MASKULINITAS, KEKERASAN, DAN NEGARA DALAM THE RAID: REDEMPTION

Abstract

Contestation of dominant masculinity in IndonesianPopular Culture influenced by the New Order can still beseen in its cinematic production. The legacy of The NewOrder echoes through themes of state’s violence andmasculinity. The Raid: Redemption, as a huge internationalsuccess, depicting vulgar violence done both by the stateand the gangsters is very important to be analyzed. As theform of collective dreams, the contestation of masculinityand violence of the state and the gangster in the moviereflects the real social condition. Through historicalperspective the state and the gangster are more like binaryopposition; inseparable but opposing each other. TheGangsters became the state’s Frankenstein monster. On oneside the state cannot allow the crime the gangsters do, buton the other the state keeps in creating the gangsters to thedirty jobs that state cannot do. Psychoanalytically speaking,their relationship resembles a father and a bad son. Thosegangsters are “the son” and the state is “the father”. Theeffect of the state’s treatment to the gangsters can still beidentified long after the down fall of the era that created it.