non-stop action. It barely set up a conflict then it is a go. It starts off great, with a long take of Scott Adkins kicking ass in close quarters, giving us a taste of  what Mr John  St Close-Range can do. He works best around people when they are close and when they are in range for his kicks or guns.

Yeah, you may say you like martial arts as you´ve enjoyed Daredevil. And there is plenty of good things to say about that show,, but this one, this Close Range is all about the action. The bland stereotype mexican gangsters that are cannon fodder here is nothing new. And it does not matter.

I don´t think most people who enjoy Daredevil would enjoy this. This does not shy away from being as blunt and direct about things as a kick to the head. And sometimes that is all you need. A good kick to the head. Some people actually do.

Sure some of the gunfights drag on a bit. An endless shooting at a house might not always be the most dynamic action sequence in the world. But would really a dialogue scene of the quality as they appear in this film be better? Fuck no.

Adkins carry himself well when he is a minimalistic stoic motherfucker, like when he plays Boyka in the Undisputeds and it works well here. He mostly get to kill and punch and kick the daylights out of people which is a great way of using Adkins.

What is a bad way of using Adkins, you might ask? The Bourne Ultimatum and fucking Zero Dark Thirty. There is a reason you don´t even remember him from either of those films.

Close Range is a pretty good showreel of Adkins talents.  Nuff said.

JOHAN FALK SERIES: PART 13: ORGANIZATSIJA KARAYAN

Previously on Johan Falk:

Helens ex-husband Örjan appears and wants to spend more time with his family. That does not go well with Johan as it is his family as well.

Meanwhile the fragile and uneasy alliance between GSI cop Sophie and gang leader Seth is still an uphill struggle for Sophie.

Plot:

A couple of movies back, we got introduced to Örjan ( Johan Hedenberg)  who all of a sudden wants to spend time with Nina and Helen, now Johan’s family and his responsibilities. Johan does not like this at all. Also Örjan as a property developer is not as clean-living as he seems. Unbeknownst to everyone else Örjan has brought some shady people to their front door. People that are a small part of something much larger. 

Örjan owes some Estonian gangsters a lot of money and when he fails to come up with the cash, they kidnap Örjans daughter Nina, Johan’s step-daughter in this case.

Now, Johan goes Liam Neeson and starts to go after the bad guys.

Jibber jabber:

Finally we get to see Johan go rogue again. That hasn´t really happened since The third wave and for some of these films Falk has kind of disappeared in favor of other characters. If I have to be critical, there has not been as much of him as the lone wolf super cop.  In Rules of the Game he got to do some shooting and punching. And now "The Falk" finally gets into some serious action. And we all love to see him kicking ass and taking names. 

I think it works having someone like Falk in a position in which his methods do not stick out like they used to. The action set pieces that the first and second series has surrounded him with other officers, very rarely has he been doing some awesome shit by himself.

But once in a while you want to see him going off on some bad ass mission of his own.

And now that it has become personal, the situation is perfect for that.

You could also say this is the movie in which the Eastern European mob has started to take notice of him. Which will in the next series play a central role.

Also we get to see Johan at the cemetery where his girlfriend Maria is buried. We haven´t seen this since Executive Protection so it is nice to see him as he is about to get married to Helen that he is about to let go off his past. Just like Martin Riggs does at the end of Lethal Weapon 4.

Johan Falk buries the past to lay foundation for the future. And makes him even more involved to what happens to Nina. It is not like he needed prior motivation to go after the bad guys. But as they kidnapped his future, he digs up his old self and does what used to do to get results.

(Wow, that is some nice bullshit I wrote right there.) 

Also, Seth manipulates Sophie for his own monetary gain. He is about to lose his house to executive auction, so he needs some dough. He gives this bullshit speak about living elsewhere and asks of Sophie of giving him a list of convicted child molesters to a particular neighborhood he is thinking of moving to. 

She wants information of him of the Estonians gangsters that have kidnapped Nina, so she gives into his demands, unknowingly that what she is doing is handling him a specific target that Seth wants to get money from and as a result the guy ends up dead. More GSI shady shenanigans. This will also come back later in the next series.

It feels like a lot of chess pieces are put on a board in this film. Stuff that will be important or referenced to later. In a lot of these films we get taught time and time again of how GSIs work has real consequences. But a larger plot is at work here

I like the scene in which Johan is interrogating a  bad guy next to a this disgusting looking pool of non-healthy looking water. He convinces the bad guy that it contains toxic waste.

