 Ronin (1998) For the first half hour of Ronin I had no clue what the hell was happening, then I quickly discovered that it didn't matter. The dancing skeleton of a plot is the most straightforward storyline I've seen in a long time. A group of mercenaries is hired by the Irish to steal a metal briefcase from some Eurotrash, and possibly sell it to the Russian mafia, or sell it back to the Irish, or maybe it was the Americans – did I say Germans, maybe that was it (?). Put simply, the story is: get the briefcase, at any cost. When I walked out of the theater, I had to convince myself that I wasn't mistaken, the plot really was that basic. Yet surrounding these bare and ragged bones are some of the absolutely, positively most amazing car chases I've ever seen – better than The French Connection, all of the Mad Max movies, and Scavenger Hunt combined. They literally beggar (and bugger) description. The only comparison I can think of is the opening sequence in Saving Private Ryan, where I found myself gripping the arms of my seat and grimacing from the intensity. The car chases in Ronin are truly awesome and frightening. The cars themselves have a terrifying reality as they tear down highways and screech through impossibly narrow French streets. You think, someone is bound to get killed – and boy do they! These are easily the longest and most complex car chases I've ever seen (excluding the 8-hour dune buggy chase I keep imagining someone will someday have the guts to film). I'd guess these sequences take up at least 1/3 to 1/2 of all screen time. Yes, they are way too long, and they're all the better for it. Part of the appeal of the film is that although the plot is perfectly simple, it is not easy to predict what's going to happen next. In fact it's downright difficult. Characters are built up and then discarded or killed almost randomly, so that just when you think you've figured out who the bad guy is, along comes someone else, and someone else, and someone else to take their place. As a result, the audience finds itself on completely shaky ground. You think, geez, so-and-so has to survive or has to do this or that or the other – but I just don't know! All of which makes every action scene and confrontation all the more compelling. 99% of the credit has to go to Frankenheimer, who not only kicks Michael (Armageddon) Bay's ass, but craps in his face with sheer superiority. I was saying how real the cars seemed. What I meant was that, in combination with the unpredictable twists of fate, you feel like anything could happen at any moment. You feel like these cars could dive into a group of tourists and tear them to shreds, or roll end over end, killing everyone in sight. There's a huge amount of tension that Frankenheimer builds perfectly, which explodes without reservation. Unlike Michael Bay's silly histrionics,Ronin is not a slick or pseudo-emotional film by any means. It has a grainy look and feel, with characters you know almost nothing about even at the end. This feeds directly into the perfectly orchestrated mayhem. Remember the Piccadilly Circus scene in An American Werewolf in London? I always thought that sequence, with heads rolling, cars crushing tourists and so forth, had a fantastic and horrific sense of reality, almost like a documentary. Imagine an entire film with that level of crazed intensity. That's Ronin for ya. Part of what sells Ronin is the expert use of location. As with American Werewolf, somehow the action seems more real, more immediate in Europe. Few films set in America reach that level of mayhem (although the cool mass panic scene in Relic comes really close). The locations are in fact so interesting that they constitute an additional character – probably more important than any of the humans. Speaking of which, for what it's worth, performances across the board were strong, especially Stellan Skarsgard. Jean Reno and Jonathan Pryce should be in every movie as far as I'm concerned. Although I have mixed feelings about DeNiro, since he gives a repeat performance every other film, I thought he did a credible job here. Frankly, it wasn't that important compared to the car chases. The best thing about the film—its absolute single-mindedness—is also its biggest flaw. While the action is awe-inspiring, we don't know anything about the characters, and we simply don't care. Maybe if we discovered early on what was at stake if "the wrong people" got hold of the metal briefcase, we could care. As it is, all we know is that everyone wants the damn thing, so it must be pretty freaking important. Required viewing for students of action and mayhem.
Review by Crimedog |