The Realest Bummer
It was a real bummer day on August 19th, 2012. I remember the exact feeling of hearing the news that Tony Scott had committed suicide: Absolute Bummer.
I couldn’t believe it even though I never met the guy.
One of my favorite directors but also one of my very key influences on what to appreciate whenever it comes to a commercial film, for the man is the key component of creating the visual looks of the 1980's/early 1990's look but then going even farther beyond what he started and becoming his own influence in a way to the films he would later make in the early 2000's. The death was the truest of bummers and made me want to venture back into the man's filmography.
The only true way that a complete nobody could appreciate what a director brought to the world.
A decade has passed by since his suicide and as I still exist in this world and I still put on one of his films from time to time but at this exact moment, there is a surge of energy flowing through me. It's possible that the surge stems from the bottle of wine that has transported its contents from the previously mentioned bottle and into my blood stream but nonetheless, a double feature on this Saturday night is what the body desires but what double feature does one partake when it comes to the filmography of Tony Scott?
A truly tough programming to create for any two of his movies can be placed against one another and be justified in doing so but for me at this moment, I needed to see something along the themes of revenge and wouldn't you know it but Tony Scott had in fact directed a movie with that title. And so it goes that the night begins with a half full bottle of wine and the unrated Directors cut of Revenge.
The Costner Agenda
There is no Kevin Costner agenda within this film beyond the notion that he starred in it and had at the beginning of the project the desire to direct but he didn't have the juice. He made some hits but he didn’t have enough power to get behind the camera and so, as an executive producer, Costner got Tony Scott involved to direct the film.
Apparently the Jim Harrison novella was a hot commodity for Hollywood and he himself had actually worked on the script and from what I could gather, he completely supports the final product. Or at least the theatrical version which isn't necessarily the most varied of cuts for the big beats of the film are still present but there is just more sense of dread in the character of Tiburon Mendoza. At least, that's what I can remember from the two different versions.
This new unrated version though, sure does amp up the sexy bits which in all fairness works in the story being told about a man lurching on his buddy’s wife and a woman cheating on her husband. Also, it should be noted that Anthony Quinn is pretty fucking great in this movie.
The movie itself didn't seem to make a splash with the critics but with certain filmmakers, the film sure does stand the test of time. One of the most obvious supporters of the film is Quentin Tarantino whose name is spread all over the cover of the DVD that I own. Wayne Kramer also is quite a fan from what I gathered in the Running Scared commentary. Man, I wish Wayne Kramer made more movies.
Fun Aside this Movie Fact: Apparently in the original script of True Romance, Clarence was supposed to die but Tony Scott wanted to have him survive because he had fallen in love with the characters but Quentin came back with the fact that Tony had directed Revenge which has one of the most downer endings to come out of a big studio.
Onto the Movie
For Revenge, the story deals with a man named Michael Cochran, who has retired from the Navy and is now proceeds to live the life down in Mexico as the guest of a high powered figure by the name of Tiburon Mendoza, a man who became a tennis partner and all around good friend.
The story goes with Cochran meeting the young trophy wife Miryea Mendez and the two end up getting themselves entangled into something that shouldn't happen and pay the ultimate cost for it. Planning a weekend away in secret to Cochran’s cabin out in the stick.
She plays it coy by saying she is going to her sisters and uses her as a alibi and Tiburon accepts that but the move he makes with Cochran is one of honor. Tiburon already knows the deal when he confronts Cochran and offers him a way out.
For the two of them to go away and to just let the situation end right then and there but it isn’t a straight forward proposition. It’s like this dance of Costner playing dumb and Quinn is trying to play it soft and friendly because he knows what he has to do if they follow through with this affair.
For a man like Tiburon is one of honor and what that word means south of the border is that the punishment must be to the extreme in order to set an example as well as save face for the situation that has occurred.
The two lovers end up in the cabin and it all looks like there's a good weekend of humping ahead but then Quinn shows up with his goons and bring the pain. They kick open the door and kill the dog.
