Review: "Man on Fire" (2004)
This review will contain the most spoilerish of SPOILERS, so read at your own risk.
"Man On Fire" is now R-rated revenge-spree movie number THREE to be playing in wide-release, joining last weeks top-two films "Kill Bill Vol. 2" and "The Punisher." For those keeping track, the only reason you should see either of the other two films instead of "Bill" is if "Bill" is sold out.
"Man" stars Denzel Washington as Creasy, a former counter-terrorism specialist with your standard-issue "haunted military hero" alcoholism and death-wish. He turns up in Mexico to touch base with an ex-colleague (Christopher Walken) and finds a job opportunity: Bodyguard to Lupita, (Dakota Fanning) the young daughter of a Mexican businessman and his American wife.
You know the drill, don't you? The little girl is wise beyond her years, precocious as all heck, etc., so no prizes for guessing she brings Creasy back from the brink and makes him "want to live" again.
It takes about a full half hour of swimming-coaching, gift-exchanging and puppy-walking until the film decides it's had enough setup and gets down to business: Lupita is kidnapped during a shootout that puts Creasy in the hospital, and when ANOTHER shootout erupts during the ransom-delivery and the "head baddie's" nephew is killed AND the money is stolen, "head baddie" gets bad and takes it out on his hostage. Exit Lupita.
Seriously, they kill Dakota Fanning. THAT made me sit up and take notice. "Holy crap! They KILLED THE LITTLE KID!? They NEVER kill the kid!" I was impressed. That this was "going all the way" could concievably make up for the dull, sappy first half.
They'd killed the kid, which means that when Creasy wakes up in the hospital and is informed of this his innevitable quest for revenge isn't a "rescue" with more violence: It's just revenge. He can't "save the day," it's just simple old-testament eye-for-an-eye vengeance. Creasy vows to kill not only those responsible but also "anyone who knew, anyone who profitted, anyone who opens an eye at me," gets a blessing from Lupita's mother and heads out to kill the bad guys.
Y'see, at THIS POINT I was digging this. The problem with most revenge movies is they always neuter their edge by turning the hero's single-minded quest into something "more noble." The girl is already dead, so now all thats left is for Creasy to go through the villians like a cathartic human chainsaw, yes?
No, not really. Oh, he kills the bad guys alright. Lots of them. And tortures a few creatively for information. Finger-slicing, ear-slashing, brutal beatings AND a C4-explosive-up-the-bum sequence. But early on in his quest he crosses paths with, yes, a Crusading Journalist for a muckraking Mexican newspaper and learns that the baddies he's chasing are connected to (sigh) a secret brotherhood of corrupt cops that (sigh) runs Mexico from behind the scenes. So, yes, (sigh) his mission of revenge takes on "added significance" (sigh) in that he will better society through his actions blah blah blah...
I hate this. This is what kept "Gladiator" from being perfect. A revenge thriller should be about revenge. Giving the revenge "socially concious" side-effects or "redirecting the rage" blunts the force of the plot. Once the essential element of "wrath of god" vengeance is sidetracked, it becomes just another cliche actioner; to the extent that you start getting the sneaking suspiscion they'll find a way to let Lupita survive... and then they do. Cowards.
Tony Scott directs, which means that while this is eventually an almost-but-not-quite-above-average thriller it at least LOOKS good. He's a master craftsman, and he employs here a hand-held style that would be very cool if it wasn't used for the ENTIRE movie, at which point it becomes grating and cheesy.
A more subtle but more troubling problem is the curious racial character-coding going on in the story: The characters a pitched broadly, and there seems to be some uncomfortably specific racial edge to the characterization. Denzel is the only black character, portrayed as basically a living weapon, a killing machine that only finds "proper direction" when inspired by the commands of either Lupita or her mother, both utterly-noble "pure" white women (blondes, no less) living in Mexico.
The Mexicans are played, across the board, as corrupt, violent and ugly in an almost subhuman way; if there's a negative stereotype of Hispanics in existance it's on display here: When Creasy invades the home of the head bad guy, the camera lingers on his equally-villianous pregnant wife and the multitude of yelpings kids already running around. The film is so dogged at portraying nearly all levels of Mexican society as inherently corrupt that when Lupita's father turns out to be a willing participant in her kidnapping, it's hardly a surprise. Rather, it just adds to the potential of a creepy racial underpinning to all this: As if the film is "teaching us a lesson:" 'Pity the poor white American who married a Mexican, just LOOK what happens!' I'd doubt this angle is there intentionally, but it's there and it's deeply off-putting.
So, yes, not really a great movie. Decent action, not much else.
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