Judge Dredd

Recently I had the pleasure to see the new film, “Dredd”, a second attempt to put the famous (?) British cartoon character Judge Dredd onto the big screen.  The prior attempt from 1995 was fairly disappointing.  This time around they got it right.

 2000 AD Comic.  Despite taking place in the USA in the 22^nd century, the cartoon is British.  It began in 1977.  One thing I learned living overseas is that British comic books follow a different format than American ones.  The Americans (DC, Marvel) tend to focus on a specific character or team (X-Men, Avengers) throughout the entire issue.  The British ones seem to offer a variety of different comics in the same book. 

            An Irish friend of mine back in 6^th grade turned me on to Beano, which included – among others – “Dennis the Menace”.  This DtM was completely different than the US variety by Hank Ketcham (both of which started in 1951, by the way).  The British kid had black hair, a striped sweater, and was malicious and mean-spirited, whereas the American was simply a boy being a boy, much to Mr. Wilson’s annoyance but far from being a nasty brat. 

            2000 AD was darker, more adult, closer to “Heavy Metal” though without the provocative cheesecake.  Its top cartoon was Judge Dredd, but this was by no means the only one.  My buddy Myles really liked Strontium Dog, but I really didn’t enjoy any of Dredd’s competitors in 2000 AD.

 Judge Dredd.   By the 22^nd century, urban sprawl on the east coast of the US has reached the point where the entire coast, from Florida to Maine, as far west as the Appalachians (not quite the Mississippi) has become one giant, continuous city, Mega City One.  There is a west coast version, and the vast distance between them is a nuclear wasteland, the Cursed Earth, home to mutants and outcasts.  Much of MC1 is “blocks”, huge apartment buildings with schools, hospitals, malls, and over 70k to 100k people each.  The blocks are so self-sufficient that many citizens can live their entire lives without ever leaving their blocks.  They also develop an intense loyalty to their block, which was exploited by the Sov (USSR) judges in a series called “Block Mania.” 

            Mega City One is patrolled by a force of judges.  These are highly trained and heavily armed police officers who have authority not merely to arrest, but also to try suspects on the spot and sentence them, possibly execute them if appropriate.  As ominous as this sounds, the judges’ policy is to arrest suspects whenever possible, and “summary executions” per se are rare, more like simple deaths in combat; the survivors are brought back to “iso-cubes” (incarceration) or banished to the Cursed Earth.  With the notable exception of Judge Cal, the judges rarely abuse their immense discretion and authority and consistently remain conscientiously devoted to enforcing the law, none more than Judge Dredd himself.

            Dredd himself is not even the chief judge – a position he consistently declines, as he prefers to remain “on the street” – but merely the most feared and respected.  He’s tough but fair, completely incorruptible (and there are corrupt judges) and as hard on his fellow judges as he is on perps (perpetrators, i.e. crooks).  Similar to Beetle Bailey, he never takes off his helmet – even at home – and we never see his upper face or his eyes.  He has no GF (or BF), no wife, no friends, no social life, no home life, no hobbies or interests. Dredd is essentially “on duty” 24/7 and doesn’t really have an “off switch”. That’s part of his charm.   

            His weapon – as that of all judges - is a multi-purpose blaster, the Lawgiver, which fires bullets, high explosives, or incendiaries, and is coded to his fingerprints.  As Jay discovers in “Dredd”, bad things happen to a perp foolish enough to try to use a judge’s blaster himself.  Dredd also has a beefed up combat bike, the Law Master, with cannons, which can drive itself if necessary.

