4.9 - DISTRICT 13 (2004) and Freedom

The penultimate film in our Martial Arts season might be seen by some as rather loosely connected to the genre: the 2004 parkour movie DISTRICT 13. We talk a bit about the film more generally, before getting into discussions of space, class, and hierarchy (not for the first — or, I suspect — last time on the Prestige…)

Next Time
Our final Martial Arts film (and one Sam’s absolute favourites) is 2011’s THE RAID: www.amazon.co.uk/Raid-English-Subtitled-Iko-Uwais/dp/B00FZSB57O.

Recent Media AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019): Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Stan Lee
IRON MAN (2008): Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, Robert Downey Jr.
BROOKLYN NINE-NINE (2013—): Dan Goor, Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz

Recommendations THE HUNGER GAMES (2012): Suzanne Collins, Gary Ross, Jennifer Lawrence
THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997): Luc Besson, Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman
LA HAINE (1995): Matthieu Kassovitz, Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé
RUN LOLA RUN (1998): Tom Tykwer, Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu
CASINO ROYALE (2006): Martin Campbell, Daniel Craig, Eva Green

Footnotes
Looking for connections between THE HUNGER GAMES and DISTRICT 13, I could find very little of note; this reddit thread, while interesting, is a case in point: www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/1ry6ma/hunger_games_location_of_district_13_spoilers. I’ll keep looking. On the innovative use of space in film, this is an interesting book: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QMvpybzKNAMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. The question of whether or not parkour is a martial art is addressed in numerous places online, including here: www.fightorflightacademy.com/blog/2017/12/3/martial-arts-vs-parkour and here: http:///teamfarang.com/blogs/news/do-martial-arts-and-parkour-go-together. Finally, the IMDB trivia for this film is a good read: /www.imdb.com/title/tt0414852/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv.