Today, its quite clear that the television has established complete hegemony over the full-length feature film as a format for dramatic content. This is quite different from not so long ago, when Hollywood stardom used to be achieved almost exclusively on the big screen, and television roles were reserved for the "second fiddles”. Today is the opposite and major actors as play in feature films as a way to fill the gap between major roles in TV shows. And many of such films look like compressed derivatives of what could have otherwise seen in a much better form on the small screen. One such example could be Shot Caller, 2017 prison thriller directed by Ric Roman Waugh. Its basic plot represents a combination of two extremely popular TV series from the previous few decades, and its cast is dominated by names that have also built their reputations through television appearances. And to make things even more in the spirit of the new television world, when it came to distribution the premiere in the USA was held on a special cable channel before regular cinema distribution.
The film's protagonist is Jacob "Harlon" Money (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a convict who who managed to secure parole after serving ten years behind the bars. While conditionally free, he must deal not only with the sceptical parole officer Kutcher (Omari Hardwick), but also complete the task entrusted to him by the Aryan Brotherhood, a notorious white prison gang. Money, who has managed to remain officially unregistered as a member, must arrange a Brootherhood's deal with the Hispanic prison gang about the sale of weapons smuggled from Afghanistan. Money quickly begins to suspect that the job won't go smoothly and that there is a high chance that he will end up behind bars for violating the terms or even die. As it happens, flashbacks show how, ten years ago, he used to be a successful stockbroker and a flawless family man, but how a small carelessness while driving landed him behind bars and set him on a path with no return.
The main character, initially presented as an ordinary and decent man who, due to circumstances, ends up with the most despicable criminal scum and uses their methods to survive, will cause many viewers to experience a sense of déjà vu, given the striking similarities with Beecher in Oz and Walter White in Breaking Bad. Additional associations will be triggered by the casting of Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who gained global fame playing the morally ambiguous Jamie Lannister in Game of Thrones. A notable performance as Money's friend is also given by Jon Bernthal, who was made famous by the TV series The Walking Dead. All this will probably didn't bring fans of those series to the cinema, but it nevertherless shows how much the film as a medium has become limited compared to modern television epics. Waugh, even in a two-hour runtime, is forced to be extremely economical with the script and simplify characterisation, which often veers into clichés. This is particularly evident in the scenes with Money's family, where the main character, in order to present himself as a positive figure even to the least perceptive audience, insists on separation in a way that often borders on the pathetic. As an experienced viewer will have no problem predicting Money's reaction when society offers him a prostitute as a gift upon his release from prison—naturally, quite different from the one the protagonist of Once Upon a Time in America had in a similar situation. To make things even more cliched, the character of the parole officer shows willingness to self-sacrifice and dedication to the public interest in ways that seem to come straight out of Soviet propaganda about Stakhanovite workers.
Despite all these limitations and clichés, Shot Caller functions as a simple and unpretentious thriller. The acting is more than solid, the fight scenes are short and impressive, and the finale seems effective. Perhaps the greater disappointment could be that the screenwriter and director Ric Roman Waugh, unlike his earlier thriller Snitch, which questioned War on Drugs, has abandoned social engagement. The only exception might be the motif of another war—that in Afghanistan, which has been going on for more than a decade and a half without anyone seriously questioning why. Shot Caller suggests through the character of a young disillusioned veteran (played very well by Emory Cohen) that behind it all is the "good old" profit, i.e., that the "crumbs" left by the military-industrial complex in these skirmishes are so abundant that even much smaller "players" on the wrong side of the law can be fed by them. Although this motif, like much else, represents mostly a missed opportunity, it is a sufficient reason to recommend Shoot Caller" as one of the more Hollywood thrillers of its time.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)
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