Bad Man Film Analysis: Down-Home Dialogue and Idiosyncratic Characters Lift Firearm-Wielding Dark Humor Film
You could be excused for forming extremely modest expectations for this crime flick given its poster’s generically moody visuals showing star Seann William Scott holding a firearm with an power tower in the distance. What a nice surprise to discover this is in fact a humorous film, and even more, one that’s often funny in a masculine, improvised sort of way.
The Concept
The conceit is that in the tiny Tennessee town of Colt Lake, a man is killed in the street, run over by a car so many times that he looks like meatloaf. Inept yet well-meaning local cop Sam Evans, portrayed by Johnny Simmons, and his deputy DJ, enacted by Chance Perdomo, make a half-hearted stab at solving the case, but are soon upstaged when state investigator Bobby Gaines, embodied by Seann William Scott, suddenly arrives, working for a statewide taskforce and assumes control of the case.
Unique Techniques
Gaines’ approaches may be a little on the violent side and not exactly according to protocol, but he obtains confessions amazingly quickly and soon works his way up the admittedly short crime food chain until he finds the main bad guy. There are a few twists, but the crime plot is of much less importance than the southern-fried backchat: a constant patter of men mocking each other, questioning one another’s manhood, and generally describing each other as small town failures.
Based on Reality?
Opening titles at the beginning says that this narrative set in 2008 was based on real-life occurrences, but that may be as credible as the assertion at the start of the original Fargo film. And it’s possible—maybe one of the villains really did have a girlfriend named Destiny, portrayed by Jett Wilder, who strolled around during confrontations playing the banjo, and that Sam had a sweet spot for Izzy, played by Lovi Poe, the major’s daughter, and her gorgeous collection of brioche-knit sweaters.
Directorial Flair
But the weird details around the edges give the film character, regardless of whether they’re rooted in truth, and director Michael Diliberti and his film cutter have a talent for trimming in just the right place to drive home a joke. The final act of the screenplay are more than a little predictable, but this isn’t at all disappointing for a first-time filmmaker.
Bad Man is available on digital platforms from 22 September.
