It's hard to find anyone who'll argue that 1995's Judge Dredd - starring Sylvester Stallone, Diane Lane and Rob Schneider - is a good movie. With wooden acting, placeholder humor and a painful influx of catchphrases, it's no surprise that it's ed as ambitious dreck (or 'drokk,' to use Mega-City One's favorite curse word.) However, if you change how you're watching the CGI-laden action movie just slightly, it becomes one of the best comic-book adaptations ever made, and a genuinely brilliant film.
Launching in UK anthology comic 2000 AD in 1977, Judge Dredd is a hotshot cop in a world ravaged by nuclear warfare, with the bare remnants of humanity crowded into sprawling 'Mega-Cities' where deprivation is the norm and crime is rampant. To try and keep some kind of order, democracy has been abandoned in favor of the Judge System - an authoritarian police state where 'Judges' are trained from youth to be judge, jury and executioner, executing citizens on the street or locking them away for decades in the inhumane iso-cubes.
Infused with pulp action and anarchic humor, Judge Dredd has a lot to offer in adaptation, as the far superior Dredd - starring Karl Urban - shows. However, not only is 1995's Judge Dredd potentially the better movie, it might be the ultimate version of the story franchise fans could have asked for.
As of writing, 1995's Judge Dredd has a 21% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, accompanied by a 31% viewer score - an overwhelmingly 'rotten' verdict.
It's a competent, beat-by-beat story that also acts as a tour of the most unique parts of Judge Dredd's world. However, with just one change, it ascends to greatness.
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Dredd may have failed in 2012, but has grown into a cult classic since then while completely avoiding the mistakes of 1995's Judge Dredd.
1995's Judge Dredd Explained
Sylvester Stallone's Movie Sees Dredd Face Off Against His Evil Twin
To understand how to turn 1995's Judge Dredd into a masterpiece, we need a quick rundown of the plot. Dredd is an ultra-tough street cop who spends all day, every day dispensing justice on the mean streets of Mega-City One. Despite his sterling reputation, he's framed for murder by his former best friend Rico, who he previously judged and sent away to a penal colony. Dredd ends up shipped off to prison with petty criminal Fergie (Rob Schneider), who he previously (and unfairly) sentenced for crimes that Fergie was forced to commit to save his own life.
Meanwhile, Rico investigates the mysterious Janus Project, which is dedicated to creating perfect Judges via cloning. Rico reveals that he and Dredd are clones of the same man, and Rico plans to hijack the project and create a clone army. Thankfully, Dredd and Fergie's prison transport is shot down and they make their way back to the Mega-City, crossing the irradiated, cannibal-infested wasteland known as the Cursed Earth.
With help from fellow judge Hershey (Diane Lane) and his clone 'father' Fargo (Max von Sydow), Dredd and Fergie take down Rico, with Dredd finally itting that his judgment isn't perfect and he needs to be slightly more flexible in the application of his beloved law. Hershey kisses Dredd and he rides off into the sunset, applauded by his peers. It's a competent, beat-by-beat story that also acts as a tour of the most unique parts of Judge Dredd's world. However, with just one change, it ascends to greatness.
1995's Judge Dredd needs to be given credit for one thing: the movie's aesthetic is absolutely perfect.
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Before Preacher, Hitman, and even The Boys, Garth Ennis wrote a large number of Judge Dredd stories under 2000 AD. Here are the 10 best stories!
The Judge Dredd Movie Is Already Great in 1 Important Way
2000AD's Post-Apocalypse Is Visually Spectacular
Before exploring how to improve Judge Dredd, it needs to be given credit for one thing. The movie's aesthetic is absolutely perfect. While the CGI is janky by today's standards, the look of Dredd's comic world is adapted perfectly. Towering skyscrapers create a hellscape of neon and grime, the Cursed Earth is the most desolate post-apocalyptic playground since Mad Max (no surprise, as 2000 AD artist Brendan McCarthy co-wrote Fury Road), and the costumes nail the comic's mix of heightened punk excess and believably low-rent, retro-futuristic couture.