The water was merely real dirty.  Nice to see renegade cops only bullshit enough to get the information, not torture the shit out of them like Neeson does in  Taken

I´ve read a complaint on the imdb page of this movie from an Estonian viewer about the depiction of eastern europeans accents and that they are all over the place 

Here is a quote:

the choice of actors depicting non-Swedes and their character names are a real mess: an Estonian in Sweden is performed by a Bulgarian, a Lithuanian Russian has completely Estonian name and is played by a Finnish Swede, a Russian from Estonia has Yugoslav name and is played by a Finnish Swede etc. The outcome is communication in horrible Russian which was really difficult and annoying to listen. 

[taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2279838/]

  

I can understand if this can be a problem with foreign viewers  if they see a language discrepancy. Also, reading and trying to seperate which one is from what country is a bit confusing as the mob depicted in the film transcends borders.  

If the complaint is accurate it is a shame that a series  taking pride in realism don´t go to the effort of recreating the accents and dialects or names that are accurately depict the demographic of the eastern european countries. 

I am not sure how much I actually care of the absolute accuracy of this. For me as a Swedish viewer I never pay attention to accents, the demographics and such that are foreign to me in these films, but I can understand how other audiences  can find it irritating. I know, because when sometimes American movies try to depict the Swedish language they almost always do a pisspoor job of it. Unless they hire Swedish actors, like in Kingsman or Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.

Last remaining thoughts:

One thing I found particularly enjoyable in this movie was the scene in which Falk is determined to go after the kidnappers. His boss Patrik calmly says that as he is a relative Falk can´t work the case. But he also knows he can´t hold hem back. So he says to Johan that he will put him on  period planning for vacation. Meaning what he does on his spare time is his own private matter. Only a real super-cop takes out the criminal garbage his way on his own time. Hell,yes!

"As a relative the rules state you can´t work on this"

"But fuck it. Let just say you have gone fishing on vacation"

That is awesome.  In action films, when the rogue cop wants to take things into his own hands  getting scolded by the captain and then takes sick leave or vacation days in spite so he can do what needs to be done. That is a trope of action cinema. here it is the chief that suggest vacation leave as to get around the system. That is GSI for you.

I love that. In fact it inspired me to write a poem. And it would be fitting to end this post with it.

Ode to Johan Falk

When Falk goes after the bad guys he will not stop

Shoot every one of them til they drop

To the chiefs in charge he will not cater

As he probably will lose his job sooner rather than later

But the chiefs only care for nothing but result

For due process and democratic law that is a big insult

Next time on Johan Falk: Johan Falk gets shot ...by a damn kid.

JOHAN FALK SERIES PART 12- ALLA RÅNS MODER (MOTHER OF ALL ROBBERIES)

Previously on Johan Falk:

Shit, I forgot to mention an important plot point in previous post; Seth Rydell being stuck in the middle of a neonazi weapon exchange. At the end Sophie confronts Seth with evidence that can really fuck him over...un less....he can become an important ...in filtrator.

Also, Frank Wagner and family has broken with his gang and their old life. Now on their way to France. Bye bye!

From the end of 107 patriots we have a beginning of a relationship between two people from different sides of the law, That starts of opposites but later warm up. I love the idea of two opposite sides come together at last. It is like out of a John Woo movie or something. Because there is belief that mankind can overcome differences.

Jesus I sound like a hippie. But here are some  shots from 107 patriots that sets them up as both friends and foes:

Oh wait, I have this first, I forgot;

"The dead one is a nazi right?"

"The technicians want to examine him"

Johan wants to get ahead of the technicians to get the wire of  the poor dead nazi they fooled into working with the cops.  Otherwise ....jesus. You guys at GSI...

Now, finally I can get to my goddamn point  from the last movie:

Seth is in a jam

This is the moment Sophie tries to coerce Seth into working for GSI as an informant/infiltrator ( who gives a fuck what it is called by now?) SHe threatens to plant dna  from an old robbery unless he cooperates.

Plot:

A team of robbers is planning one helluva heist and GSI is triyng to get ahead, by using an informant. And now that Frank is gone, they have a new recruit; Seth Rydell. A somewhat reluctant sociopath of a recruit.  But Johan is not the handler. GSI´s sole female officer Sophie Nord is on the case.And they have a bit of a power struggle. Something that makes everything a bit more interesting.

