By Any Means brings justice despite poor character development

I used to joke that every family needs members that do some of everything. A doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, an executive, and yes, even a thug—sorry, enforcer. Note that this list is not exhaustive. In sociology, this is called functionalism. Just as a company consists of a bunch of roles that make it operate, a family is made up of a bunch of people, each performing a specific role, that together, make the whole family unit function. There is a structural component that speaks to the relative value of each part, but let’s put that aside for now and talk about the need for each part, each person, to make the unit function smoothly.

Think about how much money you would save and the minimal number of days you would miss from work if your brother the doctor could help you understand those minor aches and pains and treat those untimely small cuts, ear aches, and sore throats. Imagine the money and time you would save if your niece attorney-at-law could handle your real estate transactions, speeding tickets, tax issues, or estate planning. Now imagine you’ve gotten into an altercation with the wrong person or people, and you’re completely out of your element to resolve it. I think about this last one after watching Elegance Bratton’s By Any Means. The story perfectly illustrates the option exercised by people, and sometimes organizations, that find themselves in untenable situations.

By Any Means opens with two men in a large warehouse, one tied to a chair, battered and bleeding and the other, with muscular arms protruding from a sleeveless white undershirt like he’s been hard at work, stands over the beaten man in a threatening posture. The men’s hairstyles, suspenders, and plaid, wool bell-bottoms along with the dark cinematography place the setting in the 1960s to early ‘70s. The man in restraints is being aggressively questioned about a violent crime and the names of those involved. He is perplexed about the questioner’s intense interest in the incident because, he says in his Southern accent, [no one cares about stuff happening to Black people down here]. It doesn’t take long to realize this is the Deep South—likely Mississippi, and that our guess about the era is accurate. What doesn’t quite fit is the interrogator himself, a man named Greg Scarpa, played by Mark Wahlberg. This lone aggressor with an East Coast accent viciously beating a White man in 1960s Mississippi is neither a Southerner nor a member of law enforcement. 

Set in 1966, By Any Means also stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Wayne Strider, a Black FBI agent who relocates from Chicago with his wife, Allison (Nicole Beharie), to his hometown of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. His purpose is to investigate racial crimes in the South, including that of the three young Civil Rights workers found murdered and buried in the side of a dam in Philadelphia, Mississippi two years earlier. A composite of Detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) in the movie adaptation, They Call Me Mister Tibbs, Agent Strider is tall, confident, and imbued with the power of an FBI badge. When he walks down the halls of the FBI office, he takes up space as if sending the message that he has just as much right to be there as anyone else. Unlike his fellow agents, however, he is only assigned internal cases rather than fieldwork that calls for examining crime scenes, talking with lab experts, questioning witnesses, and arresting suspects.

Strider works his assignments from the small supply closet that doubles as his office and which he shares with another Black FBI agent. His officemate tells him that his incessant study of the files on the still unsolved 1964 murders is an exercise in futility, since he will never be assigned the case. Still, Agent Strider strolls into Special Agent Roy Moore’s (David Strathairn) office and informs him that he is fully apprised of the details on the case and would like to take it on. His boss nicely tells him it's already being handled. Undeterred, Agent Strider leaves the office as confidently as he entered it, seemingly still determined to work on a worthwhile investigation.

Eventually, Special Agent Moore orders Strider to serve as the handler to a man named Greg Scarpa who is flying in from New Jersey to help with an arson case in which a voting rights activist was killed. Upon meeting Scarpa, Strider quickly realizes he is not an agent. His hairstyle, suit, sunglasses, and cockiness don’t comport with the conservative and reserved appearance of federal agents (present day ICE agents notwithstanding, apparently). And from the outset, it is clear that Strider’s role is not to be Scarpa’s handler. This is evident when Scarpa makes him wait while he has a tryst with a woman in a hotel room, and upon exiting, tells Strider where he wants to go next.

By Any Means is similar to a short thread in the 1997 movie, Soul Food. Starring Vanessa Williams, the film is about a close-knit family consisting of three sisters: Teri played by Williams, Maxine played by Vivica A. Fox, and Bird played by Nia Long. When Teri (Williams) gets word that her little sister, Bird, was abused by her husband, she reaches out to her gang-affiliated cousins to take care of him. By Any Means’s parallel to this is the FBI’s apparent hiring of then alleged mobster, Greg Scarpa, to take care of matters they are unequipped (or unwilling) to handle themselves.

Strider resents Scarpa’s efforts to usurp his lead role in the case and becomes increasingly frustrated by his mafia-like approach to questioning witnesses and suspects. Scarpa, on the other hand, is annoyed with Strider’s patience for reluctant and often rude witnesses and obvious suspects, such as known Klansmen who committed this and many other violent crimes against the people Strider seeks justice for. The duo not only engage in a power struggle over who is leading and who is assisting the investigation during the first half of the film, but like Felix Unger and Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, they continuously clash on matters of protocol and process.

Interestingly, Strider is also concerned with Southern ethos. For instance, when Scarpa  heads to a gun shop to question the owner, Strider stops him to explain that he (Strider) can’t go in and that’s not the way things are done there. He adds: You have to let them know you’re coming by. As an audience member, I was taken aback by this since police officers and federal agents have the authority to question witnesses. Detective Tibbs would have walked into that shop without hesitation. I was also baffled by the departure from Strider’s character. The Strider we knew to this point in the film would have walked into the gun shop, which also makes his statement to Scarpa confusing. While he is assertive with his boss in asking for cases and confidently walks the halls of the FBI office, he shies away from exercising his authority when opportunities are presented to confront and even question White Southerners.

We see another example of Strider’s contradictory character when he  drives on the highway at night and gets pulled over by a police officer. During the encounter, he maintains a humble posture—avoiding eye contact and keeping his head down and hands off the steering wheel. The officer dismisses Strider’s badge as fake, makes him get out of the car, and proceeds to handcuff him while telling him with glee, “we’re going to have some fun with you tonight.” When Scarpa, who is in the backseat, resolves the issue, Strider reassumes the posture of an FBI agent and places cuffs on Scarpa for interfering with the officer in the course of his duties.

Perplexed and frustrated, Scarpa castigates Strider on his reluctance to use his authority to confront perpetrators and challenge a system that denigrates his people. When Strider angrily challenges him with what he would do instead, Scarpa retorts, “I’d kill ‘em all.” So, what FBI Agent Strider viewed as Scarpa’s thuggish behavior, Scarpa viewed as necessary to bring people to justice for egregious crimes.

Reportedly based on a true story, this film contains some problematic contradictions in Agent Strider’s character development. Of course, people are complex. But the lead character being at once strong and later displaying cowardice tendencies at inappropriate points in the story was baffling.  It led me to lose respect for the character. As the hero of the story, the lead character should garner the audience’s empathy and buy-in as the story progresses, yet this character waffles. Scarpa, on the other hand, is consistent. He stands firmly on his principles and leans into his function as the FBI’s hired enforcer, taking care of things that the FBI couldn’t or wouldn’t then. It’s the ever-present thin line between right and wrong. But it was a different era, and the goal was to bring perpetrators to justice and curb the widespread, racially motivated violent crimes being committed in the region. Who knew? Career mobsters had roles to play in making the FBI function.