SNIPER
A film review by Greg Bole
Copyright 1993 Greg Bole
Saw an advanced screening of the movie SNIPER last night, and I have to say I wasn't too impressed.
This film is about an expert marine sniper, played by Tom Berenger, who is teamed with a hot-shot-young-no-experience-never-killed-a-man new partner to take out some drug-kingpins and military strong men in Panama. Sound cliche? That's only the beginning.
Billy Zane (MEMPHIS BELLE) played the rookie, and never seemed to get a handle on his character. He was so contrary and pig-headed in the beginning, you just wanted to smack him. Then he goes "crazy" from the pressure, but seems to immediately snap out of it. I'm not sure if the blame should lie with the directing, editing, scriptwriting, or acting ... but it didn't all come together.
I think Berenger is a pretty good actor, and he looked great in the part, covered in camo, face painted, stalking through the jungle with his high-power rifle ... but once again, his character was given some pretty bad dialogue, and didn't react too logically to many of the situations. There was very little logical development in these characters.
My biggest problem with this film was it's tendency to put these two snipers in as *many* inches-from-death situations as possible. They began to resemble G. I. Joes, the Greatest American Hero. And of course their almost supernatural accuracy with their guns was called upon to get them out of far too many close calls. Now a lot of movies are stamped out of this mold, in fact that's what made DIE HARD so much fun: the super-hero avenger type. So some will enjoy the action hero heroics, but I didn't think it fit with the nice tension that was built up in the earlier scenes, and the "real life" feel of covert operations in Panama.
A word must be said on the camera work, much of it was very nice. The jungles of Panama (or their stand-ins in this case) formed a very picturesque background ... and the drama of speeding bullets was captured using some nice trick photography. Many have seen the slowed down "bullet-cam" following the projectile to its target. This was used well in the beginning to show the feverish nightmares Berenger gets when remembering the moment of the kill. It was dramatic when used in flashback...but it seems the director liked the technique so much he started inserting these shots (pardon the pun) into the real time action...then it just seemed silly.
All in all, not a real dog: there is some nice action, good atmosphere, and pretty photography. But the plot is pretty lame, the acting didn't form a cohesive whole, and far too much thisclosefromdeath heroics.
I'll give Sniper ** stars out of 5.
Greg Bole bole@hmivax.humgen.upenn.edu
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