NO ESCAPE Trailer

As a person I am usually against being politically correct because people become extremely sensitive to certain issues. Even then I must admit my hypocrisy when certain issues are expressed in the most inane and simple ways just to sell a ticket. This is not something unusual for Hollywood, many of their films have no sense of true empathy for characters that can be considered “other”. It’s easier for them and for you to just assume “other” means bad guy. Yet, you can’t take this way of thinking into the real world. It doesn’t work in real life but it keeps on getting pushed regardless. All this is in relation to the trailer for No Escape.

This film is directed by John Erick Dowdle. It features Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan in leading roles. In the description, an American family gets caught in an Asian country’s coup d’état. They seek safe escape as foreigners are not excluded from execution. My first thought is that even though by definition coups are sudden violent takeovers, there has to be hints of unrest or turmoil. This is especially apparent in the scene when riot police were ready to battle the mob. Not an ideal situation or country of residence for a family. It just may be a case of hindsight being 20/20 though.

In the area of basic film analysis, minority representation in Hollywood films are often trivial or based in stereotypes for the purpose of simplicity. In this trailer, the native people are violent killers going after foreigners with no stake in their affairs. It would be fair to say condensing the material within the scenes takes priority so background information has to be left out. Even then, there are interesting facts to dissect the film about in regards to the story. One fact is that filming took place in Thailand. This country struggles with severe political unrest and has experienced a coup in May of 2014 by their armed forces. Indeed, a “coincidence” that they chose this country to film in.

In the trailer and on the IMDb page, there is no specific mention of the story’s location. Brosnan’s character only refers to their general area as Asia which is very broad. An argument can be made that this ambiguity is to cease denouncing any specific Asian country. My counter-argument is that any Asian (southeastern in this case) country can be perceived to be as chaotic as the film suggests their “Asia” is. It happens, people assume stereotypes.

The most terrible part of this is that it is single perspective for a movie made to be an action thriller. This genre rarely if ever delves into other points of view or into deep socio-political issues. In real life, these things are never as simple as bad guys have taken over. More important, everyone should never believe it can be that simple, because blind assumption is always folly. In observations regarding the narrative, there is barely anything more emotionally baiting than an American family with young children embroiled in danger. For a typical audience, they will identify with the family rather than the crazy terrorists with guns. Like most people, it would be reasonable from their perspective to assume everyone dissimilar from the family is a potential threat.

As a film, it seems average. There are good things like the movement of the camera as the terrorists or coup supporters enter the hotel. It moves as if it were the eye of a person peeking over the railing. One thing I disagree with is throwing the daughter over the building. Not only is it morally troubling but surreal in its execution. They used speed ramping as Wilson throws her down. It’s probably used to increase dramatic effect but instead cheapens the act: it’s supposed to be a heroic act of father saving daughter but they added a technique that adds no emotional value. Speed ramping only works to promote the vanity of a violent act as the film 300 can attest.

The title is another gripe. It’s typical of this genre but makes light of the situation in the film. As if it’s an impossible situation to survive. This film is not on my “must see” list but everyone has their preferences. If you like Owen Wilson or the aging former Bond, Pierce Brosnan, then by all means. For me, there is just far too much over-simplification. Furthermore, the focus is on the least interesting aspects of the story.

No Escape comes to the U.S and France September 2nd 2015 and the U.K September 4th 2015. There are currently no other release dates available.

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(top image source: The Weinstein Company)