Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
I'm a child of the late 1980s, the first Golden Age of music videos. As a result, I've always made a point to notice the names of video directors and pay close attention to which ones stood out as superior visionaries in their field. Throughout most of the 1990s and into the early part of this decade, F. Gary Gray was right at the top of the list of accomplished video directors, working primarily in the field of hip-hop music. While Hype Williams practically introduced the fish-eye, sci-fi look to his video style, Gray made his short works look like little movies. There's a touch of old Hollywood in many of his videos, and often he has called upon the musicians to do a little bit of acting in his works.
Watch Ice Cube's "It Was A Good Day" clip, or Cube and Dr. Dre's "Natural Born Killaz" bit of awesomeness. Hell, Dre's "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" has a ballroom dance number stuck in the middle. These are all videos that convey either a story or sense of narrative that is interesting to watch. Two of his best known clips are the award-winning, gorgeous "Waterfalls" by TLC and the hypnotic "Ms. Jackson" by OutKast. Gray has also worked with such dignitaries as Babyface, R. Kelly, Cypress Hill, Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah, and Jay-Z
Gray built of his friendship with Ice Cube and cast the rapper in his Gray's first feature, the terrifically funny 1995 comedy FRIDAY. The following year came the less than terrific SET IT OFF (with Queen Latifah). My favorite Gray film was 1998's THE NEGOTIATOR, with Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, which was his first to blur the line between hero and villain. Five years later, he had two films released--Vin Diesel's A MAN APART and the spirited caper romp, THE ITALIAN JOB. Gray stumbled a bit with 2005's BE COOL, although he did include one of the sexiest Uma Thurman sequences in history in that film, so I'll give him some leeway on that one.
I think Gray has made his best film since THE NEGOTIATOR in his latest work, LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, in which Gerard Butler plays a man who watches his wife and young daughter killed before his eyes, and then watched the killer get a light sentence because of a technicality and a shady deal with an assistant district attorney played by Jaime Foxx. Ten years after this miscarriage of justice, Butler surfaces to wreck havoc on those he feels wronged him, and he somehow does so from behind the walls of a prison cell. The movie is a great exercise in paranoia and thrill making, but it also makes the audience uneasy about who we're supposed to be rooting for exactly. More importantly, it has some of the best assassinations I've see in ages. I had a lot of fun watching the film earlier this week and then talking to Gray the following day about it as a raw piece of entertainment and a piece of social commentary, We also get updates on some fascinating upcoming projects that I hope Gray manages to get off the ground. Enjoy F. Gary Gray…
F. Gary Gray: Hello!
Capone: Hey, Gary, how are you?
FGG: I’m all right, how are you?
Capone: Great. So one of my colleagues here in Chicago, after we saw the movie last night, said of LAW ABIDING CITIZEN, “So basically it’s SAW, but with lawyers.” What do you think about that?
FGG: [lauhgs] I don’t know. I’ve never seen any of the SAW movies, so I can’t even comment on them. They are successful, so that’s the only thing I can say, but I’ve never seen a SAW movie.
Capone: It’s interesting that you have kind of completely flipped the classic definitions of hero and villain, maybe even made them obsolete in this movie. We don’t really know who we are supposed to identify with, and it changes because it changes over the course of the film I think and even what our definition of a "crime" is. Is that something that you loved about the way that this film was written?
FGG: Absolutely. I think the fact that the characters are complex and the story is complex makes it unique. It kind of transcends the genre. In most films of this genre, there is a clear antagonist and a clear protagonist, and you can pretty much predict what they are going to do. I think that when you go to the movies, you want to experience a film and a story that takes you for a ride that you can’t predict every moment and I think that’s one of the strengths of LAW ABIDING CITIZEN. It keeps you guessing and you will, along the way, be surprised. I think it’s a great chess game between Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler. I think it’s unique for those reasons.
Capone: A chess game is a perfect way of describing it, because it’s about anticipating the next move and not just about reacting. There are some really great action set pieces here, but your focus is definitely on this layered, character-driven story and you are actually giving the audience a little bit of credit and a little chance to use their brain along the way, so I appreciated that.
FGG: Right, yhat’s great. I’m glad you noticed that. I love movies and sometimes you feel like the filmmaker has to dumb it down for whatever reason. I’m working with really smart producers and a smart film company that trusts our instincts as filmmakers and allowed us to have some fun and cut out some of the more pointed moments and allow the audience to think a little bit, therefore find themselves along the ride and in some cases surprised and on the edge of their seats and having a little more fun, as opposed to being talked down to.
Capone: Right. I get this sense that Gerard Butler’s character might have been slightly psychotic even before this happens but that his family was the only thing keeping him at bay. But once they're gone, the pin is out and he just explodes. He's crazy but also incredibly intelligent.
