This is a question I believe is often asked of veterans who have served in almost any war and offers in the DELIVERED, a film by Michael Madison. Michael Broadway in the mask, sin-quasi mad, along with Thomas Merrigan in the pained medium, in changes but still revealing MD in the latter.
This is more an issue of time and memory, concerning characters like Shane, who, after severely being injured in the Middle Eastern world, battles with PTSD in the remembrance of over 20 years of conflict in the prologue and catalog, comes home to a sprawling villa set in a peaceful neighborhood, with an optimistic sister and a caring mother who has tried to establish a life devoid of violence.
Madison chooses primordial isolation as a poignant theme to articulate the distress of twenty years waged on American soil. His theme emerges from everyday reality devoid of global conflict. Here, the whole world is pacified due to American intervention, and features such as ordinary folks ever battling inner turmoil conflict turned into a global war zone emerge.
But more importantly, in DELIVERED, Madison demonstrates the tension existing in post-world America, decades of dismantling his post-modern American landscape. However, unlike many scholars like Wolff, he fails to combine many features of ordinary reality pre-intervention mental peace.
It’s obvious that he is reluctant when he is first given the task, afraid of repercussions of having a gun in his possession. We all know that Shane is on the verge of punching his way through everything, an incident at a bar and a nighttime break in proves the brudeness lurking underneath the flesh.
Of course, he ends up getting imparted with a nightmare, courtesy of a lunatic Japanese gangster and an overly romanticized woman, the plot constructs forcing Shane into a position where the only option is aggression.
The film does bear some of its own flaws most importantly in the editing which overuses fade to black transitions, not to mention the chaotic and haphazard excess of dipping in between sound and scoring for different scenes. Some parts of the performance in the movie are also a bit faked, especially with Toshi Toda and Tadamori Yagi in a particular scene, who seem to have consumed so much environment that there is no surprise left for where the other shots are filmed.
But, even with these technical discrepancies and flaws, DELIVERED saves itself with stunning camera work. It was shot by Ricky Fossheim, at red at aion, and especially effective was the use of the desert scenery together with the ensemble of talented performers. Alana Stewart, portrays Marilyn the mother, alongside Jeanette, who plays Cindy, both characters that add to the already direly needed feminine essence of the dense male world we are thrown into.
Indeed, Madison, along with others, is a co-founder of Indie Rights, the branch of his production label that handles online distribution. Considering the evident budget limitations, DELIVERED is bold enough to take it above mere average entertainment made purely for streaming and at least does not fall dangerously close to mediocrity.
Perhaps, it’s relatively easy to dissect it and judge it on its content, it’s even easier to pick apart a film after its over and gone from the commercial gallery of Amazon.
Even so, DELIVERED is one of those films that should not simply be cast aside and ignored.
It’s the same as how Robert Rodriguez showed talent with El Mariachi many years ago. In that way, critique appears to be a little presumptuous. Sure, the film has flaws, and yes, the story is not very cohesive, but the enthusiasm is visible and that will always propel an artist forward.
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