Now:

I love heist films. There is something about pulling of a caper that is fun as a concept.

Thief and Heat by Michael Mann are two of my absolute favourites. Charlie Verrick with Walter Mathaeu is another one. The friends of Eddie Coyle is a great movie with Robert Mitchum and also a real strong novel by George V Higgins. And not the least,  the fucking Parker novels by Richard Stark (a.k.a Donald Westlake), which features the biggest anti hero of them all. The template for pragmatic psychotics. 

Which leads us to Seth Rydell. This is his movie. Jens Hultén ( Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation). And for me turned him into a fucking beast of an actor. His performance and the way he plays Seth is more and more likeable, but also a pragmatic asshole , just like Parker from those wonderful novels by Stark. He thinks in terms of "what would this benefit me", but unlike Parker he is caught within the real world of bills and collectors. He also have a heart, unlike Parker.

But it is not all about Rydell. This is where the series gets interesting. Sophie as the single female in the GSI team wants to take him on in a handler/informant sort of way..  As a woman she has performance issues. The film does not gloss over that women has a harder part to play in a man s world. We get to see her struggle with the machismo world. And it is surprisingly earneast and good. We see her struggle with the relationship.It is not an easy relationship inany form. Seth is a manipulative bastard as we will  later  see. He knows how to use her and she is still  sometimes too easily convinced.. It is two wonderful performances and an wonderul dance between them and a great development on part of the writers. And a welcome addition to the series at this pint, creating that dynamic relationship.

Fast forward to the movie we are actually dealing with here. I have a tendancy to be sidetracked, forget bullshit and later need to refresh you guys on what is going on. I am a terrible narrator.

First time they meet inthis movie you can sense Sophie is a bit nervous. She yabbles about Seths outstanding parket tickets like it matters and as a lame joke. It is really uncomfortable to me as a viewer as I know she has no prior experience to this and now all of a sudden she confronts a hardened criminal

Seth calls her bluff surrounding the dna plant and she is exposed and vulnerable. She tries to play it up and match him, but it is clearly a shallow masquerade, but a perfect performance from the actress. A good scene to set up the beginning of a relationship that would last the rest of the series.

There are some things that just does not come across from still footage and that is a mistake Sophie does when Seth approaches her. She backs away. She should have stood her ground if she had more experience, I feel.

The biggest flaw of the last series was the fact that Frank was going to quit but it dragged out too far of the series. Johan kept pushing him and it became a convenient plot device to give Johan information ( kind of like how Jack Bauer tortures prisoners as a convenient plot device).  Now they actually have a real dynamic relationship to play of. None of them is in a position they want to be in. And as the criminal underworld is a very macho male dominated world, the women has to iceskate uphills ( as a great philosopher called Blade once said)

I have to give Sophie credit for trying to keep ahead in a mans world. She later confronts him in his own home and this time she nails it home, there is a lot of uncomfortable sexual threat inuendo comig from Seth, but she manages to reign him in, kind of...

But then there is the actual heist , which is a good one, Unbeknownst to Seth it takes place way ahead of schedule than planned, which meant that he could not have tipped Sophie off even if he would have wanted to. it is a great way to make the audience emphatize with him and also sow some seeds of distrust within the GSI

Unfortunatly this is also  one of those in which Johan Falk kind of disappears out of the movie  It may also feel a bit  light weight compared to other great  heist films if you only watch big budget Hollywood films, like aforementiond Heat. But it is very good by Swedish standards. It has grenade launchers and bigass machine guns and all sorts of awesome shit.

I  like to mention the part of the plot we get to spend time with Seth and the robbers that takes place in the arcepelago. There is some suspense as one of the robbers,Eloma, a complete psycho who is suspicious of Seth.

My name is Eloma I do not trust you.

Not to mention the great part in which Eloma pulls a big fucking gun when a police helicopter appears.

Pretty awesome. Too bad,Seth kills Eloma later in a cabin. Why? What do I know? He is a criminal!

Next time on Johan Falk: Johan Falk goes Liam Neeson. It´s Taken in Gothenburg

JOHAN FALK-SERIES PART 11: 107 PATRIOTS

Previously on Johan Falk:

Frank Wagner continues in the service of GSI. A sting operation and spy shenanigans on a ferry leads to the same type of shit GSI has been up to in the past. History does repeat itself.

