Delayed Reaction: At the Ready

Premise: A documentary about a law enforcement club at a high school in El Paso.

 

We all do dumb stuff in high school. I don't mean poor decisions. I mean stuff that's silly outside the walls of the high school. It's a lot of playacting like adults. School plays aren't very good. High school TV stations are really amateur. 9 out of 10 high school athletes aren't very good. The sports are only saved by the fact that direct competition is easier to make compelling. So, it stands to reason that a club in which students play-act law enforcement scenarios would also be pretty dumb.

 

At the Ready is a tough movie to get right. Under the best of conditions, the topic of the movie looks silly. That's before it touches on political implications. Pro-law enforcement people could see all the training on responsible gun use, team building, and education and discussion of the purpose of law enforcement. Protesters against police violence could watch the same thing and be horrified by the indoctrination and celebration of things that should be last case scenarios. Mostly, I think the movie is successful at allowing the audience to place their own views on it. It's clear to me that the people who made the movie aren't #BlueLivesMatter, but I do believe they came to this from a place of curiosity. It's not out to make anyone look like fools. The only time they ever make it all look stupid are when other students or faculty stumble onto a training exercise. Those people give an odd look or roll their eyes, but I read that as the film reminding me that, this is just one club in an otherwise normal high school. I'm sure people laugh at the school news broadcast too.

 

The interest is more with the students or former students anyway. I thought the movie was going to be much heavier on the Law Enforcement competition and how that works. That's there but mostly in the background. Most of the time is spent examining the students in this club. El Paso is the largest US city on the Mexican border. The students in the club are mostly of Latin American decent. Local and federal law enforcement in the area recruits hard at the high school level around there. The dynamic is so interesting. These are idealist teenagers. Some of them support Beto O'Roarke and still believe his win or loss in an election is life or death. They are processes things like what to do about the caravan heading to the US (this was filmed a couple years ago, if you can't tell). One of the members of the club has a father who isn't allowed in the US because of crimes. Some people in their community look at them as traders for wanting to work for the Border Patrol. There's a lot to unpack in this movie and it does as much as it can. I wish they could've spent a little more time with a student who was less wavering by the end. Even the girl a year older than the others who joined the border patrol seems pretty uneasy about it. By the end, the movie implies that none of the kids really believed in any of it and that they've moved on. Surely there were other kids who got exactly what they needed out of the club though.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend