Review of District B13 (2004) by Adam V — 20 Apr 2010

Imported Awesome.

Say bonjour to two bad-ass Frenchmen who fight like Asians and shoot like Americans. Or so we thought. The national boundaries that used to define action styles have been crossed. In Banlieu 13 (District 13), a politically charged story fuels the heart-pounding action that will make you shout Encore! for more of its spark and (French?) style.

We find ourselves in 2010 Paris, where the problematic B-13 is walled off from the rest of society (along with other delinquent districts). Schools, businesses and the one police station are closing down, apparently leaving only ruthless mobsters and supernatural street fighters. For the action, the grungy, derelict surroundings are a perfect jumping off point... literally. Our homegrown hero, Leito, jumps catlike from rooftop to rooftop, over cars and out windows like a sort of urban Tarzan. The other hero, a cop who likes to fly solo, is equally impressive. When a "clean bomb" (a small neutron bomb that leaves almost no radiation) falls into the wrong hands, Damien must partner up with Leito to find his way around the neighborhood France forgot.

Each fight scene is marvelously crafted, from the opening chase to the dramatic finale. With less of the useless gore that sometimes besmirches the cleanliness of a good action film (aside from the "knee guillotine" move, hinting at French Revolution, which is pretty cool), B-13 allows you to focus on the quality of the combat. While this may not be nationalist propaganda, the French portrayed here do not surrender -- they fight to the death in sequences that combine the mind-boggling acrobatic violence of Ong-Bak with the magazine-emptying fury of Scarface.

At the same time, the film takes well-aimed shots at both out-of-touch, classist governments and France protesting methods. At one point, Damien asks Leito if he thinks "torching cars" will solve the country's problems. Leito shrugs.

The cop and the civilian, while both struggling to uphold France's liberté, egalité, fraternité, have different methods -- the former carries out carefully researched missions, while the latter improvises. Yet, in both cases, their foes are marked with a short life expectancy.

This is one action movie you'd better not miss. This French film came all the way across the Atlantic to show us Americans how to make something both entertaining and original. The hip hop soundtrack provides a pulsing heartbeat while the near-future setting gives us simultaneously the sense of relevance and novelty. B-13 gets an A.