Directed by:
Tony ScottScreenplay:
Brian HelgelandCinematography:
Paul CameronComposer:
Harry Gregson-WilliamsCast:
Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Radha Mitchell, Christopher Walken, Marc Anthony, Giancarlo Giannini, Mickey Rourke, Rachel Ticotin, Roberto Sosa (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Hard-drinking, burnt-out ex-CIA operative John Creasy (Washington) has given up on life--until his friend Rayburn (Oscar winner Christopher Walken) gets him a job as a bodyguard to nine-year-old Pita Ramos (Dakota Fanning). Bit by bit, Creasy begins to reclaim his soul, but when Pita is kidnapped, Creasy unleashes a firestorm of apocalyptic vengeance against everyone responsible. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (9)
In order for someone to really like this movie, they probably have to be a fan of Tony Scott in the first place. It has dynamic directing, sharp and lively cinematography, fast editing, blending of colors, and many other directorial tricks that the fans will enjoy, and basically it doesn't matter what the plot is about.
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*** Spoilers! *** Tony, you’re a good action director, but you don’t have what it takes for a rousing story about a man’s redemption with Lisa Gerrard’s (suspiciously familiar) vocals. At least not for such a subject in an eccentric pop guise. You fail completely in the dramatic construction of the story. You make me emotional in the first half, make me fall in love with the little heroine, and then you want me to feel catharsis during the elimination of her killers without shedding a single tear for her. Your protagonist takes revenge not to rescue her, but for the same reasons that Van Damme administered scissors kicks back in the eighties. The second half of Man on Fire thus becomes just a dull action flick with no dramatic connection to the preceding plot. The “surprising” point is then just the final nail in the muddled coffin. Besides Denzel Washington and couple of music-video-style sequences, Man on Fire has one big positive – Dakota Fanning.
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I won't hide the fact that I expected a bit more from it. The first half is a compelling look at the growing friendship between a beleaguered bodyguard and a charming young girl, which is a joy to watch thanks to the performances and Scott's precise direction. The second half, marked by Washington's revenge and the liquidation of the kidnappers, does not lack momentum and brutality, but it’s surprisingly cold and the jerky camera got on my nerves instead of making everything more interesting. But that doesn't change the fact that Tony Scott was a great director who could make even a wheelchair chase look spectacular, and his action prowess and experience can be felt in every scene and especially in the ending. Man on Fire didn't impress me given the reviews, but on the other hand it didn't bore me for a moment. 3.5*
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Tony Scott for the first time in full-on experimentally impressionistic mode in a feature-length film. The cinematography and editing, or rather the use of fragments of shots, become the equivalent of massive deposits of paint and brushstrokes. In a nervously agitated way, Scott transforms a gritty thriller into fantastical macho camp whose overwrought images are just as infused with kitsch and surreal artificiality as the peak works by the master of melodrama, Douglas Sirk. On a small monitor, it is a ridiculous spectacle for pubescent boys fumbling about in their masculinity, but on the big screen, Man on Fire is breathtaking as a spectacular audio-visual equivalent of kinetic art. The magnificent experience is framed by a mix of impressions from a unique work that manages to be unintentionally funny in its bleakness, cringy in its kitsch, touching in its pathos and captivating in its formalism.
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Tony Scott scored a bullseye with me again. Man On Fire is a perfectly made action thriller with no shortage of deep emotions and perfect action, all framed in Tony’s classic “epileptic" style. The screenplay is also pretty well written and the actors, headed by Denzel Washington, have something to say. For action and Tony fans, just superb.
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