the complexities of reality are tough to recreate

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2006)

What are the motives for killing another human being? To gain fearful respect? Revenge? Strategy? Preemptive self-defense? Fear? Pure hatred? Reflex? The paradoxical belief that it will end the killing? The truth would seem to lie in an indecipherable complex combination of all of these things. This applies to both our motives and our enemies. The problem is that it's not only impossible for us as the audience to know the killer's motives, but for the killer himself: 'Sold' on the necessity of this work, it soon becomes apparent that they are pawns in an unending system of violence, which will be rationalized by whatever means effective. One big difference between this film and so many otherwise somewhat similar movies is the realistic strategy of the killings: They are not trying to engage in combat, but rather to kill their targets in what may strike the viewer as an innocent moment. Such behavior is usually reserved for the "bad guy", but introspective moments show that our guys are indeed as 'good' as 'good guys' can be. In real life, even the worst murderer in the world in having an innocent moment 99.99% of the time. It changes nothing of their crime, and to challenge each terrorist to a duel is simply the stuff of fiction. Nonetheless, as motives get muddled, mistakes are made, things get personal, and the hunters become the hunted. As time goes by, it eventually can be no other way, unless the killer is alone and irrational. These soldiers do not have such a luxury. Only 8 out of 10 because there are moments of confusion in the editing in of the Olympics, no reason Bana's character should have such a clear vision of the murders, and the out of character behavior that gets their otherwise cautious,(and already warned),cleanup guy killed by the Dutch hooker/hitwoman.