FGG: He was certainly incredibly intelligent and one of the best at what he did. I don’t know if he was psychotic or not, but it takes a special person to be a think-tank assassin. And to piss off a person who is very good at that is the makings of a good movie. [Laughs]
Capone: And with Gerard Butler, when you really think about it, he isn’t doing that much in this movie. He is sitting in a cell, and that’s a huge challenge to come off as threatening. It’s the classic Hannibal Lecter scenario: he’s doing all of these things while just sitting in a cell. That’s a really tough challenge and I hope Butler gets a certain amount of credit as an actor for pulling it off. He gets plenty of credit from movie to movie for being a badass…
FGG: {laughs] Yeah, I think he will get a lot of credit for both after this movie. I think people will see what he is capable of. We experience a full range of emotions with Gerard playing Clyde Shelton, and it is challenging when you have to be dynamic while sitting handcuffed to a table for most of the movie. I think that he is extremely dynamic, and the chemistry between him and Jamie is just as dynamic as any of the action sequences or set pieces, if not more. I always knew and understood that their chemistry would be the spine of the movie. I think that the screen lights up when they are together, and that’s what you want as a director when you have a story like this.
Capone: And of course Jamie Foxx is not underrated as an actor, but yeah they are really good together. I also liked Viola Davis as the mayor--hat was a nice touch.
FGG: Yeah, she is very strong.
Capone: Philadelphia has a reputation of being a tough town with tough people living there. Were you able to use that as part of the backdrop for this film?
FGG: I think that Philadelphia was an amazing backdrop for the film to serve the mood and the subject matter. I was going for a neo-noir feel and I used a lot of the elements of the noir era. We had great locations like the prison, which had never been used before in a film, which was built in the 1800s, and the city hall, which was built in the 1800s, and the smoke stacks and just using all of those elements that remind you of the noir era, with kind of a retro feel. All of these things that Philadelphia had to offer served the moodiness and the tone of the movie, and that’s what I was going for, and Philadelphia was perfect for that.
Capone: I love the idea that by close to the end of the film, literally everyone in the city thinks that anything could blow up at any time. It’s almost worse than your classic definition of terrorism, which usually goes after prime targets. With this one, it’s like “Yeah, it could be anything.” [Laughs]
FGG: Right. That’s what we were going for. Once the scene with the judge happens, which we don’t want to give that away, because it’s a great surprise…
Capone: One of my favorite scenes in a movie this year, I think.
[Both laugh]
FGG: Once that happens, all bets are off; you have no idea what’s going to happen. You can’t touch anything. You are just fully exposed and that was the goal, and I love the fact that the audience, from a great part of the movie is scared to death and have no idea what’s coming next.
Capone: Let me just talk a little bit about the political implications here, because there was a line that Jamie Foxx says, “Fuck his civil rights.” For a black man to say that, that’s pretty incredible. [Both laugh] The whole movie seems like a total dig at the justice system, because people are are talking about how it’s rotting from the inside. It’s pretty scathing.
FGG: It really is entertainment first, honestly. In order to make a movie, you have to have conflict. We touch on a subject matter that suggests that we could use some reform in the system and the truth is, the people who are in charge and the powers that be that are in positions to affect change, sometimes they abuse that power. And no I have never been wronged by the system or anything like that, but it is a realistic scenario where a person can primarily be focused on their conviction rate and not on distributing equal justice. That in itself could use some adjusting. But, again, its really entertainment first. I don’t think we were trying to make a huge political stand or to make some sort of a dig or play on civil rights. I think, like any good movie, there has to be conflict. If you want to read into it a little deeper…
[Both Laugh]
Capone: I did. I’ve got to ask you real quick about two things that you may or may not have coming up. Is THE BRAZILLIAN JOB still alive and well?
FGG: They're developing it right now.
Capone: It is. Are you still a part of that or are you not sure?
FGG: We’ll see what happens when they are done.
Capone: And then this one thing that has been on your slate for a while is this Marvin Gaye biopic…
FGG: Yeah, that’s also on hold, because of the music rights.
Capone: Is that what it is? I read David Ritz’s Marvin Gaye biography a while back, and I don’t know if that’s the basis of the movie or not, but as I was reading it, my immediate reaction was “I can’t believe this story hasn’t been made into a movie yet.”
FGG: I know, it’s an incredible story and incredibly profound.
Capone: Even just the last years of his life even, forgetting what led up to it, just the last couple of years is an incredible story.
FGG: It truly is.
Capone: I hope that that happens…
FGG: Me too! I think it would be incredible.
Capone: Well it’s good to hear it’s still alive in some form.
FGG: Well, thanks a lot.
Capone: Thanks a lot man.
FGG: I appreciate it and hopefully you got what you needed.
Capone: I did, absolutely. Thanks a lot!
FGG: All right.
Capone: Bye.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
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