Intense!

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2005)

Violence that might seem exploitive in other films just seemed so right in this picture. And, there's just so much to like about 'Man on Fire', that I think its weaknesses are easily forgotten. It's strengths, like the acting by Washington and Dakota, are superb. For a young child, Dakota comes across with an amazingly mature and intelligent screen presence well beyond her years. Even her voice seems to belong to a older actress. It's actually a bit bizarre on second thought. Denzel is just great in this. He doesn't have a lot of lines it seems but does connect the story with the viewer in almost every scene, often with just his expression.
At first, I wasn't sure I liked the directive style by Scott, which in parts reminded me of the way music videos are shot. But the film grew on me until I actually started making mental notes about certain scenes and some nice artistic touches. Some scenes give certain sequences a sort of hazy air about them, where time passes quickly (even for movie time) resulting in an overlapping of sequences where one seems to fade out while the next comes into view, hanging around longer. This interesting technique just underscores the internal struggle Denzel's character goes through. He is the textbook textbook antihero I think, he drinks, he coldly murders "the bad guys" (and there are plenty of them in Mexico it would seem) after wringing information out of them. There is rarely mercy shown, and his acts would make Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry blush. There were moments when I felt Washington just seemed too nice and looked to handsome for any of this to be believable, not even a scowl on his face as he pulls triggers left and right. In the end, what he brings to the picture is allowing the audience to get inside his character's head to make a connection or bond. Understanding what he's trying to accomplish is easy, together these helps propel viewers through the violence, and we relish, maybe squint, but believe it deserved. The ending was a bit Hollywood, but who cares, he's a 'man on fire'.