DISTRICT 13 (2004)

Aside from Superman Returns, District 13 was the movie I was looking forward to most of all this year. Various trailers, teasers and behind the scenes interviews released over the last 12 months contrived to suggest that the French production might just be one of the very best action movies of late. Of particular interest was the inclusion of some of the Le Parkour (or Free Running) athletes in the cast, the guys who run across cityscapes for a living. Add to this the inclusion of Luc Besson, both producing and writing, and the appetite was truly whetted for an explosive, no-nonsense, all action classic. And it almost is.....

Set in 2010, the film casts Le Parkour co-founder David Belle as Leito, the leader of a block in District 13, a Parisian slum walled off to segregate its inhabitants from the rest of the city. Ensconced in waging a war against drug dealing warlord Taha (Bibi Naceri), Leito soon finds himself on the run from Taha's henchmen after he destroys a substantial stash of heroin belonging to the cartel. Led by Taha's second in command K2 (Tony D'Amario), the post-modern mobsters blaze their way into Leito's block with their sights set on him; however their order to take him alive proves to be their downfall, as Leito's incredible athleticism makes him an elusive quarry, either within the confines of the block or across the district rooftops.
During this opening chase sequence, a jaw dropping collection of high speed stunts, the hunted man runs across walls, jumps across rooftops and generally goes like a bat out of hell to evade capture. Indeed, the sheer spectacle of the Parkour guys in action both here and throughout the movie, is at times nothing short of breathtaking, and it's simply got to be seen to be believed; a truly excellent start to an action romp. Anyway, after failing to apprehend Leito, K2 then kidnaps his sister Lola (Dany Verissimo), with the intention of using her as bait to lead Leito to Taha's stronghold where the crime boss resides with fifty or so street soldiers, all armed to the teeth.

K2's plan fails spectacularly when Leito drops in through a skylight in his boss' office to rescue his sister, subsequently escaping with Lola and holding Taha at gunpoint, who he promptly hands in at the last operational police station in the district. However things take a turn for the worse as the cops lock our hero up and allow the crime boss to leave with Lola as a captive. From here, it all goes very Escape From New York (if the initial concept of a walled off cesspool of crime and poverty wasn't already), as the con is teamed up with Captain Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli), an undercover cop and martial arts expert tasked with defusing a neutron bomb in the district within 24 hours. Leito is convinced to join on the mission after discovering that both the bomb and his sister reside in Taha's lair, so as in any good action movie, the good guys set out to kick some serious ass, whilst rescuing the girl and the city along the way.

The words above may give the impression that District 13 sounds a little pedestrian in a narrative sense, which is certainly the case. Yet although the structure of the film is very simplistic, it flows flawlessly and, as one commentator offered, there doesn't seem to be a single wasted frame throughout its 81 or so minutes. Besides, it's one of those movies that doesn't really need all that much in terms of substance anyway, as the onscreen physical performances of both Belle and Raffaelli, not to mention some of the other Le Parkour guys cast as jobbing henchmen, are totally sublime, making this an action ballet of the highest order. The film seems to lack a little spontaneity in comparison to some of the wilder action movies I've seen, but this is no doubt as a result of its obviously painstaking choreography that many of the sequences would surely have required. It's a reasonable sacrifice to make when you witness some of the stunning stunts on display, the likes of which are seen rarely in cinema without serious employment of CGI and wires.
I think my major, and perhaps slightly pedantic, reservation here is that District 13 looks and feels a little too slick for its own good. Although the locations or backdrops provide an ominously decaying inner cityscape behind the action, the general stylistics of its photography, editing and direction lend themselves more to an extended music video or computer game, where perhaps a grittier, darker tone would have augmented the social dynamics inherent in the film's setting. District 13 obviously pays homage to aspects of John Carpenter's early work, but perhaps director Pierre Morel should have paid more attention to Carpenter's often filthy, barren and foreboding sets, which served to create a palpable sense of trepidation and peril in his movies more than any hip hop track, meathead or big gun can possibly do. Here, the lighting tones and photography just don't set the scene aptly enough, with a severe lack of continuity between its artistic direction and setting, which ultimately negates the political message offered in its simple and rather naive conclusion; if I want to watch a French movie considering Parisian ghetto politics, I'll stick to La Haine or the excellent L.672.

With this one, I intend to watch it a few more times and see how it fares over the course of several years to ascertain if it's the classic that some have already deemed it to be. At this point in time I think it's a fine action movie but not much else, and of course, most action movies with little substance grow cold after a few viewing's, especially when another movie comes along with wilder stunts or bigger explosions. However, one surefire certainty is that it might just be the launching platform for the silverscreen careers of Le Parkour athletes (if they want it), and in particular, David Belle, who oozes star quality on the strength of this performance.