What does the Lethal Weapon and Men in Black (MIB) series have in common? Well they are both buddy films with one older and one younger government employed law enforcement officer. They both enjoy a working environment that allows them unpredictable days with constant challenges against larger than life opponents. One is in touch with their emotions and is articulate in regards to them while the other emotionally compromised or at least not functioning how their partner would expect an emotionally sound person to react. One can clearly make friends while the other protests a preference, initially, towards solitude and workaholism.
Both series are a mixture of large action set-pieces, broad slapstick and subtle comedy with intimate moments of real platonic love and devotion and often include specific social messages. In the second instalment of both series they add a third temporary member in the form of a smaller, fast talking character that has the uncanny knack of finding what the main leads need at any given time – Joe Pesci as Leo Getz and the voice of Tim Blaney for Frank the Pug. Also one of the leads happens to be black and the other white. They themselves are disinterested in this fact bar a few joking comments: 'We're back. You're black and I'm white' (Lethal Weapon 2) All of which sends out a message to the audience that they need to become as unconcerned with the mixed racial nature of their friendship.
When Lethal Weapon (1987) and Men in Black (1997) were first released they were massive box office hits also achieving, by and large, much critical approval. However one feels about the subsequent films in their respective franchise both films tapped into a winning formula on the big screen. Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtagh (Danny Glover) meet when they are both at a crossroads in their lives. Murtagh is about to retire thinking that he's 'Just too old for this shit' while Riggs in the prime of his life is suicidal with only the job keeping him holding onto life after the death of his wife.
When Will Smith's James, later Agent J first meets Tommy Lee Jones' Agent K, the older agent is also on the verge of retiring while J is living his life knowing something is missing. When both sets of partners meet each other, it does not appear like a natural fit personality wise or in terms of life experience. However through action and subsequent comedy, they bond and create an entirely new lease of life in each other.
The older partner brings discipline to the obvious exceptional talents of the younger and can discover the new role of being a mentor now that they are no longer physically young enough to play the main hero. This is demonstrated, quite usually, with chase scenes on foot. In Men in Black Smith's character comes very much to K's attention because he physically chased down a particularly talented sprinter of an alien. The Riggs Run was shown repeatedly as the then 30 year old Gibson often ended up leaving the car behind and ran around at work. Riggs and J left their older partners holding extremely large guns and letting the younger one do the running. Both partners also bicker about who is going to drive the car each believing in their own abilities, when on an equal playing field, a little more than the other.
One can argue that because there is a significant age difference between the sets of partners, they can more easily discount a sexual relationship. Neither series are looking for 'the love that dare not speak its name' between an older man and his younger protégé. The heterosexuality of all the leads is firmly established through Riggs and Murtagh being or having been married. J and K are shown as only being interested in relationships with women or female aliens, though the Men in Black ultimately live solitary (celibate?) lives like the Jedi of Star Wars. The bedrock of these partnerships rest on the platonic love they have for each other. In Lethal Weapon 3 Riggs and Murtagh have a full emotional confrontation over Murtagh's once again threatened retirement with Riggs insisting that 'I have three beautiful children, I love them, they're yours … I live in your life … you are retiring Us.' Men in Black 3 sees Smith's J stating that the only relationship he is having is with K and as with Riggs and Murtagh he is willing to repeatedly sacrifice himself for his platonic life partner K.
The two series insist on maturity regarding normalising a bi-racial friendship. One of the standout scenes from Lethal Weapon 2 is Riggs and Murtagh consumed with laughter when a rouse to distract their pro-Apartheid opponents has a South African diplomat innocently pointing out to Murtagh 'But, but your Black.' The clear message in Lethal Weapon 2 is that a civilised society does not tolerate racial oppression.
Shooting lots of people yes, racial oppression no. Men in Black 3 is light on providing real comedy but it does highlight racial issues through humour. The Men in Black themselves have seen far more usual sights than a black and white human partnership and so the racial commentary is brought out when J time jumps between 2012 and 1969.
Agent J used to having equal rights and his particular job does not make the immediate link between his skin colour and 'your people' when someone comments that things will be a little different for him in 1969. When at a party, J is bemused as to why black men dressed in quasi-military black leather jackets as in the Black Panthers, would specifically target him for a fist punch when he walks passed. Walking into an elevator as a well dressed black man is nothing to the modern J but to the 1969 suited white man it becomes a frightening moment due to embedded racial fears. The joke of having a black man arrested when sitting behind the wheel of an expensive car used in Men in Black 2 is repeated in Men in Black 3 but this time with J being pulled over by two white cops. Though J has actually stolen this particular car and it is played for laughs, the message that he should not be arrested purely due to the colour of his skin is firmly stated before he neuralises the officers and repeats the equal rights message.
Murtagh and K prefer that their younger partners stay away from their daughters. In the case of K's daughter it's because she is needed to save the universe. For Murtagh he is not worried about Riggs being white but just that anyone would be sexually interested in his daughter. When Chris Rock is eventually cast as Rianne's husband the fact that he is black is not the problem for Murtagh. The issue is that his daughter is old enough to be married with a baby on the way and that her spouse is somewhat annoying in general.
2001's Training Day turns the dynamic of a bi-racial cop partnership on its head. We have been taught through the Lethal Weapon series that it should be a positive pairing but this is flipped between Denzel Washington's Alonzo Harris and Ethan Hawke's Jake Hoyt. The older cop does not protect his younger partner. In fact he does everything in his power to ruin him once he is found to be morally incorruptible. This is not a racial issue but a moral issue. Pulp Fiction's (1994) Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) are a completely equal partnership without race being of significance in their friendship. Vincent and Jules have their own code of conduct that they share. They only really disagree on whether or not it is appropriate for someone to give another man's wife a foot massage.
However, in all of these examples it is noteworthy that it is the black characters that are given the most words to say with probably the least content. Tommy Lee Jone's K is nothing if not tersely restrained in his use of language whereas Will Smith's J rarely leaves a minute go by without speaking. Though Riggs and Murtagh talk together frequently, it is Murtagh who has more soliloquies as Riggs recedes into himself when there is a task at hand. There is even a nod to the Lethal Weapon series in Men in Black 3 as J says to quiet the pie-eating K 'I'm getting too old for this shit.'
Men in Black 3 is released in cinemas 25th May. Read our review here: Men in Black 3 Reviewed
