In world of revenge films, there are many good ones and many more horrible ones. Man On Fire is a very good film starring Denzel Washington and the very young Dakota Fanning. While Denzel’s character is a rehashed tragic hero character in the beginning his character is allowed to do unspeakable evil to other people to in act his revenge and that is something you do not see in movies that aren’t horror flicks.
Washington plays Creasy, which is his last name, a retired Special Forces man whose job was counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism (a hot new job that or tragic heroes have in Hollywood these days.) Creasy is hired by Samuel and Lisa (Marc Anthony (J-Lo’s most current husband) and Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black, Phone Booth)) to protect their daughter Pita (Dakota Fanning.) They live in Mexico City and Samuel is rich and people would do anything to get his money.
At first Creasy is cold to Pita and wants to treat her as a package to protect. At this point in the film he is still drinking heavily and his not able to cope with the fact he has killed many people. But Pita being as cute as she is, warms his heart and eventually he becomes a protector and her “Creasy Bear.” To quote Christopher Walken, who plays Creasy’s military buddy, Rayburn, said of Creasy, “She gave him a reason to live again.”
Well Pita gets kidnapped and Creasy almost gets shot to death during the kidnapping. While Creasy is recovering, Samuel uses his lawyer, Jordan, played by Mickey Rourke, to try and negotiate for her release which involves money. At the money transfer, the plan backfires and the kidnapper’s nephew is killed. In turn it appears Pita is also killed in retaliation.
When Creasy wakes up and discovers what has happened he promises Lisa that he will kill all those responsible for the kidnapping. Again to quote Walken’s character, “Death is his art, and he is about to create his masterpiece.”
This movie I found to be very good. Denzel Washington continues to show how much he deserves his Oscar by creating yet another great character out of an over used Hollywood stereotype. Dakota Fanning also stole the show as the adorable Pita, who is much smarter than her age. I also enjoyed Mickey Rourke and Christopher Walken. Marc Anthony and Radha Mitchell do an adequate job but they could have been better.
The one aspect I do find enjoyable in the sense that Hollywood almost never does this is the complete and realistic violence that Creasy creates when trying to get to the bottom of the kidnapping. Quite often in these revenge movies, the violence is not realistic, see the movie Commando with Arnold Schwarzenegger, or the violence isn’t that violent. This movie goes out of its way to show the inhumanity of Creasy’s job when he was in the military. I found that to be interesting and the animal in me enjoyed what he was doing to characters that deserved it.
This movie is very good and I wish I had seen it in the movie theaters. I hope you enjoy it too.
Brian – The Naked Gun
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