THE SAINT
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Leslie Charteris's famed hero fails
to come to the screen in this film inspired as much
by the old MISSION IMPOSSIBLE program as THE SAINT
or Charteris's stories. Val Kilmer gets a real
field day playing in many disguises, and his
character certainly had possibilities. But the
script fell well short of being a cracking good
story of international intrigue. Rating: 0 (-4 to
+4)
New York Critics: 1 positive, 10 negative, 6 mixed
I am told that back in the 1970s a young filmmaker came to the owners of the rights to the character Flash Gordon and said he wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie. They turned the filmmaker down so he created a brand new hero of his own, calling him Luke Skywalker. Fortunes are made and lost on such decisions. But the question is why would even some of the most talented filmmakers choose to use pre- existing characters when they can create new ones of their own who are just as interesting. One might be that they think they can explore some new approach to an existing character; the other is to exploit audience recognition value. A test to see which is true would be whether the character would be recognizable with the names changed. Frequently there are good films made that re-examine Sherlock Holmes. Almost always these films would be recognizable as being about Sherlock Holmes even if he were given another name. One film that definitely does not pass the test is the new THE SAINT. Without being told that this character sometimes uses the name Simon Templar (but usually not) and without the use of the Saint stick- figure logo toward the end of the film, there is nothing in Val Kilmer's nameless character that at all evoke Leslie Charteris's roguish troubleshooter. And that is almost surprising since the original Simon Templar is sort of an all- purpose adventure character. He might in one adventure be battling diamond smugglers, in another dangerous spies, and in still another his opponent would be a mad scientist who has bred an ant the size of a train car. Frequently he was suspected to be on the fuzzy edge of the law, but he never actually was. He usually used his own name, rarely used disguises, and probably never used Bondian gadgets though he did use his own suave personality. In short, there is just about nothing in the new Val Kilmer version of The Saint evocative of the character as written or portrayed before. Not that this is not an interesting character. In fact, this film would have been much better had it not played on the audience's expectations to see Simon Templar.
The story opens in what can only be termed "the Catholic School from Hell." Because one boy does not take to the Saint's name he has been assigned, all the girls are locked in their dorms and the boys will get no food. This seems like a particularly virulent piece of gratuitous anti-Catholicism. Perhaps because the character will later take the names of saints the filmmakers wanted to make clear this was not a religious film. That becomes really clear when the set loose dogs on some of the children in their charge and one is killed. This incident has scarred for life a man of mystery with no name, but who likes to occasionally use the name Simon Templar. Flash forward a few years and the man is a hi-tech cross between Batman and a James Bond without a British Secret Service to serve. It is never explained where his money comes from, but he obviously has a lot to spend on the latest gadgets. He gets caught up in a really confused plot by the Russian Mafia to steal a formula for practical cold fusion from an attractive American scientist, played by Elizabeth Shue. The whole convoluted story builds to an outlandish climax in Red Square.
Shue is appealing with her slightly geeky touches. Though somehow there just does not seem to be much chemistry between her character and Kilmer's and their romance only seems to bog down the plot. Kilmer is just a little over the top in a fun way with his many and varied disguises. They are each just a bit exaggerated much like Rod Steiger's tour-de-force performance in NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY. The problem is the story which is so totally artificial and which so often depends on far-fetched coincidence to get Kilmer's character out of trouble. I think I would like to see more of this character, but in a plot that is much better thought out. And frankly it still irks me that they hung this brand new character on The Saint.
The score of this film by Graeme Revell is not inspiring (which is probably why the trailers borrowed music from THE SHADOW and CRIMSON TIDE). The film is full of scenes that are not well considered. During one chase the character apparently changes clothes (off camera) in the middle of a crowded public square with nobody noticing.
It would have been nice to have a new film about Leslie Charteris's character. It may even be good to have more stories about this Simon Templar, but they are not the same and this story has too many rough edges. I give this THE SAINT a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
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