Jithindurden

This film would've been way better for me if it had executed a single specific scene better than it did and hadn't portrayed the protagonist as an ultimate creep you can't root for. Even the dialogues need not have changed; just the way the scene was shot and the way the actors reacted would've been enough to make that scene way better. But by doing that and the rest of the movie being leisurely paced with not knowing what the tone it is going for itself, it was also not very engaging. The ending was nice and bittersweet, with the way everyone ended up where they do. The rest of the movie didn't really feel like it earned that ending. It does feel very scandalous in every way for such an early film. This is clearly pre-Hays code with a protagonist named Hays.

What a mess of a movie. One thing this did so well was actually show the way how much politics divided people since the start of the pandemic. The way people became passionate about their beliefs and how they reacted to it was pretty spot on, unlike anything else that has been. But this still leans to one side by simply being given more than enough importance and center stage to stupidity as a normal belief system. Even with the aftereffects and hypocrisy being shown by both sides, the root of fundamental belief makes a difference, which, as fit for an American movie, this avoids addressing. Even without considering the political aspect, the narrative structure is a mess. Switching from rivalries, political tensions with satirical undertones, to gory shootouts, the movie swings hard, and at least it's weirdly interesting throughout.

This might've been pretty serviceable and even feminist for the time it came out, I'm not too familiar with the time, but that's the only way I can see how some of the positive reviews here make sense to me. But as much as it's great to know there was a female-led franchise back then, it is so confusing what they want to say through it. On one hand, our main lead is a journalist who'd go to any length for the right things, but even while doing the best she can, they make sure there's always a handicap because she's trying too much for a woman. Her love interest, the cop, is a despicable character who is still treated by the film as a good guy who is just trying to be sensible. There's so much that the woman accomplishes, but even after all that, at the end, it wants to establish that she's still a woman who would ultimately be just a homemaker. The problem with the film is that it doesn't really commit to one idea or the other; the actions that result in justice are all from the woman, but it still ends up saying that's not the right thing.