No stranger to showcasing that which inspires him, The Suicide Squad director James Gunn has revealed the influence behind one of the film's many scenes. Gunn's take on Task Force X serves as a soft-reboot-come-sequel of David Ayer's critically panned Suicide Squad from 2016. Ayer has since been open about how studio interference from Warner Bros. greatly impacted his vision for the film; however, with The Suicide Squad, Gunn was allegedly given free-rein. This included not being obligated to bring back any characters from the original film, although several are returning, including Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag. This freedom has seemingly enabled Gunn to create something which, according to early reviews, feels incredibly unique and allowed the director to make his mark on the DC Extended Universe.
Throughout the filmmaking process, Gunn has been incredibly open about the various influences behind The Suicide Squad, with Gunn recently commenting how Alice Cooper was a big inspiration for Harley Quinn's look in the film. The Suicide Squad is clearly wearing its influences on its sleeves. This has even become a key part of the marketing for the film, with the first poster released directly imitating the poster for The Dirty Dozen. With the 1967 war film's premise on prisoners being trained as commandoes, The Dirty Dozen was famously the direct inspiration for the Suicide Squad in the comics, albeit with supervillains instead of regular prisoners. Gunn is clearly paying homage to the classic, with the director having even described The Suicide Squad as being more like a war film.
Now, Gunn has revealed another influence that served as the inspiration behind one scene in particular. The scene in question is that of Kinnaman's Rick Flag, Idris Elba's Bloodsport and John Cena's Peacemaker in casual attire walking away from a car crash while armed to the teeth. Posting on his Instagram, Gunn explained that the shot "was inspired by a Gil Cohen painting I have in my house, the cover of an old pulp novel called 'Able Team.'" You can check out Gunn's post down below:
Able Team was a series of pulp action-adventure novels written in the 1980s by a number of authors using the pseudonym, Dick Stivers. The group were former Vietnam War soldiers who worked for a top-secret anti-terrorist organization on various missions, not dissimilar to the A-Team, and indeed not too dissimilar from the Suicide Squad themselves. Looking at the painting, one can easily see how the artwork influenced Gunn for the scene, even down to Kinnaman's bright yellow t-shirt - although sadly without the Tom Selleck-esque mustache.
It's always fun when directors openly share where they've drawn their inspiration from. Considering the chaotic action that The Suicide Squad is being lauded for, it's more than likely that there will be many more such influences scattered throughout the film. With Gunn as excited about the project as he appears, the director will undoubtedly be just as forthcoming when discussing them on social media in the coming weeks. Fans will just have to wait until The Suicide Squad hits theaters on August 6 to see if they can spot more.
Source: James Gunn
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