Dark art snuck under the studio radar

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2005)

You've got to give it to Tony Scott: He tries so friggin' hard. His films bring new meaning to the term "layering". He gets criticized a lot for his "MTV-style cutting", but that's a lazy jab.
I'm not on IMDb to review every mainstream Hollywood effort. I'd die of boredom if I did. My job (self-appointed) is to review the beautiful and the brutal, the extremes of cinema, the cinematic polar ice caps (with the odd exception). MAN ON FIRE qualifies for comment because it's made for people (guys mostly) who love movies that sizzle like fatty bacon and make no apologies to the loathsome PC crowd for being violent, sleazy, obsessive and baked in a thick, crusty style.
Scott makes hard, arty genre pictures when he's truly on a roll and he does it with total conviction. MAN ON FIRE is Scott on a major roll.
The first forty-five minutes prep for the inevitable holocaust of payback by focusing on Denzel Washington's relationship with the little girl (Dakota Fanning) he's been hired to protect. The ninety minutes that follow Dakota's kidnapping zero in on Washington's bloody revenge and preparation.
The film's been predictably blasted for its supposed Right Wing politics. That's manure. It's a revenge pic, for Chrissakes, not propaganda.
There is criticism of Mexican corruption and the serious problem of kidnapping in that country is torn from fresh headlines. But all this is texture, material for Scott to layer into his hundred million plus "B" movie.
Scott goes bananas stylistically and employs every graphic trick in the book to subvert the texture of the imagery. Even subtitles cop a serious retrofit. At times I found the graphic enhancement a little over-the-top and slightly distracting, but, for the most part, it enhanced the T. Scott style of info overload.
It's obvious that Scott relishes directing action sequences as he imbues his set-ups with so much detail and delivers very brutal, uncompromising work.
The sound design is always thunderous and powerful in every one of the Brit director's films, and MAN ON FIRE is no exception.
A guest appearance by Chris Walken is a lot of fun and Washington's penchant for torture amps up the intensity levels.
Perhaps twenty minutes too long, but, hey, this is dark art snuck under the studio radar by a master tactician.