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)
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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*** 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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Although I didn't believe it, Tony Scott is capable of a sensitive and unique approach. In other words, he indulges in flashy playfulness only in action scenes and when bringing together a large sad bear and the cutest child movie star of recent times, he keeps the camera still and lets the atmosphere take effect. Thanks to this, the sensitive moments stand out and the twists are filled with emotions to the breaking point. A perfectly crafted piece of filmmaking, created with love, to which the story naturally lends itself.
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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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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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Gallery (105)
Photo © 2004 20th Century Fox
![Man on Fire - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/159/883/159883291_f5a3a1.jpg)
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