Special credit goes to Judge Dredd's imposing armor, including his gigantic golden pauldrons and the eyeless helmet that (in the comics) Dredd never takes off. Likewise, the cyborg cannibal Mean Angel is perfect, and Rico's bodyguard - a robotic soldier known as an ABC warrior - is a work of art created purely through practical effects and robotics. In 1995, Judge Dredd spent one year and tens of millions of dollars building its world through physical sets. Technological limitations aside, there are many, many moments where it shows.
1995's Judge Dredd doesn't get everything wrong, but sadly it does fail where it really matters.
Alan Silvestri's score also deserves a mention - it's not exactly subtle, but it holds nothing back and, surprisingly, is absolutely perfect for how we're going to improve the movie.
2000 AD has a running joke where Judge Dredd's face is never seen. This extends to his various clones, whose features are always either obscured or changed in some way. 2012's Dredd keeps the tradition going, with Karl Urban remaining masked throughout.
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The Judge Dredd Movie Doesn't Just Misunderstand the Franchise... It Butchers It
A Biting Satire Becomes Straight-Forward Action
So Dredd doesn't get everything wrong, but sadly it does fail where it matters. The essential thing to understand about Judge Dredd as a franchise is that it's a dark satire. Dredd is a pulp hero with a will of iron, refusing to let anything stop him in the pursuit of answering every crime and injustice he comes across. He is also a violent fascist. That isn't an interpretation of Judge Dredd - it's something various characters say explicitly and often, most recently emerging from the mouth of Justice Department's head of black-ops, Judge Smiley, in Rob Williams and Henry Flint's superlative Judge Dredd: The Small House.
Dredd's job is to keep the people of Mega-City One under the bootheel of Justice Department, which takes as the core of its philosophy that the populace are venal savages who can only survive under authoritarian rule. Dredd kills subversives and stages false-flag operations at democratic marches to sabotage the movement. Aging in real time, Dredd has become more empathetic and prone to doubting Justice Department as he's gotten older, and in the current comics, he's gradually trying to make Mega-City One a better place, for example pushing to remove bigoted policies against mutant citizens (of which, given the levels of radiation in Dredd's future, there are many.) However, he remains the most effective weapon of a fascist system.
As could be expected from a '90s action movie, Judge Dredd misses the point and takes the story at face value. Dredd is a hero, Mega-City One does need the judges, and the law is perfect - Dredd just needs to realize that as a human, he needs to leave a little more room for error in how he enforces it.
The changes to Rico and Dredd's relationship are unforgivable - the exact opposite of what the franchise is built on.
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The Meaning of Dredd vs Rico Isn't Just Misunderstood... It's Totally Flipped
One of the Judge Dredd franchise's other big obsessions is nature vs nurture. In the comics, Dredd and Rico aren't the only clones in their bloodline, in fact there are dozens, with the comics following several. The point of Dredd and Rico is that they are literally the same person, with one becoming a criminal and the other a paragon of the law due to subtle differences in their experiences. Every clone in the Dredd bloodline is different - often in ways that are informed by interacting with their 'siblings.'
In 2000 AD, Justice Department wrongly believes humans can be perfected, but Dredd and Rico exist as living proof that this eugenicist dream is inherently flawed. Meanwhile, in the movie, it's stated that Rico became "the ultimate criminal" because of an unexpected mutation in his DNA. Stallone's version doesn't just miss the point, it inverts it - Dredd is the perfect Judge on a genetic level, and Rico turned evil because his genetics randomly went wrong. Thankfully, that the movie gets Judge Dredd's ideas so wrong is the key to making the 1995 film a masterpiece.
To fix 1995's Judge Dredd, just watch it like it's doing the same thing as 1997's Starship Troopers.
