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Red Corner
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by MGM (Video & DVD)
Sales Rank: 29625
Price: $4.94
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Using a faulty thriller for his soapbox as an outspoken critic of China, a devout follower of the Dalai Lama, and an influential supporter of Tibetan freedom, Richard Gere resorts to the equivalent of propagandistic drama to deliver a heavy-handed message. In other words, <I>Red Corner</I> relies on a dubious strategy to promote political awareness, but director Jon Avnet appeals to the viewer's outrage with such effective urgency that you're likely to forget you're being shamelessly manipulated. Gere plays a downtrodden TV executive who sells syndicated shows on the global market, and during a business trip to China he finds himself framed for the murder of the sexy daughter of a high Chinese official. Once trapped in a legal system in which his innocence will be all but impossible to prove, Gere must rely on a Chinese-appointed lawyer (played by Bai Ling) who first advises him to plead guilty but gradually grows convinced of foul play. Barely attempting to hide its agenda, <I>Red Corner</I> effectively sets the stage for abundant anti-Chinese sentiment, and to be sure, the movie gains powerful momentum with its tale of justice gone awry. It's a serious-minded, high-intensity courtroom drama with noble intentions but did it have to be so conspicuously lacking in subtlety? <i>--Jeff Shannon</i>
Viewer Reviews
I'm sometimes taken aback when conservative commentators (like Laura Ingraham) pose rhetorical questions like: Why doesn't Hollywood make as many anti-Communist films as it does anti-Nazi ones? She literally asked why if there was a Schindler's list, why there no STALIN'S LIST. Now, while it may be true that many Hollywood denizens are politically a bit left of center, is it really the case that, unbeknownst to us in the unsuspecting public, they've been glorifying Communist ideals and furthering its cause almost two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union?
I suppose if you were to cite RED CORNER as a film which takes on the last remaining Communist superpower, Ms Ingraham and her fellow rightwing pundits would respond that a. it's a rare exception; b. the only reason, these liberal filmmakers are criticizing a Communist government is because of that regime's abuses against Tibet, an even more beloved "liberal cause," and c. China is portrayed in the film as a society that is being essentially corrupted by Western influences anyway.
In other words, you can't win. If Hollywood makes a contemporary "anti-Communist" film these days, its motives will still be suspect. A liberal guy like Richard Gere is still a "Buddhist" liberal after all, and so he may be a little more loyal to the Dalai Lama than, say, to Mao Zedong. But hey, he probably like Mao more than George Bush. Dollars to donuts.
So ideology aside, how effective is RED CORNER in purely cinematic terms? It actually is fairly well made, and reasonably suspenseful. The cast is attractive and capable, and the cinematography, editing and Jon Avnet's direction are all solid. There's a fairly ludicrous chase scene, but then what action movie doesn't have one of those. Thematically, as some have noted, it plays into latent fears of every American traveling or living abroad about what could happen if one gets into serious legal trouble in another country--especially, a country (any country) not known for protecting the rights of the accused. In short, even those who oppose the movie's political or cultural commentary can't deny it's a fairly effective piece of filmmaking.
Some will also find the movie of interest as a cultural snapshot of life in the rapidly developing, post-Mao China. It's a flawed picture, no doubt, but the film does evoke the tensions between the urbane neo-capitalists of the 90s and the Old Guard Communists in governmental, military and legal realms. It's a fuzzy picture, to be sure, and the movie can be faulted for heavyhandedness, but I cannot think of too many other dramtatic films that have even treated the topic of China's internal tensions at all, let alone any better than RED CORNER does. In that, it reminds of another cinematic attempt to portray some potentially profound changes in a Communist society; namely, the similarly themed, sometimes awkward mix of suspense and commentary, the 1985 Russian based potboiler WHITE NIGHTS.
Something I read recently reminded me that RED CORNER was released on the eve of a US visit by (I believe) Deng Xiouping. If the timing of the release was as cynical and manipulative as it appears to have been, then it really does undermine any serious message the film might have otherwise offered. Just what role (if any) Richard Gere might have had in this minor international embarrassment is unclear. It is pretty clear where his political sympathies lie and why he may have been drawn to the project. Still it would be a mistake to label Gere OR the film "anti-Chinese." Gere's court heroic, court appointed lawyer (played with real presence by the deservedly popular Bai Ling)serves as a reminder that there are concerned Chinese citizens out to foster and preserve justice. Like the "good German" or "good Russian" character of yore, she's there, at least in part, to remind us viewers that there are good people everywhere.
Like all people of good will, Gere and Co. are, in spirit, anti-tyranny and anti-injustice. Viewers will have to decide whether or not they make their statement sufficiently well.
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