Summary
- Urban warfare expert John Spencer praises the accuracy of the close-quarters combat tactics used in "The Raid: Redemption".
- The film accurately portrays tactics that would be used when fighting in a tenement or similar situation, including the importance of staying away from windows and using mouse-holing techniques to move undetected.
- Spencer rates the film's accuracy a nine out of ten, highlighting the valuable lessons it teaches about building defense and the use of real tactics in urban battles.
Urban warfare expert John Spencer analyzes the action scenes from The Raid: Redemption, praising the film's accuracy to real-world close-quarters combat tactics. Released in 2011, The Raid: Redemption is an Indonesian action film directed by Gareth Evans, starring Iko Uwais as a S.W.A.T. officer whose team becomes trapped in an apartment complex controlled by a ruthless crime lord. The film was praised for its impressive action set pieces and complex choreography.
Now, for a recent video for The Raid: Redemption's depiction of close-quarters combat really is.
Spencer reveals, as shown in the clip above (the relevant section begins at 4:27) that the action flick is actually surprising authentic in of its portrayal of what tactics would be used when fighting in a tenement or similar situation. Check out his comments below regarding a series of clips from The Raid: Redemption, as well as his overall accuracy rating out of ten for the film:
“I actually love this clip and I wish I could show it more soldiers to think about buildings differently. Especially if you’re defending a house, you want to take the stairways away, you want to take the doors away, and absolutely throw furniture down. But the scene is really great too because it shows you that that’s not necessarily what you stay behind to protect you from bullets, because bullets through wood, through cloth and everything.
“That’s a great lesson that clip teaches you that we teach our soldiers, is to stay away from windows. You crouch down to go underneath them, kind of slowly walk your way around them. Bullets incoming probably wouldn’t be that dramatic but [it would be] like that. Absolutely, we tell you to stay away from windows.
“That clip is really important to what people don’t even think about even in the military called mouse-holing. Putting holes in walls, in floors, to move throughout without being seen. It’s very common in major urban battles. Actually, I would love for soldiers to carry an axe or something like that, but there are other ways to do it. Sometimes we use explosives, sledgehammers, axes like that to make that hole. Real tactics, real everything, so I’m going with a nine on that.”
Why The Raid's Action Holds Up So Well
The Raid: Redemption announces Uwais as a major figure in the action movie landscape and puts his skills on full display. The action scenes feature Uwais' character, Rama, taking on multiple enemies at once, with wide angles and longer takes being used to show Uwais doing it all for real. Uwais would go on to star in a number of other action movies, including The Raid 2 and The Night Comes for Us, and he's also slated to appear in The Expendables 4.
Featuring a relatively small budget, Evans' film also makes great use of its limited locations, creatively staging fight scenes in hallways, apartments, and stairwells. The Raid: Redemption even feels like a video game at times, with Rama moving from one level to the next, taking on foes in fight scenes that become increasingly brutal and complex.
While The Raid: Redemption is itself indebted to classic martial arts cinema, it's also not hard to see the film's style inspiring American movies like the John Wick franchise. Evans would even go on to top the action in the original film with The Raid 2, which ditches the cramped apartment setting in favor of a variety of set pieces set around Jakarta. The Raid: Redemption may now be more than a decade old, but the action still holds up remarkably well, in addition to apparently being quite tactically accurate.
Source: Insider/ YouTube
