Police State (1987) Online

Police State was directed, starred, edited, and produced by Cinema of Transgression founder Nick Zedd. Now while Nick Zedd does not even remotely appeal to mainstream interests, he does enthral a minute portion of viewers with his aptitude for rebellion, never succumbing to that external sentiment he does not contend with. Police State is about 18 minutes, yet it does pack a powerful punch, a kind of punch that might knock your 80 year old grandma out for the count. I will not unveil all of the film's content, but I must say that this is low budget punk idealism at its best, and here Police are portrayed as the cowards and sanctimonious pigs that they are. The quality and resolution is probably not up to par with what your use to, but that shouldn't matter, because if you even have the gall to run a search on Nick Zedd, you probably don't care if the film has one dose of meaning, just to see ego-inflated cops belittled is enough for consistent entertainment.

Police State is absolutely NOT to be confused with mainstream cine dreck like the pathetic Police Academy series. This is one mother of an anti cop film. The film is by Nick Zedd (sometimes known as Nick Zodiac),who in addition to writing,directing & editing this harrowing short, also stars as the film's central character. The story:a young punk is harassed by a New York cop,who has nothing better to do than harass citizens who look different than the accepted norm. The punk gets the cuffs tossed on & is brought to the police station,where he is beaten nearly non stop by not just the arresting officer,but no less than two plainclothes officers, trying to beat a confession out of him. The outcome is a outright corker. This is not a film to watch with any & all members of the police force. No rating,but contains nearly non stop vulgar language & rampant police brutality. Not for the little ones.

POLICE STATE is a super-campy but amusing short-film that chronicles what must be Nick Zedd's obvious disdain for the police.

A cop comes up and begins harassing Zedd for no reason. The two have an extremely cheezy back-and-forth banter before the cop hauls Zedd off to the station and then beats him up. Then the police-chief beats him some more while Zedd continues playing the "tough-guy", rebellious role. Then some other guy comes in and beats him up some more, and then the chief beats him up some more, etc...Then the one cop cuts his balls or dick or something off (it's never really made clear), then Zedd blasts the cop with the cop's gun. Nick escapes from the police-station and the film ends on a shot of Zedd on a "wanted" poster...

Problem with this short-film, is that although it deals with serious subject-matter, it's all handled in what comes off as such a tongue-and-cheek fashion, that it's hard to take any of it seriously at all. The cops seems like cartoon-caricatures of the characters they are portraying, and Zedd is not the least bit convincing as the smart-mouthed and ever-defiant, but innocent "victim". Problem with POLICE STATE is, that I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a scathing social-commentary, or a darkly humorous and over-the-top look into a day in the life of a guy with some seriously bad luck. Either way, it's relatively entertaining for it's 18 minute run-time...6.5/10