ON DEADLY GROUND
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Steven Seagal, Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley. Screenplay: Ed Horowitz & Robin U. Russin. Director: Steven Seagal.
Scott's First Law of Hollywood Auteurism reads as follows: producer/director/star is a bad combination. Many filmmakers need someone to be the voice of reason, and that someone is usually the producer. The need can be even greater when the filmmaker in question is a rookie director, which brings us to the First Law's First Corollary: be especially wary when the name appearing three times before the title is Seagal. ON DEADLY GROUND marks action icon Steven Seagal's first time in the director's chair, and it looks like it. Self-indulgent and deadly dull for at least half of its running time, ON DEADLY GROUND demonstrates why an ego like Seagal's needs something to keep it in check.
Seagal's standard issue taciturn butt-kicker is this time called Forrest Taft, an expert at putting out Alaskan oil well fires. Early in the film, Forrest is employed by Aegis Oil chief Michael Jennings (Michael Caine) to deal with an explosion at one of Aegis' rigs, where it becomes evident that everything isn't up to specs on the well's safety equipment. Furthermore, it appears that the same equipment is to be used on a massive platform which must meet a start-up deadline in order for Aegis to retain the mineral rights. Forrest's life becomes forfeit when he discovers this information, and Jennings' chief of security (John C. McGinley) sets him up to die in an explosion. Of course, Forrest escapes, and hides out in an Inuit village, learning Native environmental folklore. Soon he sets out to make sure the Aegis 1 platform doesn't make its start-up, joined by a native activist (Joan Chen).
For those of you who didn't believe Steven Seagal could do anything more ineptly than he acts, here's evidence to the contrary. He appears to have learned nothing about pacing and exposition from his two collaborations with Andrew Davis, turning in an action film painfully short on action. The first hour is devoted to an overlong set-up, briefly interrupted by a barroom brawl so badly edited in places that they had to dub in exclamations so that it would be clear exactly where Forrest is kicking his victims. We are subjected to a handful of soapbox speeches about environmental degradation, including one in the middle of a thoroughly pointless dream/vision sequence. Seagal seems to be laboring under the deluded impression that anyone who goes to see his films actually wants to hear him speak, because for sixty minutes he just won't shut up.
Once it is revealed that (surprise, surprise) Forrest is a CIA- trained demolition expert, and Jennings sends a pack of professional killers out to eliminate him, the action picks up. However, almost none of it is inspired until Forrest reaches Aegis 1, and almost invariably the editing is attrocious. Lots of things blow up in ON DEADLY GROUND, but there is a "so what" quality to the pyrotechnics. Still, Seagal at least could have had the sense to end the film with a bang, instead of with a five minute monologue about the horrors of oil companies which rivals Kevin Costner's JFK skreed for dramatic ineptitude. It isn't even the point that he may be right; he's just chosen the wrong forum.
Of course, the ultimate problem with any Steven Seagal project is that it must inevitably star Steven Seagal. Where Schwarzenegger entertains with his comic book persona and one-liners, and Stallone brings an underdog quality to his action flicks, Seagal's squinting stoic is just boring. UNDER SIEGE at least had a chance thanks to Tommy Lee Jones' lively villain, but Michael Caine is not in that league, playing a nasty businessman we've seen a hundred times before. John C. McGinley puts a nice spin on the enforcer role, daring to lose his cool and admit he's no match for the hero. If directing ON DEADLY GROUND is Seagal's idea of stretching himself, I'd offer the words of Laurence Olivier as advice: "Just *act*, dear boy; it's much easier."
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 exploding oil rigs: 2.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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