NO WAY OUT
A film review by Peter Reiher
Copyright 1987 Peter Reiher
NO WAY OUT is a splendid example of how to make a good suspense film. It has a good plot, interesting atmosphere, first-rate acting, well-chosen cinematography, tense direction, and, best of all, intelligence. The elements are very nicely blended into what has to be one of the finest suspense films of the decade.
The key here is "suspense." NO WAY OUT isn't an action picture. It's a lot more like a classic Hitchcock film, with the strongly Hitchcockian plot of a trapped innocent in over his head to go along with it. The hero finds himself caught in a web of intrigue, and, true to the title, it does begin to look like there is no way out for him. He has to struggle with all his wits just to keep disaster from striking immediately, and has little time left to prevent the seemingly inexorable doom that is about to descend.
To avoid spoiling the effect of NO WAY OUT, I'll have to be rather vague about its plot and themes. NO WAY OUT concerns a US Navy officer who finds himself unwillingly entangled with Washington politicians in a battle to cut the funding on a huge military project. Personal factors further complicate matters, and the scheming of politicians eventually threatens his very life. Circumstances leave him without any room to move, about to be crushed in an impersonal juggernaut.
Kevin Costner plays the officer, giving his best performance to date. We can see him not only thinking of how to escape, we can see him trying to conceal his thoughts from those around him. Costner succeeds best in the most important aspect of his role. In order for the audience to become truly worried about his plight, the audience has to truly identify with him. Costner gives us a figure who deserves our sympathy. Costner's previous work has seemed almost like a prepartion for stardom, and this role, on top of his success in THE UNTOUCHABLES, may well do it for him.
Gene Hackman leads a fine supporting cast, giving his reliably solid performance as the Secretary of Defense. Credit goes to Hackman, and to Robert Garland, the screenwriter, for giving this character room to show complexities. A more typical filming of this story would have presented a figure cut from cardboard. This willingness to take the extra effort is representative of the film. All of the characters have the opportunity to show themselves as real people, rather than story-driven placeholders. Sean Young, George Dzunda, Howard Duff, and Iman all take advantage of this opportunity. The best of the supporting performances is that of Will Patton, as Hackman's fiercely loyal hatchetman. Patton's intensity is chilling. His performance as the underling who puts his patron's success above all else rings all too true.
Roger Donaldson, the director of NO WAY OUT, hasn't shown a very special talent before this film. A New Zealander, he previously directed SMASH PALACE, THE BOUNTY, and MARIE, putting in professional efforts on all of them, but demonstrating little more. Here, though, his direction is near perfect. Starting from a quiet pace more typical of a drama than a suspense film, Donaldson builds to hectic excitement by the end. He and cinematographer John Alcott have established a film in which the subtext is claustrophobia. The open, airy shots near the beginning of the film wind in to tighter and tighter compositions as Costner's situation becomes more and more desperate. The intent is to make the audience feel as trapped as Costner's character, and it works superbly. Alcott, in his last film, shows again that he was one of the masters of the camera, expressing a strong sense of being closed in without ever feeling static. The cinematography of NO WAY OUT does not permit him as much chance to display virtuosity as, say, BARRY LYNDON did, but Alcott well shows how a cinematographer can support a film without taking it over.
Another element of NO WAY OUT deserves special mention--the production design. The designer ably abets the claustrophobia built by Donaldson and Alcott. His sets, especially the Pentagon interiors that host most of the film's second half, are both accurate and appropriate. His Pentagon has very much the tacky and impermanent look of the real thing. He plays up the submarine-like qualities of the building, the long corridors without windows, the military-drab walls, the feeling that, despite being the largest building on earth, quarters are rather cramped. He also gives a feel for the odd topologies of the building, the interconnecting offices, the concentric ring construction, the unexpected facilities and occasional decorations.
NO WAY OUT is, on the whole, one of the best films released this year. It is both intelligent and entertaining, and has the additional advantage of topicality. Roger Donaldson crafts his film carefully, giving us a film about people in a suspenseful situation, rather than mere actors going through the paces. NO WAY OUT is a suspense film that Hitchcock would have appreciated, far more than any of Brian De Palma's ripoffs. One can but hope that audiences appreciate it, as well.
Peter Reiher
reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
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