Secuestro infernal

This is one of the strangest films I have seen in a long time. Bloated and pretentious, it is like an oversized car that grinds to a halt, spurting occasionally into movement. Though humourless and cynical, it is an epic farce; epic because of the Western backdrop against which it is played; farce, because the whole project seems ready to collapse under its own earnestness, characters come and go unexpectedly, there's a lot of going in and out of doorways, the action shifts between distances thousands of miles apart, and yet the same characters seem to recongregate, as if some great big hand is moving the delf along a table.

I'm not able to tell whether 'Way of the Gun' is absurdly complex or foolishly simple. The major problem is the screenplay, which seems desperate to remind us of the plot's metaphysical depth, when, as Keaton and Melville have taught us, action is eloquent enough on its own.

Some have seen the film as a denunciation of violent cinema, cool macho gangster nihilism, as the sterile, masturbatory crooks (the chief of whom can't even have a baby with his wife) is contrasted with the simple values of maternity and fertility - when the enviably calm 'bagman' Joe Sarno walks in on Robin in labour, he seems momentarily struck with awe. He is the only character at the end not tainted by blood - after all, he is the cleaner - and McQuarrie doesn't seem to be making much distinction between the blood of a bursting mother and the wounds of a bunch of gunmen.

If the screenplay never transcends its own gaze, we can always concentrate of McQuarrie's directorial style. Some have compared the film to 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (the narrator gives himself and his accomplice the real-life surnames of the outlaws), but 'The Wild Bunch' is as good a starting point as any - the alternation of thunderous gunfights with an unearthly calm; the dead-end masculinity; the ritual finale (when Parker jumps into the dry fountain full of broken beer bottles - ouch!); the rare feel for landscape and architecture.

The long central sequence in Mexico, where the plot overload seems to stand still, is a familiar Peckinpah device, as the men rejuvenate, take stock, reflect, although actual Mexicans are conspicuously sparse. Peckinpah was very much influenced by 'The Treasure of Sierra Madre', and like most Huston films, 'Way' is a hymn to failure.

What's surprising, though, for such a self-regarding wordsmith, is what a great action director McQuarrie is. The gunfights here are truly visceral, very 1970s, exciting and full of crackling guns, the best since 'Heat', and showing most Hollywood action thrillers up for the cartoons they are. The opening fight outside the concert is like a diabolic inversion of 'Grease', while the 'Battleship Potemkin' parody getaway with the pregnant Robin is extraordinary. As is the way the cold modernist sheen a la 'Claire Dolan' gives onto the old-fashioned dustiness of a Western. The music is terrific too, alternating melodramatic squalls of 'Usual Suspects'-like dread, with thrilling castanetas, as if the whole film is just one big corrida.

Look I love 'The Usual Suspects' as much as the next guy, and think it's one of the few movies of the 1990s that can truly be considered a classic. But I think comparing that movie to 'The Way Of The Gun' (Christopher McQuarrie wrote both and directs this in an impressive debut) is unproductive and misguided. Both movies feature criminal anti-heroes and tricky plot twists, but in different ways, and are very different in approach and theme. McQuarrie isn't repeating himself here, this is something new. Something that has more in common with Sam Peckinpah than the plethora of shallow post-Tarantino rip-offs Hollywood has foisted on us in recent years.

The basic premise is fairly straightforward - two losers "Parker" (A surprisingly effective Ryan Phillipe in easily his best role to date) and "Longbaugh" (the always excellent Benicio Del Toro), cook up a half baked scheme to kidnap a surrogate mother (Juliette Lewis - 'Cape Fear', 'Kalifornia') and hold her for ransom. Little do they realize that she is carrying a child for Chidduck, a Mob money launderer (veteran character actor Scott Wilson - 'In Cold Blood', 'The Ninth Configuration') who has some nasty associates, and is reluctant to pay up.

The guys soon find themselves embroiled in a chinese puzzle of relationships including ruthless bodyguards Jeffers (Taye Digs - 'Go') and Obecks (Nicky Katt - 'SubUrbia', 'The Limey'), and Chidduck's bagman and troubleshooter, the complex Sarno (the legendary James Caan - 'The Godfather', 'Thief'), and Sarno's colleague Abner (frequent Clint Eastwood sidekick, and Juliet's real life father, Geoffrey Lewis).

To reveal what happens would be to ruin this wonderful movie. 'The Way Of The Gun' isn't a stupid popcorn action flick. It requires thought and attention to fully appreciate, and that fact, along with the lack of heroes, and the matter of fact violence, seems to have turned many people off. But in my opinion it is just those factors that will make this, like 'The Usual Suspects', a movie that will stand the test of time.

Along with 'Chopper', the movie that has impressed the most so far this decade. Don't miss either one!

"Way of the Gun" is the best western to come down that perverbial turnpike in a great while. Like the aging cynical worn out outlaws in Peckinpahs Wild Bunch, these modern day anti-hero's whether Old or young realize that sometimes life gives you that one chance. It is up to you to seize it . whether its kidnapping your fortune or giving birth to it we all soon realize that in the end we all come in the same way & go out the same way the difference being on how hard.

Although I know I am in the extreme minority "Way of the Gun is a much more complete film than Usual Suspects it is a metaphor for the careless way we lead our lives only realizing that the one most innocent and beautiful thing is life it self. Bravo Christopher a fine film indeed!!!

THE WAY OF THE GUN (2000) ***1/2 Ryan Phillippe, Benicio del Toro, Juliette Lewis, James Caan, Taye Diggs, Nicky Katt, Scott Wilson, Kristin Lehmann, Geoffrey Lewis, Sarah Silverman.

Christopher McQuarrie makes his directing debut in a big way with an obvious nod to Sam Peckinpaugh with his screenplay about two ne'er do well criminals (Phillippe and del Toro, both exemplary) who decide to make a mark for themselves by kidnapping a very pregnant surrogate mother (Lewis) to a wealthy businessman (Wilson) that eventually pans out to be a big mistake in a tangled web involving the woman's bodyguards (Diggs and Katt) and the bagman friend of the rich man (Caan in one fine, low-key performance of nuanced dread). More than enough rich dialogue and pinpoint camera angle set ups to go around with some live wire moments of unexpected turnarounds, double crosses and shoot outs may be the film's only fault in being an excess of too much of a good thing. A roundelette of pulp fiction best served by its exciting cast (as a side note, del Toro reminded me for some reason as a young Robert Mitchum in some scenes; go figure) and a filmmaker to watch.

I used to like movies like: "The Matrix" and "Bad Boys". But I've grown very tired of violent conflict portrayed as easy, fun, moral, and without risk. This is a movie where all the violence is fearsome, difficult, and wholly unpleasant. As it should be, anything else really is dishonest and evil.

This is one reason i think most people don't like this movie. There are two more. One is a somewhat complicated plot. There are about a dozen characters and each one have different motives and I think most people can handle no more than 4 motives. The other reason is that the "main characters" are not the heroes of the story. They set the story in motion and keep it together but they are not who the movie is about and to tell a story in such an unconventionally roundabout way is entirely confusing for some people.

So you may not like this movie if...

You are uncomfortable with violence being violent,

You can't keep track of the motivations of 8 separate characters,

You automatically believe that the story is about the characters played by the actors pictured largest on the box.

otherwise you may really like this movie because it's really well made in all its aspects.