|
 raffiti
emerged in the 1970s in
New York City
and quickly made the transition from vandalism to
street art, perhaps by sheer volume alone. It
became semi-legitimized as an art form in the
1980s, as graffiti styles began showing up in art
galleries in the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat and
others. However, it was swiftly reigned in and
sent back underground by Rudi Giuliani and his
NYPD Vandal Squad in the 1990s. Despite its
storied history, graffiti has not been given the
film treatment too often over the years, the only
ones coming to mind being "Turk 182!"
and the biographical film about Basquiat.
The
latest entry in this sub-genre is NYU film student
Adam Bhala Lough's debut feature "Bomb the
System", which tackles the subject with an
edgy, hip perspective. Brimming with the raw
street energy that only
New York City
can provide, "Bomb the System" sets off
with the urgency of a classic Run DMC video shot
through the camera lens of Hype Williams. The
opening sequences of nighttime
Brooklyn
took me back to when I was growing up there in the
early '80s. The dark, dank alleys, neon lights,
rusty fire escapes and gaudy graffiti all brought
back fond memories of my youth.
A
guerilla-style film about the only illegal art
form, "Bomb The System" follows the
misadventures of two graffiti artists known as
Blest (Mark Webber) and Buk 50 (Gano Grills) as
they go bombing (prowling) the nighttime streets
of Brooklyn tagging (spray painting) every edifice
they can find. Taking a page from Martin
Scorsese's book, the film's opening segment takes
us through the typical day and night of these two
street artists at a breakneck pace, the narrative
strung along by streetwise narration from Blest.
Along
the way we learn interesting things about the
graffiti subculture, like how real graffiti
artists steal their spray paint because buying
paint is seen as a sign of weakness and lack of
commitment to the anti-establishment roots of the
art, and how the true graffiti artist is motivated
solely by the glory of having his work seen. It's
not all fun and games, however, as Blest and Buk
50 run afoul of everyone, from rival graffiti
artists to a couple of crooked cops from the
Vandal Squad on their nightly bombing runs.
Based
on his own film school thesis, Lough uses the
backdrop of the graffiti underworld to spin a
surprisingly conventional tale of friendship,
anti-establishment struggle, and self-discovery.
In Blest and Buk 50, Lough presents two motivated
kids moving in opposite directions from a common
start. Blest struggles with his love for the art
and the lifestyle, fueled by the untimely death of
his older brother, while growing increasingly
aware that the life holds no tangible future for
him. On the other hand, Buk 50 is fully absorbed
in the graffiti culture. Graffiti is his life and
the only future he needs is the knowledge that
he'll be tagging walls every night. Things get
more complicated when Blest meets a street artist
named Alex (Jaclyn DeSantis, "Carlito's
Way: Rise to Power"), who tries to get
him interested in directing his art to something
with more substance, such as her anti-Corporate
slogans.
Lough delivers the drama in an impressive assault of
vibrant colors, jump cuts, thumping beats and
post-synched dialogue. And yet, despite the
strength of its sonic and visual flamboyance,
"Bomb the System" can't escape Lough's
own clichéd script. What starts out as a
pseudo-documentary of
New York City
's most ubiquitous form of native art gradually grinds
down to a conflicted thesis on the nobility of
bombing versus giving in to The Man.
As
a result, all the usual suspects are included. We
get Blest's left-wing girlfriend, who pleads with
him to turn his art political, and Blest's mother,
who wants him to go to college and make something
of himself. Then there's Buk 50 arguing for
keeping it real and not selling out. The film hits
its greatest stumbling block when the characters
try to rationalize their need to express
themselves via their tagging. It's a passionate
argument, but it sounds like a lot of
self-absorbed rhetoric about dissent for the sake
of dissent. The film even ends on a cleverly
executed, but nevertheless empty narrative twist
that suggests martyrdom is the ultimate goal for
the dedicated street artist.
The
Hallmark Hall of Fame narrative aside, "Bomb
the System" is a fairly entertaining film.
It's got visual flair and energy to spare, plus an
interesting topic to boot. Sadly, perhaps chiefly
due to its fictionalized setup, we don't learn
very much about graffiti from the film aside from
some choice slang and some impressive tags. As a
result, "Bomb the System" fails to fully
educate on its own topic, and what should have
been an avant-garde experience instead seems oddly
conventional. |
