too much fire kills it

Rating: 3/10 (22 August 2006)

In 1987, Quinnell's book was adapted for the silver screen by Elie Chouraqui, a minor director, responsible of "Paroles et Musique" (1984) and "les Marmottes" (1993). This version was not a masterpiece and is now virtually in limbo. Unfortunately, it's not this overlong remake by Tony Scott which will set the record straight.
Leaving Italy for Mexico, "Man on Fire" is split in two drastically different but globally weak halves. The first one deals with Creasy (Denzel Washington) who is hired as a bodyguard in a well-off Mexican family to protect a little girl named Pita (Dakota Fanning). He's a man with a sad past and a strong bias for alcohol. Maybe will he find solace and redemption thanks to the Holy Bible. Ouch! How original. Actually, this first part piles up the clichés linked to Crasy but also to the unlikely friendship he stroked up with his little protégée. First, sullen and distant and then friendly, he has found a way to approach her by developing in her assertion and setting new targets for herself thanks to a swimming competition. But the evolution of his demeanor and especially his liking towards the little girl is showed in a quite shallow way to be really conclusive.
Now, what about this second part? It completely changes the tone of the film which takes a leap into explosive violence and linear investigation. After his coma, Creasy turns into a real killing machine who exterminates all the ones who were involved in the abduction of Pita. Blood abundantly flows, explosions succeed themselves with stunts and knock-out images galore. Scott and his scenarist Brian Helgeland also felt compelled to include sequences which shelter free violence. One of them was influenced by Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" (1992). It's the sequence in which Washinton is with one of the kidnappers in a car and tortures him to make him speak with loud music on the radio. But in parallel not to stay confined in this assumed perspective, Helgeland tried to introduce twists to boost the interest of the viewer in Creasy's vengeful adventure. Thus, in the middle of this second part, we learn a far-fetched revelation whose nature makes a little think of "Fargo" (1996) by the Coen brothers.
The content of the film is made of thin substance and is still plagued by the flashy form. Scott didn't jettison his trademark which mar his efforts. His visual, sound excesses that are supposed to impress and gain the audience's approval make the film distressing to watch in the long run. Hyper images, sophisticated camera work, sharp editing are supposed to be here to compensate the weak potential of the story and it only helps to plague it. Worse: these features sometimes arrive at the most awkward moment in the story and action. Then, the soundtrack is extremely loud and mixed forward. Sometimes, you have to listen very closely to decipher what the characters say. This drawback is more irritating in the second half. "Man on Fire" is also ruined by an ugly cinematography. What's the consequence of all this? A large proportion of shots are distorted by one or the other of these drawbacks.
Overrall the other directions that the scenario could have taken to enable the film to take a subtle, rich dimension have been shelved or lightly touched. For instance, the major problem of these abductions of children in Latin America falls in the second category. Instead, Helgeland created a linear, stubborn revenge story which Scott filmed with a festival of shock images and by this ruined the reduced potential of the story.
Even the direction of actors seems absent. Denzel Washington who is a commendable actor is here unable to shade his acting. Christopher Walken, a big American actor isn't given a chance to shine and his part is blatantly underwritten. But the little Dakota Fanning which Sean Penn's fans discovered in "I Am Sam" (2001) gives a quite mature offering.
On its release, "Man on Fire" was made alluring through an eye-catching cover but this blazing film left me cold. As a scenarist, Brian Helgeland saw brighter days before: "L.A. Confidential" (1997), "grandad" Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" (2003)...