The Dark Prince Of Revenge Movies

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2005)

Man on Fire is the first collaboration between Director Tony Scott and Denzel Washington since their submarine mutiny action drama 'Crimson Tide'. Scott's quietly building a reputation for superior action drama, 'Man on Fire' adds another notch to Scott's credits. This movie is certainly not 'Enemy of the State II', its got a darker edge, as is fitting for a movie about revenge and the Mexican underworld.
All the cast deliver the goods. Washington, who is always watchable, sometimes astonishing is in pretty good form here. His character Creasy is a tortured soul with a standard-issue shady special-ops past. At the start of the movie Creasy is at booze-soaked rock-bottom, with nothing to live for. His old comrade Rayburn (Christopher Walkern in a nicely understated performance) sets Creasy up with a body guard gig, which has him protecting pre-teen Pita, played by Dakota Fanning, who has the same effortless qualities that Jodie Foster and Natalie Portman displayed in their early days. I can see Dakota following these ladies out into adult movie roles - you really get a sense of a major star in the making.
The first third of the movie plays out their burgeoning relationship, Creasy rediscovers his humanity, and a reason to go on living, but watching these early scenes, you know that we are on borrowed time, sooner or later Creasy will have the carpet pulled from under him and the rest of the movie will be about how he deals with it.
I'm not spoiling anything by telling you that Pita is kidnapped, though this kidnapping movie has a few unusual twists - writer Brian Helgeland's plot building skills are as evident here as they were in Mystic River, L.A. Confidential and Conspiracy Theory. While films similar in subject like "Proof of Life" and the 1990 "Revenge" are patchy works at best, Helgeland's script is a fine lesson in pacing, placement and palaver, it never falters.
The final third of the movie takes you on a trail of bloody revenge that never flinches or compromises on its own brutal remorseless promises. The revenge movie seems to have finally earned its parole, having been out of favour in Hollywood for most of the last fifteen years. The good news is that time inside (or restricted to the shelves of video libraries and late night TV) seems to have mellowed the genre a little, because while "Kill Bill" and "Man on Fire" have a great old time reaping sheaves of bad guys, they both manage to bring you to a quiet place where your suddenly forced to reflect on the passing mayhem.
"Man on Fire" didn't set the box office alight - but here is a movie that is highly recommended both as a good old fashion revenge flick, and as a fine dramatic work.