Triple 9 (2016) Directed by John Hillcoat [film]. USA: Worldview Entertainment and
Anonymous Content. Atlanta, Georgia.
Triple 9 is an expression which stands for ‘an officer down’, implying that a police officer has been shot and, therefore, all police units need to attend the scene. However, this does not reveal that the film is bout police corruption.
Watching Hollywood productions very rarely, I was caught by surprise at Triple 9’s dynamic; ‘Was this a parody?’ I asked at the end of it. I was told it was a popcorn movie, which the reviews I read thereafter confirmed. ‘Popcorn movie’ is slang for a ‘film that appeals to a mass audience’, and it usually does not have ‘serious dramatic content,
a weighty message, or intellectual depth’.
You might eat popcorn while watching Triple 9, but the meaning I was struck with while watching this film reflects, in my view, a number of socio-criminological debates. I will outline these in this review; significantly, I argue that the elimination (or else, the killing) of all characters of the film but the two heroes represent what Colin Dayan (2016) refers to as the disposal of ‘nothing more than dispensable stuff’.
read the full review: Triple 9 (2016), Directed by John Hillcoat [film]. USA: Worldview Entertainment and Anonymous Content. Atlanta, Georgia. Crime Media Culture, 13:1, 2017, 122-124.