Sandwich Time: Vince Vaughn In DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE
S. Craig Zahler’s Dragged Across Concrete is a deeply nihilistic tale which adds grit and gravel to the buddy-cop picture. Beautifully crafted and brutal, Dragged Across Concrete is a weighty crime drama with sterling performances from Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn. This particular dark shade of bleak may not be to everyone’s taste, but if you’re willing to delve into S. Craig Zahler’s world then you’ll be rewarded with a powerful cinematic experience.
One of the stand-out moments in the film is a dialogue-free scene with Gibson and Vaughn sitting in a car. It sees Vaughn taking particular relish in eating a sandwich. At the time of the film’s release, I spoke with Zahler about the scene – here’s what he had to say:
It just tells you about the characters. There aren’t that many moments that come from my real life but that’s a little bit from my long suffering editor Greg D’Auria, who is stuck in a room with be for 8,9,10, 11 hours – depending on how long we’re going and I’d bring in these sandwiches and I’m in there for hours and hours and hours and there’s no rush. Sometimes I’d have a sandwich going for 4 or 5 hours where I would just allow myself a bite or anther two bites after we’d finished a scene or fixed a problem. Again, it tells you a lot about their relationship and their familiarity with one another. That’s the sort of stuff that everyone would cut, that every studio would ask for that to be cut and it’s a scene which comes up very, very regularly and it’s the kind of thing that I’m interested in which makes the piece unique. And certainly the people who aren’t that onboard with the experience – makes them suffer through it all the much more: ‘Oh, Jesus we got to watch these guys eat sandwiches’. So if you’re not that onboard, it’ll make it that much worse for you but if you are onboard then it’s a detail to relish. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
