No Surrender Cinema: Attrition (2018)
This week at Bulletproof Action we’re diving into the Suggestion Box, subjecting ourselves to the films that you, our faithful followers, have demanded we watch. The Suggestion Box is pulling double duty as well, because it’s forced me to reach into the rather large pile of DVD’s that I’ve obtained during my Dollar Tree runs over the past 5 years and finally watch one of those films! The plastic is off of the packaging, and it’s time to sit back and see if Attrition was a worthy suggestion, or a waste of $1.
For those unfamiliar with the movie, Attrition, also known in some circles as Final Mission, is a film released back in 2018 starring action legend Steven Seagal. While I absolutely agree that the man deserves legend status for his roles in movies like Marked For Death, Hard To Kill, and Out For Justice, his output over the past 20 years has been decidedly unimpressive. In fact, this is the first time ever in my 7 years writing for Bulletproof Action that I’ve covered a Seagal film for No Surrender Cinema, although I did join my BPA brethren Chris the Brain and Chad Cruise to discuss Marked For Death on a past episode of the Bulletproof Podcast. It’s also why I’ve been in no rush to check out some of the (numerous) Seagal DVD’s that I’ve snagged on the cheap over the past few years. The ones that I have seen have featured Seagal doing the bare minimum, and sometimes even less than that. He’s been body doubled, he’s been overdubbed, and I’m not so certain that his name carries much weight anymore (although Seagal himself is a visibly larger man these days).
With Attrition, Seagal once again gets top billing, and opens the movie by playing a role he knows all too well; the leader of a special ops team. After the introductory mission, Axe (Seagal) decides that he’s had enough of killing people and opts out of “the life” in favor of becoming a Buddhist. The voiceover makes it seem like this move is so because Axe felt he needed a little soul-cleansing, but then it becomes a voiceover about the evils of sex trafficking and drug trafficking. I’m not sure if Seagal lost the point he was trying to make, or if it was to show that Axe is still haunted by the things he’s seen, even if he’s now “at peace” with himself.
Living on the down low as a medicine man in Thailand, Axe is beloved by the locals and spends his days helping to heal them, spouting fortune cookie philosophies, or practicing kung fu with his “martial brother” Chen Man (Louis Fan Siu-Wong from the cult classic Riki Oh: The Story of Ricky). At night, Axe starts to receive visions from a woman (who eventually appears to him topless) who encourages him to embrace his destiny, which means Axe is going to have to put his quiet time on the back burner and get his crew reunited to go and save a kidnapped girl who supposedly has mystical powers, even though the film shows us none of them. Was that due to the low budget, or was the implication supposed to be that inner peace can make one more powerful than others? I’m going to go with the former, but the latter would not surprise me based on the way Seagal talks throughout this movie.
Since there’s only so much action an obese, 65 year old Steven Seagal can handle, he’s surrounded himself by performers who were more than capable of carrying the load. The first few fights we see him engage in, it’s obvious that he’s relying on close quarters combat and film tricks like extreme close-ups and a body double (which is extremely noticeable). Oh, and did I mention the blood? Let’s talk about the blood. I don’t know who was responsible for the CGI plasma, but they must have had a field day adding it to the film. The bloodshed was about as egregious as it gets, because one of Seagal’s rivals in particular was beaten by a pair of fists, yet it looked like a splatter scene from a Troma movie. Then there was the final showdown where pacifism is out the window and Seagal kicks off his crew’s rescue of the girl by putting a bullet through a gangster’s head! We get the really big guns, we get swords and axes, and we get a whole lot more blood (seriously Steve, how much of your budget went towards this?), culminating in the bespectacled Seagal nonchalantly strolling into the crime lord’s lair to rescue the captive girl and fight to the death.
After all that, Seagal (as Axe) ends the movie with a soliloquy on how the world is changing and there is a lack of morals and ethics in today’s society. Does anyone want to remind this supposed Buddhist/pacifist/whatever that he just killed numerous people and encouraged his friends to do the same? Would a more principled man have used only his martial arts skills to defeat evil? Wouldn’t that have made more sense given the affection Axe shows towards kung fu throughout the film?
Attrition is a bit of a headscratcher for me. There are absolutely worse films on Steven Seagal’s DTV resume, but that’s still a low bar. I know that Seagal considers this his favorite film, one that he had the most control over since 1994’s On Deadly Ground, but part of me thinks it’s less that he got to make the movie on “his terms” and more because he crafted something that exists almost solely to stroke his own ego. All through Attrition we never see Axe in any danger. All of the locals love him and come to him for help and advice. The one person who doesn’t respect him (due to the aggressor being misinformed) is humbled by Axe in a fight, then begs to become his student. Then there’s the big speech at the end, which is followed by a credit sequence that showcases the real Seagal playing the blues in concert while the cast and crew dance the night away.
It took me a few years to finally watch Attrition, and it’ll be a few years, if ever, that I watch it again. The action that featured Seagal (and his stunt double) was exactly what you’d expect at this point, but I did enjoy Siu-Wong’s fights and the final battle with the whole team assembled. The rest of the runtime was just a lot of Seagal waxing poetic about the Asian culture he’s so enamored with while trying to position himself as an elder statesman of the martial arts community. His hands on involvement did seem to work in his favor, because it helped elevate Attrition from the outhouse to the (martial) arthouse, but after all is said and done the only thing separating Attrition from all the films before it is that this one really wants you to know how much Steven Seagal loves Steven Seagal.
If Attrition isn’t in a stack of DVD’s and Blu-Ray’s at your local Dollar Tree store, it’s currently streaming for free on Tubi
