Is It Woke?: ‘Dragged Across Concrete’

Is 2018’s Dragged Across Concrete woke? No. Not at all. It is defiantly derogatory. If I were asked on national television to define “woke,” I’d probably say, “It’s the exact opposite of Dragged Across Concrete, a movie that is pro-police brutality.'”

Then I’d smile and politely promote my new column, “Is It Woke?”, here on Decider dot com.

Dragged Across Concrete is a grimy, racist, homophobic, misogynistic crime porno written and directed by S. Craig Zahler, whose gory, genre-bending 2015 western Bone Tomahawk mixed cowboys with cannibals. Dragged stars Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn as crooked cops who speak in stylized neo-noir pitter-patter while eating egg sandwiches. They’re a pair of bastards and proud of it.

The movie came out during a gentler time, a few years after President Trump made public displays of prejudice fashionable again but before conservatives collectively decided to turn the harmless word “woke” into a multi-purpose slur that could be hurled at anyone or anything that challenged their uptight ideologies. Dragged Across Concrete wasn’t a hit when it came out, but it’s now popular on Netflix.

And I get it. I hate to admit it but Dragged Across Concrete is fun because it is proudly transgressive—just relentless anti-woke shlock. I know that “woke” is a silly putty word for some, but not me. There are dozens of definitions being invented on the fly by right-wing media types selling anti-woke books but “woke” basically means politeness. You know, respect others, be kind, the stuff you learned in Kindergarten. Is it that simple? I think so, yes.

And Dragged Across Concrete is impolite to the extreme, which is its only charm. This movie is for naughty boys who want to burn down the world mommy and daddy subsidize. It has everything an aspiring heretic could want in a b-movie: boobs, blood, and bad words. The only thing it’s missing a “trigger warning” title card. I couldn’t disagree more with the movie’s  retrograde politics, but I must admit I had a good time clutching my pearls.

Dragged Across Concrete is two-and-a-half hours of brutal violence that only really fails when it tries to be comic or subversive, like when a pair of Black characters wear whiteface during a bank robbery or a scene where we learn Vaughn’s character is dating a woman of color. These not-so-subtle and muddled attempts at commentary dilute Zahler’s otherwise intoxicating cinematic bile. He’s at his best when channeling the fears and desires of angry white men. When he gives a voice to those who already have loud voices, we remember that this is a monster movie, and it’s at its most entertaining when he focuses on his monsters.

Speaking of, Vaughn starred in Zahler’s previous opus Brawl in Cell Block 99, where he played a bruiser forced into a life of crime, and he’s almost too good for this follow-up. He has superb chemistry with his infamous co-star, though. Gibson is a famously troubled man with a long history of making anti-semitic and racist remarks. He is also a bona fide movie star who is good at pretending to be a chain-smoking bigot with a badge. Gibson is a scumbag, but once upon a time, before he showed the world his hatefulness, the man was a uniquely vulnerable leading man, an action star with intense, manic eyes who looked like he could explode or sob at any minute.

I know that woke folks– or wolks as I call them–have an annoying tendency to wag their fingers, and no one likes having a finger wagged in their face, even if the person doing the wagging is right. I have been known to tsk-tsk from time to time. Sometimes, though, I want to watch a movie about evil people doing fucked-up things, and I want to watch it because I’m a grown-up creep who already knows the difference between right and wrong. I don’t think a movie like Dragged Across Concrete can turn someone into a racist, but I believe a racist would watch this movie and think, “OMG, I’m such a Mel Gibson.”

There are multiple reactionary premises powering Dragged Across Concrete‘s narrative, the vilest one being that people of color are inherently criminal. This is also a popular Republican political position. The most hilarious one is “fund the police.”Both Gibson and Vaughn’s characters are suspended without pay for police brutality, which they complain about bitterly. But then it’s revealed that they’re both broke and decide to steal money from people stealing money.

If only cops were paid better, Dragged Across Concrete laments.

If Dragged Across Concrete has a hero, it’s Tory Kittles as Henry, a Jean ValJean-type convicted for surviving and trying to provide for his family. Henry’s story is the closest thing the movie has to a moral center. Like Gibson and Vaughn’s characters, he needs fast money for good reasons. Unlike Gibson and Vaughn, he’s not a privileged white man who squandered his career. He’s an ex-con who needs a break and the only person in the movie to do a decent, selfless thing.

It’s no fun being a woman in Zahler’s seedy fictional world. It’s no fun being a black man either, but at least you might get a lead role. No. The women in Dragged Across Concrete are angelic daughters and sex workers, smartasses, and human sacrifices. I’d say roughly 30% of these characters are naked. If the women in your life aren’t related to you, don’t trust them is the vibe. The closest thing to any real human connection or intimacy between Gibson and Vaughn’s characters is a shared moment of woman hatred during the movie’s final moments.

Dragged Across Concrete is a junk masterpiece that lacks any redeeming qualities; it is a crude, right-wing wish-fulfillment fantasy with a few grim third act surprises. Zahler sympathizes with its two lead lawmen up to a point, and then they’re justly punished for their wrongdoings, which, as far as I can tell, is being cool as hell fascists who got a little too greedy.

Zahler is a true low-budget grindhouse master who reminds me of Quentin Tarantino if Tarantino had never won awards or been praised. He understands that true noir is part fairy tale, part nightmare. The made-up city of Bulwark, where Dragged Across Concrete takes place, is a bland, mid-sized nowhere populated by predators and prey. In this dark mirror image of our society, psychos thrive, innocents suffer, and justice is a 9mm round to the gut.

So, is Dragged Across Concrete woke?

Evidence For:  There’s a small glimmer of self-awareness. This is not a completely amoral movie. Zahler knows his cops are anti-heroes even though you get the sense he wants them to spend their lives happily kicking the shit out of unarmed people.

Evidence Against: It’s pretty over-the-top copaganda. The stereotypes are ugly, the sexism is gross, and the gay jokes are dated. The entire movie is one long offensive joke told by your Trump-supporting Uncle during Thanksgiving circa 2016.

Final Judgment: I am pretty confident it is NOT WOKE. Dragged Across Concrete was designed in a laboratory to make liberals cringe and conservatives hoot until the last twenty minutes when Zahler delivers a few surprisingly positive twists. 

John DeVore is a sensitive and thoughtful writer living in New Woke City. His favorite movie is Fiddler On The Roof, followed by Hellraiser. Follow his politically-correct narcissism on Twitter.