Bad Day for the Cut: "It ain't much, but it's honest work" Bad Day for the Cut is a 2017 Irish Thriller film directed by Chris Baugh. The film is made by Six Mile Productions, with external financing from Northern Ireland Screen. The premise of the film is quite a cookie cutter scenario: a man’s loving mother is murdered, and he goes off on a path to seek revenge. My task with this analysis, is to see what makes Bad Day, an independent film. There are many instances for what makes a film independent, one being that a film is somewhat produced outside of Hollywood/Major Studio System, or is privately financed by investors (For instance, George Lucas with Red Tails). This film takes the former, having been produced by a smaller in-house company “Six Mile”, whilst being given additional funding by N.I Screen. The thing with many indie films is that the stories they tell or what the director wants to showcase are never really shown in mainstream Hollywood, be it due to the severity or tone of the story, and the additional funding by another organisation (in this case N.I Screen) is given because the organisation saw some promise in the story that Chris Baugh wanted to tell, and it shows. Like the last point touched upon, it’s the films story and tone. Although many dark and grim films are made in the Hollywood/Main Stream System, not many would want to place a film set in Northern Ireland with such grimace to it. The films story is quite cookie cutter as beforementioned, however it has a somewhat style to it being that in its very dry humour. The film doesn’t offer much of it, but when it does (albeit the final few minutes) it suits the films atmosphere perfectly, as the film itself is quite a slow, somewhat dragging piece at times, with some scenes lingering on for much longer than they should. I feel that this is something that the director wanted to play with, as it is quite unconventional form of scene progression in films, especially in major feature length films, so praise is needed here for Bad Day. What also stands out about this film for independent, is its authenticity and setting. Many films try to replicate a setting, be it filming in a location like the one is set in or replicating it in the form of a set. In Bad Day, the film is set in Northern Ireland, and is shot in Northern Ireland. Not only is the locations similar to what we see in our day to day lives living here; the pubs, the farms, the vast countryside, but also the actors themselves stem from Ireland, which is great when it comes to boosting the economy of Irish film. Another tendency for indie films is that normally the actors are very obscure or not well known, and that is the case here. Many of these actors and actresses have appeared in few works, which contributes this to the film being indie. A few reasons as for why the cast may be obscure is for budgetary reasons, or, the director intentionally sought out obscure talent so that it would not draw too much attention away from the final film product. Overall, I feel that Bad Day for the Cut displays many components on what makes a film independent, and not just the obvious of it being filmed on a low budget. From it’s acting, to setting, to story and tone, Bad Day is quite refreshing film for Irish cinema, even though it’s another Irish thriller, it is set in the modern times and does well to play upon the genre.
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October 2019
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