Plot and jibber jabber:

It starts of very promising; Not in the usual murky, dark ,shady areas of police undercover workings. It starts out in a beautiful park full of families enjoying the beautiful weather. It is wrong to assume this movie is a walk in the park. Because a shooting opens. And it is a gangbang shooting that ends in tragedy . 

This scene is particularly harrowing as it might stir up some nasty feelings in people. The shooters are a bunch of foreign looking individuals and the victim a white middle class girl. But then it turns out the father of the dead girl is a right wing extremist, using his grief to further his political plans. If that is not a fucking evil asshole, I don´t know what is.  But this is a great start to the film in my opinion,to build  a conflict, but I am conflicted as well.

The plot surrounds what becomes gang warfare. For the Neonazis it is a culmination that leads to execute a particular operation that they have built up through the years. It is a very uncomfortable plot these days with the immigrant crisis and I just hope people would look at this as a dramatic piece of work and nothing else.

Frank is at the same time trying to remove himself from his gang, but Seth Rydell wont give in to his demands. This goes back to Pacinos great line; " Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in"

Another element of the movie shows up. Johan Falks wifes ex-husband Göran(Johan Hedenberg). A bit of  douchebag and unresponsible father/husband. He will play a bigger part as he is into some shady shit

It is also a movie in which a neonazi is being used by the cops and as a result gets killed. Should we be sorry for that? Every time a human being gets killed is tragic. This guy is clearly just wrapped up in something he don´t understand. In a few years he might have started thinking for himself and gotten out of this nazi nonsense. I just can´t truthfully think it is ok for the cops to let that happen. No matter what bullshit the kid has been pulled into, This shit right here. This is not the shit cops are supposed to be doing.

It is also the part I get a bit serious for a moment.

I have skimmed through an article by right wing neo nazis and they see a left wing conspiracy in this one. Which is interesting as  some people on political left accuse these films to be right wing fascism

It is very interesting that the one common complaint is the illegal methods conducted by GSI. There is no argument about that. But right wing  and left wing forces tend to take stuff at face value and use whatever political value they can from these films and use it for their own agendas. I find it uneasy to say the least.. Politicising films is one of my big pet peeves. I don´t think one should stay ignorant of the place images has in our society, how they circulate and become part of us.  But decent criticism is aschewed in favor of ideological subjective concerns that more often than not are blind to intepretations unlike their own. hence I feel a bit uneasy about this one. It is a good thriller, but it is also one easily highjacked for political purposes.

These films do not glorify  police brutality and never has. That is the point of them.

However, there are some excellent set pieces in this. One shootout/chase that takes place in an apartment building, having characters leaping between buildings.

I don´t know, I am a bit uncomfortable writing about this one. It is a good thriller, but the political context makes me weary to delve into it.

But just so this post does not become picture less, Here is Ola Falk scoring own goal in a non-related soccergame. Harmless and goofy. No nazis, not anything. Just nice to see Johan take his time with his son playing soccer. The trainer need to chill the fuck out and learn there are bigger ideas at stake than some stupid soccer game for kids, that is mostly for them to enjoy playing anyway. (...asshole...)

"Come on! Fifteen minutes left!"

"COME ON!"

"Chill the fuck out, dude."

"The goal is the other way, Ola"

That is pretty priceless in a dark movie like this. For Ola maybe not so much.  Afterwards there is a very nice scene between Johan and Ola. Johan tries to comfort him by saying that people always complain about him scoring own goals ( in a matter of way). It is a nice scene as it shows a more mature side of Johan. Now a parent, he seems to have mellowed a bit. Not too much or else we would not have had much of a movie.

Fuck. This entire excerise has made me gloomy. I needed that last bit to cheer me up. 107 patriots features some stuff that is a bit too close to home. I need to sheer myself up. Luckily the next one is a heist movie. And I love those! 

Next time on Johan Falk: A heist movie! And Archipelago-Rambo! I can really dig this! Fun is waiting again!

Short ramblings; THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE

I really like crime thrillers and crime fiction. Among my favourte writers are Elmore Leonard, Richard Stark and Dennis Lehane.

Then there is that little book I got wind of after watching the very last episode of Justified in which U.S marshal Raylan Givens  hands over a copy of The friends of Eddie Coyle to his partner Tim.

As I´d never heard of it before I decided to check up on the book and see what is what.

