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A
film review by Steve Kong
Copyright © 1998 Steve Kong
Edited by Cher Johnson
In
Japanese legend, a ronin was a samurai whose lord was
killed. Left with no one to protect and ashamed that he
let his master die, a ronin wandered the countryside
often as a killer for hire, or a thief. In John
Frankenheimer's Ronin, we meet a band of modern-day
ronins.
In a small café in Paris we meet these ronins Sam the
American (Robert De Niro) who to our knowledge is ex-CIA,
or at least he says he is; Vincent (Jean Reno) from
France who is the team's "tour guide"; computer
expert Gregor (Stellan Skarsgård) from Russia; from
England, weapons expert Spence (Sean Bean); and master
driver Larry (Skipp Sudduth) from America.
Deidre (Natascha McElhone), who is under the control of a
mysterious man, has brought this international team of
"ronins" together. Deidre is told to get
together this team in order to steal a suitcase. What's
in the suitcase? We don't know. The suitcase is just a
McGuffin - or as Alfred Hitchcock, the man who coined
this term, defines as an object that we are all focused
on, but it really doesn't matter what it is.
For the rest of the movie we follow this team of ronins
on their quest to get back the suitcase. We go from
shootouts to car chases to shoot outs and back to car
chases. If this sounds tedious to you, it is not. I'm
sure this repetition would have failed under the hands of
a beginner and untalented director, but under the steady
hands of John Frankenheimer, it works out really well.
I lost count of shootouts but there were three
spectacular chases. Some might argue that three chases in
one movie is two too many. But, these car chases are
technically brilliant - the logistics of putting three of
them together must have been a nightmare. From the tight
and fast driving in the claustrophobic and anemic streets
of Paris to the weaving and avoiding oncoming traffic,
these car chases are the staples for Ronin.
The shootouts get the adrenaline pumping with the zings
and whizzes of bullets flying all around. There's nothing
like watching Robert De Niro wielding an M-60 and taking
out faceless bad guys in a tight alleyway. The sound
design for this movie is fully enveloping. For example,
there is a scene where one of the ronins is being beat up
in a backroom. As the camera pans to another character,
we hear the punches and grunts swirl around to the right
rear. I turned my head backward to see if it was an
audience member grunting or if it was a sound effect.
Kudos to the sound design team.
Writers J.D. Zeik and Richard Weisz (pseudonym for David
Mamet) put together a script that keeps us wondering who
can and can't be trusted. The plot for Ronin is not
strong - a bunch of guys look for a suitcase - but it is
enough for Frankenheimer to wrap his action around.
It's hard not to compare Ronin with Mission: Impossible.
Both Ronin and Mission: Impossible are about a band of
spies who have lost their jobs and are out to steal
something. Where Mission: Impossible failed is in the
action and plot. Mission: Impossible's plot was too
tangled to enjoy and the action was thin at best. Had
Mission: Impossible, like Ronin, had a strong script and
director behind it, it would have turned out to be a much
better movie.
The actors in Ronin give stand-out performances. How
could they not? These are top-notch actors. Robert De
Niro gives an outstanding performance as Sam. His
portrayal of Sam is as an overly cautious man who is
willing to take calculated risks. In one scene, De Niro
gives the perfect bite to a line. After talking another
ronin into taking a bullet out of himself, De Niro calmly
says, "You think you can stitch me up on your own?
If you don't mind, I'm going to pass out."
Jean Reno is a great actor who is sometimes squandered -
look at how his talents are wasted in Mission: Impossible
and Godzilla. When given the chance to perform, Reno
shines. His character of Vincent is a tough Frenchman who
is loyal to the people that he can trust. Reno gives an
outstanding performance as Vincent.
Bean, Skarsgård, and McElhone all give good
performances. Skarsgård, who was the caring teacher in
Good Will Hunting, is vicious in Ronin. It was funny to
see German ice skater Katerina Witt in Ronin as a Russian
ice skater.
I haven't seen any of John Frankenheimer's (The
Manchurian Candidate) films other than Ronin. After
seeing Ronin, I will be renting Frankenheimer's older
works to see more of his style. Frankenheimer definitely
has a style, gritty and realistic. He also has a mastery
of putting together edge-of-your-seat moments. Something
to note Frankenheimer recently won an Emmy for directing
the cable TV movie George Wallace.
Worth mentioning is Elia Cmiral's score for Ronin that
builds a lot of tension during the film.
Ronin is a white-knuckle thriller. It kept me at the edge
of my seat for the full running time and had me flinching
during the action sequences. The plot for Ronin is much
like the suitcase, it's something that we care about, but
don't know anything about. It would have been nice to
have a little more plot - but, with a talented director
behind the script we forget about the paper-thin plot.
Don't Miss Ronin. Ronin makes some of the action movies
of the summer look like dramas.
Related
Ronin Links:
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 Rated R for strong
violence and some language.
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