 Baddies.  Most of the time he faces small-time crooks, who he dispatches without much difficulty.  Because robots have taken most of the jobs in Mega City One, ordinary citizens are unemployed and bored, and typically turn to crime simply by default.  Of all of Judge Dredd’s opponents, the most devious and dangerous were Judge Caligula (essentially based on the real Emperor Caligula) and Judge Death, an otherworldly judge who “judgessss” Mega City One’s entire living population as guilty of the crime of life.  I’m glad to hear that if the 2012 film succeeds in developing second sequel, that story line of the third film is tentatively planned to include Judge Death and his fellow Dark Judges.  Don't get your hopes up, though: Karl Urban says that as yet (2020), there are no plans for a follow-up.  Damn.

 Dredd as Fascist.  There is some issue or question as to whether Dredd is a fascist, or could be considered a fascist.  Dredd himself has no apparent politics and simply enforces the law.  Mega City One is not run by the judges themselves, as most cities it has a popularly elected mayor.  In fact, the whole Judge Caligula story could be interpreted as a strong counterindication, because when Cal takes over and turns the city into a dictatorship, Dredd and the other mainstream judges wind up in a guerilla war fighting Cal (and his Klegg hound mercenary enforcers) from the sewers.  Of course, what really puts the judges over the top is Cal’s plan to literally execute everyone in the city (!!!).  But it’s clear that even before that the judges had a problem with Cal’s administration.  The judges are conscientious about enforcing the law, not making it, but at some point they feel an obligation to make sure the law they’re enforcing is valid and legitimate, and Dredd is no different in this respect.

            It is clear that when enforcing the law, Dredd has almost no pity, sympathy, or compassion.  He can be fairly heartless and cruel about doing his job.  But to call such a law enforcement officer fascist, per se, goes a bit too far. 

 There have been two major attempts to bring Dredd to the big screen.

 1995 film with Sylvester Stallone as “Judge Dredd”.   I can’t say this one sucks.  Someone knew of the comics, because Rico Dredd (Armand Assante), the Angel Gang, and Fergie (Rob Schneider) were actual characters in the comic.  “Disappointing” is probably a more accurate description.  The biggest problem is that Stallone, as Dredd, took off his helmet.  A big no-no.  The people who made this didn’t bother trying hard enough to remain faithful, and despite the authentic elements of the story, it looked more like an unofficial but de-facto sequel to “Demolition Man” (1993).  The film had a $90 million budget, and while it recouped its investment worldwide eventually, it tanked in the US.

 2012 film with Karl Urban as Judge “Dredd”.  Fortunately someone took another stab at this, and this time around the results are far more worthwhile.  Original Dredd creator John Wagner, who (hardly surprisingly) didn’t like the 1995 film, seems to like this version.   Karl Urban was excellent as Eomer in “Lord of the Rings”, suitably dark and cynical as the young Dr. Bones in the Star Trek prequel, Bruce Willis’ CIA nemesis Cooper in “RED”, the Russian assassin in “The Bourne Supremacy”, and here he keeps the helmet on for the entire film and pretty much spits out his lines.  He makes Clint Eastwood sound like Richard Simmons. 

            Dredd and Psi-Judge Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) investigate a murder in the Peach Tree block tower.  It turns out they’ve stumbled upon a major drug gang.  The ruthless leader is a former prostitute, “Ma-Ma” (Lena Headey, probably better known as Cersei Lannister, the evil queen in “Game of Thrones” – scarcely recognizable here) who has not only effectively taken over the entire block tower, but also controls the city’s drug market for “Slo Mo”, a crystal meth-type drug which slows everything down considerably (excellent special effects).  Too bad “Heisenberg” and Jesse are absent.  Dredd and Anderson capture one of the killers, but Ma-Ma puts the building on lock-down and traps them inside.  Who is trapped in with who, however – Dredd then takes on Ma-Ma’s gang army virtually single-handedly.  Several teams of baddies, a brutal salvo from no less than 3 Gatling cannon, and a quartet of corrupt judges, all fail to dispatch Mega City One’s top bad-ass judge.               Ultraviolent?  You bet.  Sink your teeth into this and enjoy.  JUDGE DREDD has finally left the pages of “2000 AD” and conquered our movie screens.