Written by George V Higgins, the crime story is told mostly through dialogue and does a very good job of describing the inner workings, machinations and causalities of being a low life criminal. It is a terrible way of life. The "friends" you have can turn on you in just a moment to save their own skin.

I think this notion was what made Higgins novel resonate and become such an important canon of crime fiction. The no-nonsense, un sentimental depiction of crime as  how things can play out if you are unlucky.

For the protagonist, nothing goes as planned, he tries to get himself out of a situation he gotten himself into, but fail to see his own undoing. There is tragedy in that.
I think this was what inspired Elmore Leonard into creating his psychotic goofballs.That mentality of; "it´s not my fault" even though they clearly have only themselves to blame fo rthe shit they get tmemsleves into. A more psychologically believable portrayal  of small time criminals behaviour.

Eddie gets no sentimental empathy neither from its author (Higgins)  or the film´s director Peter Yates (Bullitt) and there lies both the tragedy. The objective portrayal of a criminal, that is easy to like and understand, but he only has himself to blame for his predicament.

I can´t recommend The friends of Eddie Coyle enough.  Whether you choose to read the novel or watch the film you are in for a treat. Written by an author at his peak and directed by a filmmaker at his peak makes for a tremendous work of crime fiction to digest either verbally or visually.

JOHAN FALK SERIES PART 10: SPELETS REGLER (RULES OF THE GAME)

Previously on Johan Falk:

All the bad shit GSI was up to became public  and a lot of the crazy shenanigans came back and hit the crime fighting organization hard in the ass. As a result it  made them for a short time a lawless bunch of people. Falk and Wagner did the best they could to cover their asses. They did and it sort of worked out.

Now:

GSI is still around, but apparantly has new management. Good. Maybe they can get rid of the cut corners-mentality and stretching/breaking the law. Hopefully this will become an organization of public transparancy that truly belong is in  this day and age and befitting a true  modern democratic society.

Yeah, right...

The Plot:

Frank Wagners position is still an uncomfortable one. One could expect it would have been eased by now.  He has officially quit as civilian infiltrator and is on his way yo become a successful resteranteaur after a successful opening night. For personal reasons Wagner gets in bed with GSI again. The brother of Franks fiancee  gets dead, Wagner feels responsible for getting the boy that way as Frank was indirectly responsible when giving friendly advice surrounding money lending problems with scrupelous individuals

At the same time GSI is after the top men behind the smuggling of a new drug into Sweden. White Gold. One of copaction movies more  famous tropes is that "there is a new drug out there that kills young people". It is a well established type of  setup to use, why fix what is not broken when it works?

Franks and Johans interests meet and once again Frank is back in the murky misty world that is undercover infiltration.

Jibber jabber:

Spelets regler starts off  very James Bond-ish with Falk in a tuxedo at a casino attempting to work as an undercover cop.. A entrapment is in the works, but as usual things turn to shit, and people gets dead. It is a fun scene as it shows a little of what this film has in store for us. Plenty  of these little James Bond/Mission Impossible setups with sting operations and other spy movie tropes. They are usually very prominant in these films, but this one seem a lot like a spy movie in particular.

"My name is Falk,Johan Falk"

Watching some of Anders Nilssons old action films from the 80´s ( waay before the Falk-movies) they are usually filled with the kind of espionage nonsense (Russian Ninja a.ka Russian terminator is a good example), so there is definitely a flavour of the spy genre in these post-theatrically released Falk movies as well. I would argue that  this is a far much better movie than Russian Ninja. Except for the severe lack of Ninja. A serious offense. Movies are by default better when they have ninjas in them. It is scientifically proven. When will Johan Falk do battle with ninja?

Oh, and here is a "great" dvd cover for that particular film. This is the one I have myself:

What wonders Photoshop can produce!

There are more obvious connection to the world of 007. Remember From Russia with Love, there is a scene in which Rosa Klebb and kronsteen stands in front of Blofeld trying to desperately explain why they have failed. There is a bit of  suspension of which of them gets murdered, There is a similar scene in which Frank stands in front of the pakistan mob boss being confronted with the possbibiltu that he might be a snitch. The guy behind him, Vijay Khans head of security bites the dust instead. 

Here is the scene from From Russia with love that i am referring to:

Compare that to the similar scene in Spelets regler:

Some similarities, I´d say.

