Extended Edition 2008 #86 Jon Cassar 98 mins DVD 15 Remember the ubiquitous Writer’s Strike in the US? It must be about a year ago now, but its effects are still being felt —, Joss Whedon’s rule-breaing internet musical, made during the strike, is about to hit region-free DVD in the US (albeit on DVD-R and only from ); plenty of second-year shows are getting canned, probably because their truncated first years didn’t allow time to get decent audiences (that’s one excuse anyway); and ’s seventh season, kicking off in January 2009, is a year late. Which allowed them to make this in the meantime. The setup is simple: Jack Bauer’s trekking round the world, currently holed up with an ex-army buddy (played by the ever-excellent Robert Carlyle) in the African nation of Sangal where said buddy has set up a school. Yes, Jack Bauer is living a life of peace. But then Bad Men turn up wanting the kids for child soldiers, and within the hour they’re attempting a military coup — this is still 24 remember, the action all takes place “in real time”. What’s Jack to do?
Why, return to his old One Man Army self, of course — if he can’t stop the coup, he sure as hell can save those kids! Meanwhile, it’s inauguration day for America’s new female (black? 24’s been there and done that — twice) President For a Fox action series, off screens for almost 18 months and undoubtedly designed as a starting point for new viewers, Redemption (not that that title’s seen on screen) has a surprisingly slow build up. That’s no bad thing — this is a story after all, not a 90-minute shoot-out — but there are times when one feels it should get a wriggle on. This is likely where most, if not all, of this extended version’s new material was added. There’s almost 15 minutes added to the running time here, though some is surely due to a 5-minute credit crawl that must be much longer than the TV version’s. Having not seen the broadcast edit I can’t comment on what new scenes, shots or lines are added, but there’s no greater violence or thematic density than 24 usually produces so I imagine what was cut was cut for time alone.
That said, Redemption certainly tackles its fair share of issues — primarily, the use of child soldiers, and the US involvement (or lack of) in African genocides. It’s certainly admirable and worthwhile for such a popular series to bring these important issues to the attention of a mass audience who might otherwise ignore, or at least not be aware, of them, but they’re still included in a “mainstream American action series” way — that’s to say, they’re ultimately a reason for a shoot-out. There’s also some subtle political commentary, such as the UN Peacekeeper stationed at the school being a coward who runs away at the first sign of violence and then betrays them to boot! Of course, just because it’s unsubtle doesn’t make it wrong, but this is not.
Redemption revolves around time Jack Bauer is spending in Sangala, years. Timecodes and events are based on the extended version of 24: Redemption.
Whatever the politics, the action sequences — and, once things get going, there are a few — are all carried out with 24’s usual panache. Is this a suitable jumping-on point for newcomers? Yes, quite simply. It’s several years since the last season and Jack’s in a very new part of this life. Some old faces crop up and there are some backstory references, but these are more nods for returning fans than anything important. Everything you need to know for this story is contained herein, and fortunately that doesn’t involve great slabs of exposition about previous seasons.
On the other hand, it fails as a standalone movie. While the main plot — Jack defends school — is kicked off and wrapped up in the space between the title and the credits, there are several US-based plot threads that aren’t even close to being resolved. These are clearly designed to flow on into season seven — presumably they’re either elements bumped from the early episodes up into the movie, or a fleshing out of information that would’ve just been exposition before.
It’s hard not to conclude that Redemption would’ve been better without the US scenes. They add nothing to the main action in Africa and they’re all quite flatly directed, forcibly reminding you that this is just a TV movie by being worse than most TV these days. Their one true benefit is an ending that juxtaposes the new President’s inauguration speech with the civil war beginning in Sangal, which, consciously or not, underlines the hypocrisy at the heart of America.
As a standard season-opening episode of 24, coming on the back of the weakest-yet sixth season, it may well have earned itself an extra star. Judged as a standalone film, however, I fear it has to be just.
The events depicted take place over a two hour span (as always, the events occur in “real time” - if only 24 could somehow free itself from this last, vestigial gimmick, though I guess it would change the show too drastically), switching back and forth between a fictional, war ravaged African nation and Washington, DC. In the former, we’re catching up with Jack Bauer, who, after traveling the world as a fugitive from justice (again!) after last season, has ended up at a school for poor children run by Benton (Robert Carlyle), an ex-Special Forces comrade. Bauer is on the verge of departing for greener pastures, having been finally tracked down and issued a summons by an unctuous American agent, when local guerillas lays siege to the school in an attempt to roundup children soldiers for the growing army of a local warlord.
