WAY OF THE GUN, THE (director/writer: Christopher McQuarrie; cinematographer: Dick Pope; editor: Stephen Semel; cast: Ryan Phillippe (Parker), Benicio Del Toro (Longbaugh), Juliette Lewis (Robin), Taye Diggs (Jeffers), Nicky Katt (Obecks), Scott Wilson (Hale Chidduck), James Caan (Joe Sarno), Kristin Lehmann (Francesca Chidduck), Geoffrey Lewis (Abner), Dylan Kussman (Dr. Allen Painter); Runtime: 118; Artisan Entertainment; 2000)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A modern noir story whose task seems to be to romanticize violence, with the film looking too much, at times, like a Tarantino-clone. But there are scenes that are fresh and invigorating, filled with a deadly explosiveness, but somehow the film fails to put it all together to get at what it is trying to unearth from all the gunplay. The opening scene is a good case in point at how misguided the film's direction was: two thugs are seated on a couples' car while they are standing on line at a nightclub; and, when cursed out in really foul language by the vulgar woman whose car it is, a mindless fight takes place, where the woman gets punched out by one of the thugs and then the thugs get beaten up by the angry crowd. It looked at that point, that the film would be very energetic, since that scene was so powerful and so crass -- and original. But the filmmaker fell in love with the violence and couldn't control his bad impulses to do the entire film as an exercise in mindless violence.
Armed with a highly polished script, lots of arty gunfights, and a convoluted, labyrinth story line, more interested in double-crosses and twists in the plot than human feelings, the film turned off on too many dead-ends to fulfill its potential. If you like gunplay done as choreography, as in recent Hong Kong action films or in Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch," and films that prefer violence to sex, action to thinking, and films that discard humor for references that film buffs can go bananas over, a film that models itself after classic movies of criminals on-the-run, then you could be on board for this one, at least, more than other viewers who might find this film is not as good as the films it is imitating.
The two crazed gunmen kidnappers are the scruffy bearded Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and the placid psychopath Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro). Parker does the voiceover explaining his amoral actions as something he can't help doing and expects no mercy from God. Parker and Longbaugh are the real-life surnames of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Their escapade as career criminals is explained by Parker, saying it was either a minimal wage job or life as a petty criminal.
A shapeless story and an unmoving character portrayal of its anti-heroes get in the way of "The Way of the Gun" for director-writer Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Academy Award for his unusual script in the overrated "The Usual Suspects." He has come up with a reasonably intricate script here for his debut film as a director, but it lacks a certain flow and credibility for it to be a bravura debut. There was a stop-and-go flurry in the action causing the story to grow dull, with guns always the answer to whatever the problem, and its situations took on a suspension of disbelief, leaving a huge void onscreen amid the dark ambivalence of the story line. But what was always absorbing was the actors spouting lines that seemed to come out of their mouths in an unnatural manner, yet had a touch of playfulness, as they mugged for the camera.
Parker and Longbaugh kidnap a pregnant surrogate mother, Robin (Juliette Lewis), who is to receive $1 million for her services. In a bloody shoot-out with her conniving bodyguards, Jeffers (Taye Diggs) and Obecks (Nicky Katt), at her obstetrician's office, Dr. Painter (Dylan), she is taken by the thugs and held for ransom. She is having the child for a wealthy couple, whose wife (Kristin Lehmann) can give birth but doesn't want to go through the trouble of having a child. Mr. Chidduck (Scott Wilson) is the ruthless tycoon who is connected with the mob, as he launders their money through his legitimate business interests, and is faced with the daunting problem of getting back his prospective son alive without being allowed to pay the ransom, because the money can be traced to the mob and he doesn't have their permission to pay the ransom. To the rescue comes help from the mob -- his bagman, someone who is the mob's enforcer, the old-timer Joe Sarno (James Caan), and his henchman Abner (Geoffrey Lewis), who was playing Russian roulette before Joe called for help. Joe is someone who explains that he is an adjudicator, showing off his polysyllabic profundity, which matches the exaggerated style of language the gunmen speak.
All the characters are born liars and self-deceivers, the only innocent one is the expected child. Unfortunately, the film doesn't have any touching moments to fall back on and there is no one worth caring about, so in the midst of all the violence, it is fair to ask what is it all about, besides being a parody on such films.
The story hits a dry spell when the gunmen flee across the Mexican border and wait to collect their ransom, knowing that the bagman is coming after them, which he does in a final shoot-out in a Mexican whorehouse. The violence and gore that ensues, plus the twists to the story, offer no big surprises. In fact, it almost seems like hundreds of other "B" films, contrary to what the director might think. He comes out with nothing that is astounding, only the sight of the dead bodies as they pile up seems to bring about a certain ugliness.
James Caan was great to watch ... his role took him in and out of the film, as it didn't seem to matter what he was spouting, he could have been doing the script to another film it wouldn't have mattered, he still was the film's source of charisma even if he was cast in a supporting role. I was amused with his definition of karma, saying karma is just a belief in justice where you don't even get the pleasure of seeing justice in your lifetime. It's an inaccurate definition of karma, but it was one spot in the film that made you think. When Caan was onscreen, he took over the film and seemed to be the surrogate star.
But basically this is the type of film that gives ammunition to those who are bashing Hollywood for its exploitive tendencies to sell violence. In the last third of the film Juliette Lewis is a bloody mess, having a baby all the characters pretend to have an interest in, even the fatalistic Parker becomes concerned about the baby, but while she is having an excruciatingly painful delivery, one of the film's many shoot-outs is taking place. It seemed the film was more interested in the shoot-outs than in getting to anything else to say.
The film was pleasing in the most superficial of ways without offering anything to say about the inner workings of the two thugs who are the centerpiece of the film. The camerawork was superb, and even though the gunplay was phony it filled the screen with stylized action scenes that were mindlessly diverting. The film could be viewed as a guilty pleasure for those who realize that the script let them down but the actors came through with flying colors. They got the graphic violence down pat for a few sparkling thrills, and the film showed that violence is so pervasive in society that even a woman gets punched in the nose by the gunmen, which I guess, goes for equality in this film! A film that has future cult popularity written all over its ambivalent signature, as the violence had an unsettling nature to it that will probably grow on art-house viewers of thrillers who will catch it on video. There is something intangible about this film that is a reflection of present day society and its ever-increasing nihilistic ways. What the film doesn't do, is go beyond exploiting this nihilism.
REVIEWED ON 10/4/2000 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
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