The Khaki Scouts Cross The Line In Moonrise Kingdom
Yes, a Wes Anderson dramedy made this list. When Sam and Suzy, Moonrise Kingdom’s lovestruck pair of young adults on the run, are cornered by Sam’s compatriots in the Khaki Scouts, things degenerate quickly. Insults are hurled, threats are made and ultimately Sam has to lay down an ultimatum. He draws a line in the dirt, and orders the Khaki Scouts not to cross it. Naturally, they do. One colorful jump cut later, one of the Scouts needs a stretcher, the troop’s motorcycle is stuck in a tree and the troop dog has been slain by a stray arrow.
Moonrise Kingdom’s place alongside The Raid: Redemption and Prometheus may seem a bit unusual at first glance, but in its own way, it is an excellent example of violence used properly in storytelling. Keeping the violence offscreen save for the cast’s perplexed reaction to the aftermath keeps it from breaking the film’s previously established tone of melancholy whimsy.
As with The Dark Knight Rises, the violence serves to highlight the character’s individual cores; Sam and Suzy are in love to the point of fighting for each other, with Sam issuing his ultimatum and Suzy apparently stabbing one of the scouts during the unseen melee. The Khaki scouts are a band of kids who dislike Sam on general, to the point of bringing a wide variety of not-strictly-necessary weapons with them on their search for him. Both parties are convinced that they are doing what is right for them, and as a result, clash.
As Moonrise Kingdom is generally fairly sweet natured, young love triumphs over young hate, and Sam and Suzy drive off the Khaki Scouts before proceeding on to the cove where there romance continues. Is it unusual compared to its peers here? Certainly. But as out-of-place as two tweens in love might seem alongside the Engineers, an Indonesian SWAT Team, Batman and a troubled, psychic teenager, their not-terribly-final stand fits in with the rest of their work and has a definite impact on the rest of the film; the Khaki Scouts are inspired to reconsider their attitude toward in Sam in part by their realizations about just how horrible they have been to him, and the adults step up their search for the wayward couple in the immediate aftermath of the fight.
Moving beyond Moonrise Kingdom, consider the pirate subplot in The Life Aquatic or on a darker note, Richie Tenenbaum’s suicide attempt in The Royal Tenenbaums. Odd as it might seem, Wes Anderson knows how to handle violence; with tact, care and an awareness for where it belongs in the story.
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