Night Of The Wolf...(Spoilers!!!)

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2004)

Like many other films of great intelligence, this film has suffered less-than-brilliant reviews because people have been viewing it as a straight-forward thriller which, by God, it is not. Just like Signs was not a film about an alien-invasion repulsion (that was Independence Day) but a preacher losing and regaining his faith, Collateral is not a film about a cabbie (goodie) triumphing over an evil hit-man (baddie). No, no, no, no! If anything, I felt more sympathy for Vincent then I did for Max. This is a story about a man, Vincent, who has a had a helluva bad childhood and has tried to come to terms with it by developing extreme Darwinistic theories whereby the whole human race is nothing and singularly even more worthless. He tries to overcome this by revolting against them, by becoming better, by killing them, it makes perfect sense doesn't it? Mann cleverly draws us in and makes us an accomplice, even though we may not know it, in the scene with the two muggers, everybody that I have talked to about this film mentions this scene and it's true, we'd all like to kill people who would do things like that to us, Mann makes his point well, the only difference between us and Vincent is that he does what he wants to. However, at the two key moments during the film, Vincent learns that he is not better than the rest of us, he is, if anything, worse. The wolves that cross in front of the car are him, he is like a wolf, hunting down his prey, pure and simple and we can see it, written across his devastated face, a wonderful, moving moment in film. The other moment being his last line "A guy dies on the MTA. Think anyone will notice?". Hauntingly poignant, this is a film about humanity, an honest film, for once. Cruise, of course, is fantastic, I think that it's my favorite of his roles. He is iconic in his grey suit with his prematurely grey square-head hair-cut and achieves a cool during the mugger scene which stands with Eastwood's "My mule don't like people laughing" scene toe-to-toe on that scale. Fox is very good as well, but it is with Max that sympathies lie. The direction is superb and the digital camera element only adds to the darkness. The film is fully entertaining on a superficial level throughout, so even the cheap thrill-seekers will enjoy it also. Please get it into the top 250, it is a blue poignant character study which achieves what other mere thrillers don't, it stays with you long after the end credits.