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We Can Fix Judge Dredd Without a Single Change to the Movie
Take a Cue from Starship Troopers and It's Suddenly 10/10
The way to fix 1995's Judge Dredd came to me while re-reading the Judge Dredd Mega Collection volume Brothers of the Blood. In 'Fifty-Year Man' (from John Wagnet, Patrick Goddard, Chris Blythe and Annie Parkhouse), Justice Department hires a director to make a movie of Dredd's life story, hoping to exploit his public profile for propaganda. The director insists on warping Dredd's story, simplifying the events of his life while adding sex and violence.
Indeed, the director even explicitly suggests a version of the genetic mutation backstory for Rico, saying, "Durin' the birth, okay, Rico gets dropped on his head. ... That's how we explain how one clone went bad, see?" The director also throws in a romantic liaison for Dredd, similar to how the movie reduces Judge Hershey to Dredd's love interest.
As you've probably guessed, my suggestion for how to make 1995's Judge Dredd into a masterpiece is to treat it as in-world propaganda. Similar to Starship Troopers (which does this deliberately), Judge Dredd makes perfect sense once you see it through the lens of deliberate propaganda. Watch Judge Dredd as an in-world movie made by Justice Department - one meant to persuade the citizens of Mega-City One to adopt a pro-Judge worldview - and suddenly all its deviations from the source material make sense.
1995's Judge Dredd becomes a genuinely compelling experience once you imagine the movie is propaganda from a fascist government...
The movie shows citizens rioting for no good reason and hangs all Justice Department's mistakes around the neck of a single corrupt official - exactly the way Justice Department wants it. The movie's misunderstanding of what makes Dredd great infuses every scene, but that means every scene is actively improved by this 'propaganda' reading.
If Judge Dredd Wants to Return to Live Action, It Has the Perfect Story on Hand
Judge Dredd is overdue for another live-action adaptation, and the new "A Better World" story arc is exactly what the franchise needs to elevate it.
Okay... Now Go Watch 1995's Judge Dredd
Or, Better Yet, Try the Comics!
If you're at all interested in Judge Dredd as a franchise, the comics should be your first port of call. The character's co-creator John Wagner has stayed with Dredd for decades, leading to some staggering narrative achievements, with Wagner famous for weaving seemingly unconnected plot threads together into epic 'mega-events.' For an easy starting point, the recent Judge Dredd: A Better World (from Rob Williams, Arthur Wyatt, Boo Cook, Henry Flint and Jake Lynch) is one of the best Dredd stories yet.
However, alongside the comics, 1995's Judge Dredd becomes a genuinely compelling experience once you think of it as propaganda from a fascist government - one that wants the populace to see authoritarians like Judge Dredd as action heroes and to accept brutal, fascistic rule as the only solution to a world that would otherwise descend into chaos.
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Judge Dredd
The Judge Dredd franchise is based on the dystopian law enforcement character Judge Dredd, who originated from the British comic series 2000 AD in 1977. Created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, Judge Dredd serves as both judge and executioner in the futuristic and crime-ridden Mega-City One. The franchise blends science fiction with dark satire, critiquing totalitarianism and authoritarian justice systems. Over time, Judge Dredd has evolved into a multimedia franchise that includes comics, films, and video games, with two major film adaptations: Judge Dredd (1995) starring Sylvester Stallone and Dredd (2012) starring Karl Urban.
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Judge Dredd
4/10- Release Date
- June 30, 1995
- Runtime
- 96 minutes
- Director
- Danny Cannon
Cast
Armand Assante-
Joan Chen
WHERE TO WATCH
StreamingRENTBUYJudge Dredd is a 1995 sci-fi action film based on the comic character of the same name. Set in a distant dystopian future, humanity has elected "Judges," to deal out justice, who act as "judge, jury, and executioner" as they tend to the lawless world of Mega-City One. But when Judge Dredd is framed for murder by his own brother, Dredd will strike back against him to reestablish the rule of Law and bring him to justice.
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