Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Call me crazy, but Denzel Washington's Oscar winning turn in Antoine Fuqua's urban drama Training Day just didn't do it for me. Don't get me wrong--Denzel's definitely a talented & prestigious actor, but I found his casting as a dirty cop to be somewhat unfitting. However, Tony Scott's newest film Man on Fire was a turning point for me in that it's Scott's most incredible film in years & one of the most poignant roles I've seen Denzel Washington in.
Denzel Washington reunites with director Tony Scott once again (i.e. Crimson Tide) in this remake of Man on Fire (based on actual events from 1970's Italy, then the hotspot for kidnappings).
Our film opens with a staggering statistic that someone is kidnapped in Latin America every 60 minutes & 70% of the victims do not survive.
Denzel gives an astonishing performance as Creasy, a stoic down-on-his-luck ex-CIA assassin. Enter Christopher Walken who rejoins with director Scott as well (i.e. True Romancehttp://www.epinions.com/content_144428207748 ) as Rayburn, Creasy's longtime friend & ex-agent who's a family man living out his days in Mexico (wow, not a whacko for once!). When an insistent family attorney (Mickey Rourke) persuades a wealthy Mexican industrialist Samuel (Marc Anthony) & his American wife Lisa (Radha Mitchell) to hire a bodyguard for their daughter due to an alarming increase of kidnappings, Rayburn is quick to lend a hand to his old pal & hooks Creasy up with the job.
Pita, the young girl Creasy must protect, is played by a very sweet & talented Dakota Fanning (cute as a button, she is). The sweet natured Pita, however, seems to be the only person who truly sees how bleak & meaningless Creasy's world is to him. Wallowing in agony & guilt over a disillusioned past, he drowns his sorrow in alcohol & flirts with the notion of suicide to end his purgatory.
Creasy is willing to do his job, but abides by the philosophy that he's being paid to be Pita's guardian, not friend. But the adorable & chatty Pita eventually cracks through Creasy's anti-social shell. Helping her with homework & even coaching her with swimming, he becomes like a surrogate father to Pita, which makes it all the more predictable (yet jarring) when Creasy is critically wounded in a shootout & Pita is abducted (Fanning was the kidnap victim in 2002's Trapped as well).
Creasy's heart strings (as well as the viewers) receive a jerk when he reads Pita's diary & learns how much she truly idolized & loved him (even naming her teddy bear "Creasy Bear"). Though calmly restrained in tone, the rage boiling inside Creasy shows when he vows to Pita's grieving mother that he's going to kill the conspirators responsible & anyone who profited from the tragedy. And boy, the man does not bluff.
Creasy reinstates the saying recently rejuvenated in Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill that "revenge is a dish best served cold." Creasy singlehandedly hunts down each conspirator in a city which seems to be a breeding ground for corruption, & in the process exposes startling key players at the rotten core of the sordid conspiracy.
To me, Denzel's character in Training Day came off as a guy riding high on an overinflated ego which quickly became tiresome & rather annoying. What makes Denzel's performance sizzle in Man on Fire is that he encompasses such a variety of emotion with the most amazing facial contortions and gestures. Creasy comes off as a much more methodical & resourceful character as well (one specific scene in which Creasy duct-tapes a conspirator's hands to a steering wheel & cuts off a finger each time a question is unanswered, then cauterizes the wound with a cigarette burner). He exercises his mental & combat skills to overcome odds & serve hardcore justice to the men who robbed him of the one person who renewed his respect for life: Pita. As Rayburn so masterfully puts it to an AFI agent: "Creasy's art is death, and he's about to paint his masterpiece."
The most attractive feature that goes hand in hand with the acting is Scott's almost hallucinatory directing. His use of fast-forward photography, exotic manipulation of mist & smoke, machine gun fire editing, multi-color film lenses, & comic book styled subtitles that accompany voice tones (screaming/yelling subtitles jet up in bold caps, while whispers & murmurs appear hazy yet legible). Very hypnotic, though some might find it epileptic. The portentous & hammering Nine Inch Nails tracks are perfectly in-sync with the mood of the scenes in which they are heard as well.
Final Word:Man on Fire went above & beyond my initial expectations. This is Scott's best film I've seen since True Romance & one of Denzel's most versatile roles yet. Man on Fire is Scott's touching & vicious revenge thriller done bloody well. Highly recommended.
A soldier for hire is contracted by a wealthy American family in Mexico City to protect their young daughter. The man forms a bond with the young girl...More at HotMovieSale.com
John Creasy Denzel Washington is a lost soul. A former government operative he has become an alcoholic nomad searching for inspiration and redemption....More at Family Video
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