Would you consider yourself a hero or a villain if you were presented with a graph that showed you the average of all your positive and negative actions during your lifetime?
Pointing his camera along the narrow divide that sometimes exists between the two ends, Ramin Bahrani’s brilliantly inquisitive documentary “2nd Chance”This article explores the mythos about a selfmade tycoon, who is allergic to accountability but whose proud creations have undeniably saved many lives.
This non-fiction piece is remarkably balanced. It takes its title from Richard Davis, the famous inventor of the bulletproof vest. Bahrani’s narrative (“The White Tiger,” “99 Homes”) centers individuals on the overlooked margins of society, finds in Davis a subject worthy of ambivalent scrutiny through which the filmmaker can filter larger issues pertinent to several pathological American obsessions — success at all cost, rabid and unscrupulous capitalism, and the deadly power of guns.
Davis’ apocryphal legend of valiant feats begins with a 1975 tall tale of how he, a lowly pizzeria owner, defeated three armed bandits in an alleyway with the brawn of his weapon and his ability to discharge it effectively and accurately. Bahrani, a nimble and agile researcher, is unable to verify the accuracy of any of Davis’s statements. He also has archival footage of Davis younger self.
Chronicling his business’ rise from grassroots marketing, traveling to police stations in the area to offer his oft-concealable body armor, to the fabricating the protective garment worn by former president George W. Bush, “2nd Chance” consistently pokes holes in Davis’ official narrative. Bahrani isn’t only preoccupied with disproving how or if certain events occurred but also in the psychology of his subject’s intentions.
The director alternates between different versions of the same scene over the years. Davis is shown at close range to the camera in order to show the effectiveness of his product. Davis attempts to make the truth work for him by repeating such dramatic actions. It’s not that the vest doesn’t function as it should — it clearly does — but he believes no one could perceive him as anything else than honest if he is willing to go to such lengths to prove his trust and commitment to his product.
These grand spectacles of confidence are meant to attract non-believers as well as to reassure believers who worship at his altar. One of those acolytes is Aaron Westrick, whose life was saved by the Second Chance armor and who became loyal to Davis’ cult and an employee of the company when it settled and revitalized Central City, Michigan, as its largest job provider.
One telling and frightening breakthrough comes as Davis reveals that the dark mentality that nurtures his supposedly life-saving philosophy isn’t dissimilar — though more outspoken in its extremism — than the perverse moral righteousness that we can so easily identity with current Republican right-wing ideologies. Davis would not only keep track of the officers who survived shootings thanks to his vests but also reward the attackers. He believed that anyone who shoots at police officers is better off dead.
There’s no need for Bahrani to dig explicitly into Davis’ political affiliations when everything about his conduct and values reveals it. He’s a vintage poster child for what’s known today as the Blue Lives Matter crowd, well before their modified American flag became synonymous with an ideology of impunity under the guise of law and order that Davis undoubtedly shares. The satirical low-budget movies and commercials he wrote, directed, and produced to promote his product also illuminate his feelings on police brutality and the media’s interrogation of it. Bonus points to Bahrani for holding back on making the kind of facile comparisons to Trump that could drawn from Davis’ story.
There’s something fittingly American about creating wearable shields to withstand a bullet’s impact rather than working to prevent those situations from happening; Davis absolves the wide availability of guns of any guilt, choosing to attack the symptoms rather than the root cause. It’s not unlike teaching school children how to barricade themselves in a classroom, anticipating that a shooting will inevitably happen, to avoid regulating the destructive pride and joy of a segment of the population.
Davis’ story seems ripe for a sensational, multi-episode streaming event à la “Tiger King,” but in Bahrani’s thorough and tactful hands, it yields a fascinating, infuriating, but eventually touching piece of non-fiction storytelling. That Bahrani himself is of Middle Eastern (specifically Iranian) descent doesn’t deter Davis from spewing his disregard for the people killed during U.S. military interventions in the region; the issue itself is never brought up specifically on camera, even as the filmmaker points that the U.S. invaded Iraq despite the fact that it had no connection to the 9/11 attacks. Davis was a contract worker for the U.S. military.
Conspicuously present as the narrator — who, during interviews, interrogates the deceitful magnate about his many scandals and mishaps with the law that he claims so much to respect — Bahrani pushes back when he knows Davis is lying, asking to see documents or confronting his subject with voice recordings of his misdeeds. Aaron Wickenden, a seasoned doc editor (“Hail Satan?” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”The portrait is expertly assembled by ), using input from ex-wives and business partners. It allows for an ambiguous assessment about a person’s best and worst.
What’s most powerful about Bahrani’s latest is that the notion of a second opportunity, of a renewed lease for reinvention and for meaningful change, ultimately doesn’t refer to Davis, who is unwilling to accept responsibility for any of his actions. It’s two other men — connected by a situation of extreme violence that altered their individual journeys — who are brought together on screen in an act of forgiveness. Surprisingly, the solution is “2nd Chance” underscores that our behavior in previous stages of our lives doesn’t make us irredeemable by default. People are more than the results of one decision.
Some may reconsider their decision. Davis is one example of someone who will never reconsider their decision.
“2nd Chance”It will be shown for the first time at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.