Introduction –
From being unfairly stopped by the police to prejudiced conclusion by the legal authorities, race / ethnicity related abuses have only increased in America in past few years, especially against Blacks and Hispanics.
Synopsis –
A black man ( Joseph Lee Anderson ) wakes up to a phone call. A minute into the conversation, it becomes obvious that he’s been accepted into the police academy. That he’d been looking forward to this moment is also reflected in the subsequent chat with his wife who is euphoric just like him.
Visibly happy the man steps out of the house for his morning jog. On the way he sees a woman being chased by a white man. The woman is screaming for help. The black man calls up the police asking for help and then chases the white man, overpowers him and snatches his gun. He consoles the woman who appears hysterical. The police arrive on the scene. Seeing a black man holding a gun in one hand and chatting animatedly with a white woman sends out a wrong signal, a negative perspective. It is enough for the trigger happy cops to shoot the black man.
Analysis –
Except for the theme / subject which we believe is inspired from real life incidences, the rest of the elements didn’t tickle us in any way. In fact, the traditional run and gun filming and that too without lights or support equipment was quite stressful on the eyes.
There are several loopholes in the plot. For starters, even an ordinary citizen knows that holding a gun in public place is inviting trouble, but the protagonist in the film, an aspiring police officer failed to follow this simple rule. Secondly, there was no need to argue with the cops, the protagonist could have simply freed the gun from his hand and put it on the ground. Lastly, why were the cops in such a hurry to shoot? It appeared forced, scripted.
A winner for best narrative short at the Kansas City Film Fest in 2019, The Jog has little to offer in terms of cinematic or artistic brilliance.
2019 Joseph Lee Anderson Joseph Lee Anderson 7 Minutes Amazon Prime Video