Bad Boys – 1995
Budget: $19 Million
Box Office Gross: $141.4 Million
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 43
Number of Explosions: 4
“I make movies for teenage boys. Oh dear, what a crime” – Michael Bay
Bad Boys is a great example of why I think Michael Bay is an interesting filmmaker. It is remembered mostly as an action/comedy that launched Will Smith’s career as a leading man. And while there is plenty of action it is decidedly less action-y than I would expect based purely on Michael Bay stereotypes. In fact, for most of the movie, the action is intentionally muted.
While there are a fair number of scenes where characters are shooting at one another, you rarely see a gun actually go off. The action is loud and the screen is full of smoke and flashes and different camera angles, but the explosion emanating from the barrel of the movies many rifles, shotguns, and pistols is nowhere to be seen (at least for the movie’s first 90-or-so minutes – at the end there is an extensive shoot out where all bets are off with respect to violence and weaponry. But even then there is less on-screen violence than you might expect).
I think this is clearly an intentional decision. Which is why it’s important to digress briefly to talk about what a director of a movie does:
The director of a movie does everything, but also nothing. They are in charge of all of the elements of the film’s creation, but work through a variety of specialists. Cinematographers, Editors, Lighting Technicians, etc all execute the specific tasks associated with a movie’s production but the director creates the vision and also makes sure the final product adheres to that vision. They also manage the actors and try to assure that the screen performances match their imagination of the movie’s script.
Because of this, it’s difficult to know whether cutting away from the true firing of guns in Bad Boys was part of Director Bay’s vision or not. It could be something that the editor did for some reason, or if they had a major shortage of ammunition on set and couldn’t get budget for more blank rounds, or if there was a licensing issue on the set they rented that prohibited firing weapons, or something else. It’s also worth noting that this was Michael Bay’s first feature film, and Jerry Bruckheimer was probably managing the production pretty closely, so some of the decisions could be credited to Jerry rather than our friend Mike.
But back to this anomaly in Bad Boys; I think it is quite notable because Bay has such a reputation for sacrificing story and artistry in favor of bold action set pieces and in this movie there is a clear pulling of punches when it comes to weapon use. Also notable – Julie, played by Tea Leoni, is passionate about animal rights and mentions her vegetarianism and reluctance to hurt animals multiple times. The character note is unrelated to anything else that happens in the movie but it does fit with an underlying thread of humanism also backed by the films reluctance to show violence head-on.
In fact, most of the movie consists of various characters bickering with each other. There is so much arguing in this movie that it is almost grating. A couple of times I found myself wincing at how uncomfortable I was watching two characters yell at each other. Is it an attempt at comedy?
Bad Boys is not the first movie to use the Odd Couple shtick to carry the plot. There is also a Trading Places element when Will Smith and Martin Lawrence swap lives based on a Three’s Company style misunderstanding about who is whom. The movie is full of strained relationships between characters that don’t dislike each other and understand where their counterparts are coming from but still clash because of conflicting motives.
You could credit this to bad writing. But I think what you’ll find as you watch Bay’s movies is that there is a clear, focused fascination with what motivates people.
In the same way that Tom Cruise’s personality and motivations can be derived from looking at his choices in starring roles, costars, and the content of his performances, Michael Bay’s interests and principles can be deduced from looking at the trends in his movies. Does he like to see things explode? Of course he does. Who doesn’t?
Does Michael Bay accept a new filmmaking project by thinking “how does this movie help me reveal bold new truths about relationships and the human condition?” Probably not. But one of the principles of criticism is that texts mean what they mean regardless of what the author was thinking when he or she created them. And Michael Bay’s texts are about what makes people do what they do.
Bad Boys is about what motivates partnerships between people. Martin Lawrence (Marcus) and Will Smith (Mike). Marcus and his family. Mike and Martin’s family. Marcus and Julie, played by Tea Leoni. Marcus and Mike’s boss and a woman from Internal Affairs. Even the criminal antagonists constantly fight amongst themselves while they are working toward a shared goal.
Bay only resorts to theme when he can slam it directly in our collective faces. So the fact that this type of relationship is played so consistently in Bad Boys means something.
For true conclusions. We need to go deeper into his repertoire. Next up: The Rock
Every Tom Cruise Movie 