RUN, HIDE, FIGHT….avoid. ‘INFIDELS’ is just paper-thin, retrograde racism…
Laughton University is a diverse institution, encompassing anti-war demonstrations in its courtyard and hosting an event with a war hero, Delta Force captain Clay Saunders who is promoting his tales of life and death during his tour of duty in Afghanistan.
But suddenly the campus becomes the target of ISIS terrorists – who exploit a protest happening on its grounds – and apparently want to turn the campus into a caliphate. Now Saunders and the son of his late comrade must face the invaders and defend America…
You only need to turn on your television or tune in to many newscasts to see that America is a divided country. People have always disagreed on politics, sometimes passionately – but it’s never been less constructive or more vitriolic. What once had the semblance of decent, honest debate has become full of quite obvious lies, obfuscation and sometimes just outright hatred. And in that environment, there are people who feel invigorated by their ability to distress and troll others for pleasure – either because they don’t know better or simply don’t care.
Congratulations to those people, you now have a film around which to clutch your pearls and burn your collective crosses. And, honestly, I was of two minds whether to review this at all, given that it’s appearing on an outlier platform, that it gives oxygen to something that mostly wastes air and is two hours I’ll never get back.
Run Hide Fight: Infidels film is a thematic sequel to director/writer Kyle Rankin’s early 2020 work Run Hide Fight (no subtitle) which envisioned a girl going full Die Hard when live-streaming, would-be assailants stalk the corridors of her school (doing for debate about school-shootings what Hannibal Lecter did for vegan diets). This latest venture shifts the story from high school to college campus and is for anyone who saw the previous movie and thought it was far too subtle.
If the trailer – released some weeks ago – didn’t clue you in to the tone to follow, then all may be lost. It’s all presented in such earnest, shallow tones that it’s quite amazing to see a production metaphorically clapping its own back and fellating itself at the same time.
Like some early ‘faith’ films, the film goes about painting its mission statement in broad-strokes and tearing down others in a bid to get its own rise. Almost everyone who is gung-ho is righteous or trying to do the right thing and everyone who doesn’t follow suit is either corrupt or just painfully naive. An ineffectual faculty tries to please everyone and does little to appease anyone, a pro-Palestine demonstration accidentally gives cover to the real bad guys and also gives us a convenient spokesperson rattling off statistics and using buzzwords designed specifically to make the eyes roll. The FBI is, of course, simply ‘over-cautious’ when they won’t rush in to save people and the terrorists are one-dimensional thugs who demand to speak to the President men and kill at every opportunity when not considering raping the women. And, sure, it says, some of our campus heroes can be casually-racist, horny jerks who call Middle-Eastern room-mates ‘camel-jockies’ and complain about mixed-marriages, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good people waiting to better themselves by rising up to save the campus from the invasion with an AR-15. Hey, one of them was never actually deployed but has been waiting for this day ever since he took up online gaming! Hoo-rah!
It would be one thing if extremist characters appeared in a film that pretended to represent various viewpoints – to show how extremism can damage any cause if it goes unchallenged and unchecked. Or, if you were looking for something less deep and more disposable, merely have a bad guy that doesn’t involve trashing a whole faith in his takedown. Again… none of the above.
Some will say this is just a throwback to the simplicity of the might-makes-right tone of the 80s action genre (think the like of Toy Soldiers, Red Dawn etc etc) and certainly the first third of the film feels like that, if on a somewhat tighter budget and weaker script. It’s interesting to note that the film-makers make no such plea of nostalgia – quite the opposite, they’re terribly proud of the tone and insist it reflects real modern concerns and is a rallying cry against the ‘libs’.
The message, repeated constantly in word and visuals – is that Muslims ‘desire death’ and will use immigration and ‘the wombs of our women’ to defeat the West (direct quotes from the dialogue). In response to criticism, the likes of producer Ben Shapiro have said they can’t understand why anyone would stand up for ISIS, conveniently ignoring the fact that there isn’t a single moment in the entire film where a distinction between a despicable terrorist organisation and a world-wide religion is made. It’s like equating the whole of Christianity with those who bomb abortion clinics. But it would be wrong to say the film is fueled by unmitigated hate… it’s more driven by sheer bloody ignorance: flammable stereotypes presented in monotone, easy-to-hate positions. Here, the infidels get top billing, the incels get a production credit.
Decent actor Jonathan Majors, rightly or wrongly booted from Marvel‘s plans to make Kang the centre-piece of its next Avengers movies after allegations of abuse, badly needed a triumphant return to cinema to restore his reputation and this will be of no help at all. He’s a name on which to sell a film with few other mainstream hooks except controversy itself, but actually he’s hardly a major player. He plays a soldier and a guest-speaker at the university who talks of the ways Muslims are a danger to America and whose macho military deeds bookend the movie. Towards the end of the film he confronts an imprisoned, unarmed man (admittedly, a significant character responsible for many gruesome deaths) and mutters “THIS is the American way!” before killing him at close-quarters with the full magazine of a machine gu and feeling righteous. If that’s karma or irony, the film doesn’t stop to ask. (Plenty of actors play questionable characters with whom they have little in common, but I’d love to hear what Majors thinks of the character’s stance).
There’s an intelligent and passionate debate to be had about the dangerous intersection of religion and politics, tolerance and intolerance and there’s plenty of useful idiots on all sides nowadays. But this is useless agit-prop and it is merely the Daily Wire providing a gasoline can and matches to its established, faithful audience and telling them it’s a light-bulb.
In principle, I don’t believe in banning films. Quite the opposite – let the spotlight burn this for all its bros-before-foes inadequacies. However, the Daily Wire sponsoring college campus and veteran screenings of Run Hide Fight: Infidels to get a reaction and gain traction speaks to their intent to incite for profit. I hope that even in these times, it doesn’t find it and that beyond the racists, the trolls and the twitter-feeds they populate, people are just a bit smarter than this film hopes they are.
0/10
Run, Hide, Fight: Infidels is available on Daily Wire+