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Bauer has no choice but to remain, protect the children, and shepherd them to the safety of the US Embassy (which itself is under siege by the guerilla forces closing in). He does so with his usual dispatch, and it’s no great surprise that he succeeds against ridiculous odds, though at the cost of his freedom. Meanwhile, in Washington, it’s Inauguration Day, and the first female President (Cherry Jones) is set to be sworn in. However, the events in the fictional African country are blowing up into an international crisis, and current President Daniels (Powers Boothe) refuses aid, even as the incoming President pleads with him to send US troops in to prevent genocide. Could Daniels be up to something here? And what does this have to do with a shadowy Jon Voigt, and some equally shadowy financial transactions that has already left one person who shouldn’t have known about them dead?
So, in other words, it’s classic 24, and it does do an adept job in setting things setting events in motion so the show can hit the ground running from the get go once the new season starts. And at the same time, the film is a refreshing change of pace, tending towards a slow burn of character development and dramatic build up at the beginning, rather than the overheated action heavy pressure cooker that it usually is. Bauer is given a chance to pause and reflect, for once, to rehumanize himself through his friendships both with his old Special Forces buddy and one of the children at the school.
The terror of the advancing guerilla army seems a much more realistic threat than any of the cartoonish baddies of the previous seasons. Once the action starts, it’s just as nutty as ever - Jack wiping out a whole platoon of ruthless soliders with a Beretta and a few sticks of dynamite - sure, why not?
But just in the short time allotted to it, Redemption manages to locate an emotional center than had been missing from the show sincewell, if not ever, since at least the first season. And by focusing specifically on the fate of child soldiers specifically, and the fate of war torn Africa in general, 24 is at least moving in the right direction with its geopolitics, finally moving away from the isolationist free floating paranoia of the post-9/11 era, and moving back towards an America engaging the world. We’ll see how that plays out, but hopefully the specificity of the issues, the locating of its themes in the real world and not some fantasy realm, will help redeem a show that had become synonymous with increasingly out of touch politics. 24: Redemption’s two-disc DVD release contains both the 85-minute broadcast version, and a slightly longer 95-minute extended version.
For review purposes, I watched the latter, so I can’t comment with any exactness on what scenes were added (the DVD unhelpfully does not indicate). I could suss out a few, I think, from watching the commentary track (more on which in a moment), but they seem to be mostly incidental, more character development scenes (one especially, between Powers Boothe and Cherry Jones, is notable for its intensity of two wonderful actors squaring off against one another in a battle of wills). Along with the commentary track (featuring producer/director Jon Cassar, Kiefer Sutherland, and writer Howard Gordon) the DVD also contains a 20-minute behind the scenes featurette. In both, the overriding concern is with the weather, and the difficulty they had shooting on location in South Africa on a tight schedule. This weather obsession was puzzling at first, until I figured out (slowly - duh on my part) that shooting a real time show anywhere other than, say, Los Angeles (where it’s perpetually sunny and 70 degrees) must just be an absolute nightmare, from a consistency and continuity standpoint. And sure enough, seconds later on the commentary track, Cassar noted how chimerical the weather in Africa was, and how the rain and the wind would disrupt everything on a daily basis, and points out all the scenes where they had to fudge the weather on screen versus the weather actually happening. Makes you realize exactly why they’ve forever kept the action in LA, and how much of a risk they are taking in setting the action elsewhere.
Other than that, the commentary and featurette mostly stay on point, talking specifically about production concerns and how great all the actors are, rather than straying into larger discussion of the show in general. Which, fine by them, I guess, and they probably want to bolster Redemption’s stand-alonedness as much as possible, but some mention of the show’s legacy and problems might have been nice, since it’s the whole reason for this endeavor. The other major featurette is a 15-minute piece on child soldiers in Africa, featuring interviews with human rights advocates and academic experts on Africa, as well as readings of first hand narratives of child soldiers by the 24 cast. It’s a too brief introduction into what is a deeply complex, and deeply affecting, issue, but I guess its inclusion indicates some sort of renewed seriousness on the show’s part. The best feature, by far though, is a four minute recap of the entirety of Season 6.
Meant to catch everyone up from where the show left off, it’s actually a hilarious, rather brauva performance of opportunistic condensation and editing, in that it makes that wretched season appear much more coherent and entertaining that it actually was as it unfolded. I guess it’s telling that a whole season could be reduced down by nearly 99 percent and loose little if anything that is necessary. Perhaps a knowing wink of self-awareness from the 24 crew?