RONIN (1998)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
To say that Hollywood didn't adapt well to the end of Cold War is an
understatement. Almost whole decade was spent in often fruitless
search for villains that could fill the emptiness left after the fall of
Evil Empire. How lost Hollywood was in that search is best shown in
RONIN, 1998 thriller directed by John Frankenheimer.
The title of the film is a reference to ancient Japanese samurais who
were left to wander the land penniless after the death of their
masters. The plot suggests that the end of Cold War left many
professional soldiers, spies, assassins and mercenaries in the same
situation. They are now forced to use their deadly skills not for their
countries but for highest bidder. Deirdre (played by Natascha
McElhone) is a woman with Irish accent who gathers group of five
Cold War veterans for dangerous mission. Their job is to steal certain
valuable package from the group of well-armed people and they
must do it before the package is sold to the group of certain Russians.
Nobody, not even Deirdre, knows what it is in the package, but it is
obviously something very valuable to Deirdre's boss Seamus (played
by Jonathan Pryce). After careful preparations, the team manages to
steal the package but it turns out that some of its members had their
own ideas of what to do with it.
In 1960s John Frankenheimer made few thrillers that would later
become classics of the genre. In later decades Frankenheimer never
managed to reach the same heights and in case of RONIN his talents
looked misplaced. The reason for that could be found in poor
screenplay by J.D. Zeick (script-doctored by David Mamet under
pseudonym "Richard Weisz"). Bleak background of Cold War, which
gave mystique and real life relevancy to the spy games and dramas
depicted in Cold War thrillers (including Frankhenheimer's), is
nowhere to be seen. In 1990s - decade marked by optimism,
unquestionable American hegemony over the world, globalisation,
prosperity and widespread belief in Fukuyama's "end of history" - it
was difficult for audience to care about minor league players like
arms smuggler, industrial spies, Russian mafia or Irish terrorists.
RONIN works best when it pretends that its plot revolves around
something mysterious and very important. The ending, when prosaic
purpose of the events depicted in film is revealed, represents the
most disappointing moment of the whole film.
Frankheimer tries to compensate script's lack of real life relevancy
with good action scenes. Some of them are impressive (including the
one inspired by the real life death of Princess Diana), but they
represent only sections of film. Most of the time audience is forced to
watch excellent and dependable actors like Robert De Niro, Jean
Reno and Stellan Skarsgard playing one-dimensional and
uninteresting characters. Sean Bean is the only one who plays
someone resembling real human being, but he disappears too early in
the film. Probably the greatest waste of talent and charisma is the
subplot involving figure skater played by Katarina Witt. Fans of
former East German athlete would cringe at the arrogant and
pointless way scriptwriters handled her character. Brief appearance
of Michel Lonsdale would bring comparisons with Zinemman's THE
DAY OF THE JACKAL, thriller which only superficially resembles
RONIN. Considering the talents and reputations involved,
Frankenheimer's film, although watchable, represents huge
disappointment.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Review written on April 27th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society
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