Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Steve McQueen
Starring: John Boyega, Antonia Thomas, Mark Stanley, Steve
Toussaint, Tyrone Huntley, Assad Zaman
There's a light-hearted moment early on in this third instalment of
Steve McQueen's Small Axe anthology that sees our protagonist, Leroy
Logan (John Boyega), look on as his wife Gretl (Antonia Thomas) plays her closing hand in a game of Scrabble against his father, Ken (Steve Toussaint). Gretl spells out the word "Sex". Ken has one letter left, a "Y", but
he's too prudish to add it to the end of Gretl's offering and instead calls
it quits. It's a small moment, but the best filmmakers know that stories are
told through such seemingly throwaway observations. The scene playfully
demonstrates a disparity between conservative first generation Caribbean
immigrants and their more liberal British born children.
An even greater disparity forms the basis of this biopic of Logan, who
became one of London's first Black police officers in the 1980s, much to the
chagrin of his father, for whose generation such an idea was unthinkable.
Hospitalised by a pair of cops who assaulted him when he attempted to
demonstrate how his truck was parked legally, Ken has nothing but animosity
towards the police, so he's none too happy when Leroy announces that he's
been accepted to the Met police's academy at Hendon. Leroy tries to explain
that he's motivated to change police attitudes from within, but his father
simply feels betrayed.
Leroy passes training with flying colours, winning the admiration and
respect of both his trainers and his fellow recruits. When he finds himself
stationed on his home turf in the London borough of Islington, Leroy is
forced to fight a war on two fronts. Aside from a similarly struggling
Pakistani officer (Assad Zaman), Leroy's is the only non-white face
in the station, and his fellow officers and superiors go out of their way to
remind him of this, even scrawling racial slurs on his locker. On the
streets, Leroy is similarly abused by his own community, who spurn his
attempts to build bridges between Black and Blue. But as he told his
trainers at the academy, Leroy isn't out to make friends, and stands his
ground against the racists in his station ("Back me up or I'll slap you
up!") and his disapproving public ("That's Constable Judas to you!").
Boyega is mesmeric in a career best turn that requires him to run the gamut
from tough to tender. His Leroy is ultra charismatic, a Black British cousin
of Sidney Poitier's Virgil Tibbs (given how Imagination front man Leee John
is a supporting character in this story, McQueen must have been tempted to
needle drop the band's 'In the Heat of the Night'). We watch as he carries
the weight of an entire community on his shoulders, but also as he enjoys
moments away from the stress of his work, like when he dances around to his
friend Leee John's latest hit. Few actors of his generation can communicate
so much with a frown or a smile as Boyega does here.
Similarly, Red, White and Blue is a piece that requires
McQueen to pull off scenes that range from tenderness to tense, and he does
so with the economic craft he's become known for. The movie's most touching
moment sees McQueen's camera remain in the backseat of a car as it observes
a reconciliation between Leroy and his father. Elsewhere McQueen auditions
for a future action assignment with a tense set-piece in which Leroy pursues
a suspect through a factory, McQueen's roaming steadicam reminiscent of
classic Katheryn Bigelow.
Red, White and Blue is a gripping watch, but unlike the other
chapters of Small Axe, it doesn't quite satisfy as a standalone movie, more
like a decidedly polished pilot for a weekly cop show. At a mere 80 minutes
it ends somewhat abruptly, as though another half hour has been chopped off
its tail end. I suspect this is the point, as Logan's story is one that's
ongoing. McQueen isn't out to neatly wrap things up but rather to leave us
in a state of frustration, to ponder how things will turn out for Logan.
Such ambiguity might work for a fictional protagonist, but you'll likely
find yourself hitting Wikipedia to find out how this tale ends.
