For Your Consideration: "Pain & Gain" is One of the Most Patriotic Movies of the Decade

Left to right: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Mark Wahlberg

When it comes to patriotic movies, many people think of the obvious symbolism: soldiers, government, or justice upon the general populous. While these are all great signs of American pride, there hasn't really been an update on these morals in possibly decades. True, we have had many acts of bravery, but has a film ever explored the down side of being proud of being American in such a subversive, ambitious manner that it is simultaneously both satire and not? When calculating films about the American Dream and what it means to live in the country, there hasn't been a film as unique in approach, nor as interesting, as director Michael Bay's Pain & Gain.

With his follow-up Transformers: Age of Extinction currently topping box office, it is strange to consider that this story of weight lifters-turned-criminals didn't fare well at the box office. Of course, it was a dark comedy with it being Bay's first R rated film since Bad Boys II. Also, what is to be made of a film in which the entire gimmick of the film is a commentary on "Living a real life version of a Michael Bay film"? Add in countless jokes about steroids and severed toes and you'll get this strange, wonderful film that may be overtly sexist and homophobic, but it only makes the sweet hell that these characters go through all the more rewarding.

The issue with the American Dream is that everyone sees themselves as being entitled. Somehow living in the United States makes you automatically better. While some countries may have an outgoing personality, there hasn't been any on par with America. It's about as smart, stupid, vulgar, creative, and uninspired as things get. Few countries are this contradicting. In this regards, why is American pride reduced to a good thing? Sure, it is great to see the country succeed, but what about those that don't really contribute at all? You know, like Michael Bay, whose films are so blatantly full of patriotic symbolism that the very idea that he made Pain & Gain still feels a little misleading.

However, as the film opens on Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) doing crunches while suspended from nothing but a rail yard above the ground, there is the cries of fitness ringing through. He is pumped up and ready to enjoy the adrenaline of having abundant muscles and even some pride in his appearance. It is a world where people move cars while having sex and ditch their dates on top of mountains. It is excessive in ways that The Wolf of Wall Street tried to make look classier. Most of all, when things don't go your way, just pummel it out of existence and run until the police can't catch your cocaine-addled body.

So, what does a film about kidnapping and torturing a victim have to do with America? Consider the credos of Daniel. His ideal way of solving problems is to imitate films and simply wing it. This neo-noir is if nothing else the perfect commentary on the downside of watching Michael Bay films. With countless crimes being committed and blaming films, this is one of the first to embrace it as a positive while also showing the negative side effects. America is built on imitation, and nothing sells it better than hollow-minded individuals who are opposed to eating salads and find no offense to returning bloodied up chainsaws for store credit. Even if there is an empathetic figure (Paul Doyle, played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), even he is as sex-crazed and out of control as his more movie obsessed counterparts.

It is a film that pushes an agenda. In a brief scene, motivational speaker Johnny Wu (Ken Jeong) tries to convince a room full of dumb-looking men that they need to be aggressive to get what they want. Daniel takes it to heart as he overlooks Johnny's seven luscious women clad in bikinis. It is the American Dream to strive and have perfect fitness. It is so primitive that it seems strange that not more people adapt it. Basically, if you're fat, you're unpatriotic. This is the film's logic and it is played out to a grim demise that when compared to the more optimistic portrayals of American Dream coming to fruition, shows a side that deserves to be seen. You can't simply punish people you disagree with without having some backlash. However, you can be sexually incompetent and still get married to a white woman, so America has its perks.

Of course, if all of the broad symbolism goes over your head, it is spoken one last time in voice over towards the end of the film by Daniel:

"If you're willing to do the work, you can have anything. That's what makes the U.S. of A great. When it started, America was just a handful of scrawny colonies. Now, it's the most buff, pumped-up country on the planet. That's pretty rad."

After all, isn't that what America has been striving for all along? They need to protect themselves from their peers, and the only way to is through being stronger. Maybe it isn't the most ethical manner to show your pride, but machismo is one of the strangest, dumbest forms imaginable. To this point, few films have really glorified, then damned, it as effectively as a film by a filmmaker who questionably doesn't see the irony and thus makes the satire more sweet. With solid performances by the entire cast and sharp wit, the film succeeds not because it is really offensive, but because it points out the downside of this culture in ways that audiences have more accepted in The Wolf of Wall Street (maybe Martin Scorsese just earned our respect more?). 

Do I condone this behavior? Of course not. However, I want to push it forward as a film deserving of a card calling it one of the most patriotic movies, if not just of the decade. Yes, Bay has made films that I don't care to ever seen, but this one was strangely effective with its dark, acidic humor that sadly was far and between in it the competition of 2013. The results are manic, but the deconstruction of the perfect image as having health (mental, physical, and sexual) doesn't necessarily get you out of trouble every time. As Daniel is running away from the police at the start of the film for the "sadly a true story," it is a reflection that there is justice in America. There is justice to keep idiots inspired by movies to not get away with this violent, perverse nonsense forever.