The murkiness continue as one elaborates on the characters in the series

Wagner, like Leo Gaut is a restaranteaur highly involved in crime. What really seperates Wagner and Gaut from a morally point of view? They both have cooperated with the police, they also have murdered people. As the Gaut story arc taught us, there was more to his person than just the ruthlessness. But Wagner is also a highly ruthless person, when it comes to protecting his identity and his family. As we will later see, he never hesitates to shoot someone when that is the case.

It is about perception of a person we get from which images, sounds and a narraytive that  are selected for an audience.. It is through all that we build up whether we like a character or not. Food for thought.

Some  disturbing events unfold when Johan  makes Frank work with a bunch of drugdealing morons who deals this new White Gold to university students .Heaps of dead students are headline material.We are just in film one in the new series and already this shit happens? Way to go, GSI.

Some final ramblings and thoughts:

*There is also this connection between Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon and Johan Falk ; Throughout the films Johan goes from isolated loner to family man. Same trajectory Riggs has in Lethal Weapon 1-4.  Also; Falk tries to quit smoking, like Riggs does in LW3. I have yet to see Falk use dog biscuits as a substitute. Falk seem to favor nicotine chewing gum which is a bit boring as a comaprison to dog biscuits.

*Falk gets to do some cool stuff in this one. He beats the shit out of a couple of bad guys with a pipe. Shoots another one multiple  times and later makes an enemy out of his neighbour with a chainsaw.

*There also are some  twists and fun moments that Spelets regler contains. The sting operation in the climax has a good mix of all the sorts of clandestine Mission Impossible stuff. Making good use of the plot and conflicts being set up throughout the film. Unfortunatly it is a bit bogged down with so much that is going on, which is only natural as this is the first one in a new series of films. But is impossible to discuss in a simple blog post.

Next time on Johan Falk: Gothenburg nazis!.....I hate Gothenburg nazis.

JOHAN FALK SERIES PART 9: DE FREDLÖSA (THE OUTLAWED)

Previously on Johan Falk:

Where the fuck do I even begin? All kinds of shit GSI has been up to. Illegal police procedures, shootings, harassments, civilians getting killed and so on. The list goes on and on and on and on and on.

Now:

This is a really good one. Everything the first series has built up to comes to a head. The GSI actually becomes the outlaws as the dirt they have been up to surfaces to the public. I really like this chapter as it is also thrilling and more Frank Wagner with a more substantial role to play and the whole shebang has explosions and biker gangs and shootings. What more could you ask for?

I´ve been moaning on a couple of the later Falk-entries, but this one  rival the best in the series. I think Operation Nightingale and Leo Gaut has other strengths besides the action parts, but they felt a bit like sideways chapters that tried to deepen some stuff. And I appreciate that shit now, more than before. They are crucial to Falkology. Crucial in understanding the teachings of the world of Johan Falk. I like them more now than before. I may have grown as a person because of them. Hopefully. Perhaps. But not likely.

Plot talking:

The district attorney´s house has been bombed, and GSI wants to find out who did it. They suspect a biker gang as the D.A had built a case against them. Turns out they are wrong. But who is it that targets representatives of the Swedish court of law? Also it turns out the actual attorney was away and someone else took the hit who was in the house at the time.

The media is most certainly interested in the investigation of the bombing of a district attorney and everything leads back to a case in which a former GSI-member Tommy (who got killed. See Part 4 of this beautiful saga) manipulated evidence to gain a conviction. The individual that got the conviction has seemingly targeted the Swedish justice system. Cops, attorneys you name it. The war on law has begun.  But why?

The bad guys has targeted the individuals as they are representatives of law and order and a specific case,  but the real culprits were GSI. They were the ones fabricating the evidence and gave the investigators and the district attorney the material on which they built the case. The higher up’s, despite them accepting and silently enforcing this type of institutional policy will have nothing to do with GSI now. What assholes, GSI are now hunted. They are now the outlaws. Johan Falk with the help of Frank Wagner must clean up this mess before more bombings and assassinations on the Swedish justice system.

The personal problems between Sophie and her husband leads to him leaking to the press about GSI methods of using civilian infiltrators. And more people get hurt. There is also a very good scene in which she bitch slap the husband when she founds out.Pretty funny and not always you see that in movies.  

Uh-oh

^Slap*

Owww...

I would also take this time on making people more aware of Sophie as a female character. She is awesome and will later on play a larger part in things to come.

