Dir. Tony Scott, 2004, USA/Mexico, 146 mins
Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris topher Walken, Mickey Rourke, Giancarlo Giannini
Since his arrival on the scene as a feature film director with The Hunger in 1983, Tony Scott has earned a reputation for directing uber-slick and uber-stylish commercial action films. Teaming with producers Jerry Bruckheimer and (the ill-fated) Don Simpson in the early 1980s, Scott helmed several box office plundering efforts under the these moguls' watchful eyes: Top Gun, Days of Thunder and Beverly Hills Cop 2. In the early 1990s he moved away from broadly aimed action fare and gravitated towards darker, more violent cinematic territory, with the Kevin Costner vehicle Revenge, and (continuing with the Bruckheimer/Simpson relationship) the caustic Bruce Willis action/comedy The Last Boy Scout.
In 1993 Scott tackled (arguably) Quentin Tarantino's best ever script: True Romance. Only three filmmakers have ever directed a Tarantino script: Oliver Stone, Robert Rodriguez and Scott. Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn proved a worthy adaptation, Stone's Natural Born Killers was publicly derided by QT, but Scott's version of True Romance earned Tarantino's praise, he even does a commentary on the DVD. Scott imbued True Romance with a sense of style and verve that still impresses even a decade later.
Scott's output in the late 1990s consisted of the stalker- thriller The Fan, starring Robert De Niro and the enjoyably bombastic thrills of Crimson Tide (the script for which was polished by Tarantino). Soon after came the paranoia thriller Enemy of the State and the underrated Spy Game. In the years since, Scott has directed various commercials including a short film for BMW Films entitled Beat The Devil starring Gary Oldman and (bizarrely) James Brown. Scott will next direct Keira Knightley in the Richard (Donnie Darko) Kelly scripted Domino - the true-life story of Ford model-turned-bounty hunter Domino Harvey.
2004 sees the release of Scott's latest effort: Man On Fire, with an incendiary script by scribe Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Payback, Mystic River) it re-teams Scott with his Crimson Tide star Denzel Washington. This is the second adaptation of A.J.Quinnell's book of the same name, the first being 1987's Man On Fire directed by Elie Chouraqui and starring Scott Glenn. The producer of that film Arnon Milchan, retained the rights and set about putting together this remake.
It's a departure from the usual action/adventure films for which Tony Scott is known. It also sees a more intense, more violent Denzel unleashed on cinemagoers. Washington gets downright nasty in this film and makes his Oscar winning performance as Alonzo Harris in Training Day seem like the Fresh Prince compared to the dark, bottomless void that exists deep within this films protagonist, John Creasy.
Creasy is a wanderer. He's an alcoholic. He's ex-military, ex-special forces and is haunted by a dark, violent past with which he cannot make his peace. After years of drifting from one country to the next, Creasy eventually makes it to Mexico to see his confidante Rayburn (Walken) who sees that Creasy needs something solid to cling to and sets him up with some work as a bodyguard in Mexico City, where 24 kidnappings take place every week. The kidnappings are usually financially motivated and mostly result in dead hostages. Creasey goes to works as a bodyguard for a young businessman Samuel Ramos (Marc Anthony), his daughter Lupita (Dakota Fanning) and her American mother Lisa (Radha Mitchell).
Over time, a reluctant Creasy soon forms a close bond with the charming Pita. She restores his faith in humanity and yes, gives him something to live for. Clichéd? Admittedly but then this is a genre picture and genre films by their very definition will always be clichéd. It's how these conventions are handled that elevates the film to a level all its own. Performance-wise, the true standout in Man On Fire is the amazing Dakota Fanning, who never resorts to acting her age. Like the eerie Hayley Joel Osment she holds intelligent and strangely articulate conversations for someone so young. Her relationship with Washington 's disturbed Creasy is entirely believable, subtle and thankfully, unsentimental.
Creasy develops his humanity and for once begins to feel alive again. Shattering this calm, Pita is kidnapped and Creasy is wounded in the process of trying to prevent it. His old programming comes to the fore once it is believed that Pita is most likely dead. Creasy has nothing else to lose and in a desperate clamour for some kind of redemption, Creasy wages war, unleashing some of the ugliest and most sadistic scenes of violence depicted on screen. In particular, one digital amputation interrogation renders Reservoir Dogs' ear slicing cop-torture scene a bit of light entertainment. Just as Creasy says to Pita's distraught mother, "I'm gonna do what I do best, I'm gonna kill 'em - everyone who got paid, everyone who benefited - everyone who opens their eyes at me".
In short, Creasy opens a gigantic can of whoop-ass and serves it to many, many people. Scott will no doubt endure criticism for his (usual) unflinching portrayal of violence given the current PC tendencies in filmmaking towards artist responsibility in cinema. Many may also question the film's attitude towards vigilantism, but the vital difference is that Creasy isn't really a vigilante, he's doing penance, he's paying for his sins.
Although there are shades of Cassavetes' Gloria and Besson's Leon, Man On Fire's blunt edged vengeance does belong firmly in the 1970s. Fittingly, Scott has always been the kind of filmmaker who would've been at home making these sorts of films in then. Thematically he explores the dark inner workings of machismo and violence, once unflinchingly traversed by Sam Peckinpah at that time in his career, and it's easy to imagine Scott helming films like Straw Dogs, The Getaway, Cross of Iron or Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia.
Scott has different tools at his disposal to be sure but nevertheless the familiar Peckinpah theme of 'men possessed' runs through many of his films as well. Scott has an angered, sadistic edge at work in this film. It sets his style of cinema far apart from that of his talented brother's. Man On Fire is just another step on Scott's path of development as a filmmaker in his own right, it successfully meshes a dark, violent reality with a highly moving central theme (and conclusion) that challenges an audience. To date it's Scott's best work.
Jarrod Walker
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