Frank is still stuck in the stupid-ass Catch 22-machinery of GSI. Johan wants his help tracking the bomber and who and why is targeting the district attorney. Falk forces him yet again to something and also gives Frank a half-assed promise that this is the last he will ask of him.

Jibber jabber:

The whole mentality of getting quick results to show for media is culminating in a long spiral of non-transparent activity and police work. And now that media has found out about the  questionable work ethic, GSI is being hung out to dry.  But are they really the ones to blame?

For Falkologists, it is also interesting to note that we see for the first time in the last few movies Johan Falk operating for a short time outside the law, When the higher up´s want him to come in. for debriefing he basically tells them to go to hell.

Falk basically tells his superior "Have a lovely day,assholes"
 way before Schwarzenegger does the same in Escape Plan.

Too bad Falk never gets to do anything awesomelly illegal while GSI is ostracized , but you have to enjoy the little things you get in life.

As the whole story of this series is based on an actual case, we can see here the real problem is not GSI. The ones in charge are the ones that made this whole situation possible. A situation that people are put in impossible situations in a world that is governed by no rules but self-preservation.

A question could be asked that what good does that type of policing do. What kind of damage would that do to a democracy in the long run? When the loss of belief in the system increases would that lead to increase in private policing? Would that be more of an acceptable thing? What happens to due process then? Public insight and transparency into the operations? Would it be the same thing? 

It´s an exciting thriller that rounds up everything the previous movies has shown us and this one deals with consequences. The series has been just as much about Falk as Wagner, even though Franks participation in  the later ones were mostly smaller, it still gives the impression that he is part of this world whether he likes it or not Frank is getting drawn in, when Johan has no other way of tackling a situation. Frank becomes that easy go-to guy, which really is not fair. But there you go. What a shit world one can live in.

The bad guy who seeks revenge on certain individuals within the law enforcement holds a personal grudge because of how GSI stitched him up. The shit GSI made against him led to a tragic personal disaster in which his wife and daughters were raped/killed/suicide. It was a pretty complicated explanation in a heavy expositional sequence between Frank and Johan, so I can´t really remember the exact details. As a scholar within Falkology I should be ashamed of myself. But I am also a lazy bastard and have also poor attentional skills.

"Blablabla... and then this stuff happened.. Blablabla.
Johan, do you even pay attention to what I am saying?"

After seeing Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice and seeing those two righteous assholes deal with their own ideologies surrounding crime fighting, I sure would like   to see Martin Beck confront Johan Falk in Beck v Falk: Dawn of Swedish justice. Two film genres on confronting different ways to deal with crime.

We get insight into a police organization that series like Beck or Wallander are not very interested in. Those movies are more about the hum drum police legwork. Procedural stuff. And it´s very boring.

At the end of the film, Falk actively helps Frank out of a dangerous situation and in some way tries to redeem his previous actions.

De fredlösa is a very good roundup of what we have learned in Falkology so far about Swedish police work. It is painted with shades of grey and is not a very glamorous depiction. It is a very disturbing depiction of how an organization are more concerned with quick results, but as the heat is turned on, they shift the blame. 

This type of depiction is nothing new to cop action movies. I use Dirty Harry a lot in comparison to Johan Falk, (I fucking love Dirty Harry as you can tell) but those movies are templates from which a certain type of movie operates. They may not make a lot of these types of films anymore over in Hollywood, but look at The Dead pool (no, not the Marvel character), the last Harry Callahan film in which his superiors seem more concerned with media attention. But deals with it in such a shallow way. The movie itself is a sleazy populistic 80´s film. Which makes it definitely fit in with the Dirty Harry canon as the original was a sleazy 70´s populistic film, But here the idea  is dealt more sincerely. How would a police organization functio that would work under such a mandate of appeasing the masses with fast results.. The institutional workings are interesting.

And as it is based on an actual case, one can question the mentality and the pressure that certain institutions are under to deliver, when it is mostly about short sighted easy-to-portray work that media can present.   Is this the kind of police work we are facing in a media hungry world

This shot of Frank at the end of the movie is haunting and beautiful.

It is also set to Bengt Nilssons exceptional score on which I have yet to acknowledge here on this blog.. But his music is an important part of the series and can be both powerful, melodramatic and beautiful at times. A Swedish Hans Zimmer.

Johan Falk will return in Spelets regler