I mean this dog gets shot in the belly and its said and done for the good boy who did nothing wrong. I think this is the most strongest cut in regards to this directors cut than the theatrical cut. I remember in the theatrical cut that there was a scene early on that showed off Tiburon’s treatment of misbehaving dogs but with that gone, this dog catching a shotgun blast to the stomach is truly a surprise.
The goons then proceed to beat the shit out Costner and hold down the wife. Quinn talks of his betrayal between the two of them and through this place of honor he has, he slashes his wife across the face to mark her "for the whore that she is."
Cochran is then beaten some more to the state of near death and thrown out of a moving car, left for dead. Tiburon ends p putting his wife into a whorehouse where she gets 2 grams of heroin a day to be sedated as she gets fucked over and over again. Left for dead, Cochran is burning out in the desert and luckily is saved by a wandering man who he then takes to a medicine woman who manages to bring him back from his dance with death. He then goes out on a search for the woman that he loves.
The movie starts maneuvering in a way that is both familiar in terms of Cochran's side of the narrative and ends up playing like a straight up revenge story while leaving the story for Myrea uncertain as that side of the narrative takes a stronger and stronger turn towards depressing as the film goes on.
The confrontational climax occurs with Costner and his two Mexican buddies hiding out on the hunting trail that Tiburon normally takes. At dawn, Costner waits in anticipation as Tiburon and his bodyguard ride their horses towards him. The bodyguard rides closer to confront Costner but he ends up getting shot by the two hidden accomplices and then everyone alongside Cochran aim their guns at Tiburon and it looks as though its gonna be this giant grandstand but then the movie flips on you. Tiburon turns his back towards Cochran and states that as a man and a former friend, that he demands that Cochran ask for his forgiveness for taking his wife away from him. Silence between all but Cochran acknowledges and apologizes for what he has done.
Tiburon then tells them that he placed his wife in a covenant, she apparently dying from AIDS after sharing a needle with a person at the whorehouse, and in her dying wish as Cochran holds her close is to take her outside where she tells him that she loves him and dies in his arms.
Fucking Killer
What a fucking movie. Probably a top 3 Tony Scott movie all around. I can't present the ranking at the moment but I am pretty sure it will be placed in the top 3 of his films because first off, what a fucking ending. Something like that comes around every not so often or possibly at all just for the fact that commercial movies aren’t made to have downbeat endings.
Kevin Costner’s character finally feeling love but damn is it both at the wrong time, wrong place but most of all with the wrong person and on this voyage to get her back, she literally ends up dying in his arms.
Goddamn that’s rough.
Anthony Quinn, prior to exacting vengeance, is seen as a pretty cool guy for the most part. Always smiling and just trying to get the best out of life but then after that first dinner with guests, he switches to the man he has to be in order to be smiling all the time.
Ruthlessly killing a man that was trying to embezzle money away from him in order to regain the loyalty of another that was part of the scheme. Committing the murder in his own house in the living room. The blood splatters on a lamp shade. I’m talking brains. It's absolutely insane but it does work in showing the other side of this man.
What' s fascinating about his character most of all is that its a real display of the machismo that's stuck within Mexican culture. Here's a guy that has no choice but to kill his buddy and mark/pimp out his wife in order to regain a sense of honor to those serving him. Because if he didn't do it then he would no longer be seen as a boss but I love the fact that he regrets having to commit these decisions. It’s all pain for him.
Throughout the rest of the film after doing the deed, he seems so out of touch in life. No longer able to smile or have a good time. He just seems to wander and wallow in his pain and even when a goon of his has been going out to the whorehouse to have sex with the wife, he has himself pointing a shotgun at the man for doing the deed with the wife but doesn't pull the trigger and instead has some other goon kill the guy for him.
For the role of the Miryea, she just seems stuck in this world that she at first wanted to be a part in but ultimately was not the role she wanted to be stuck in. Which was that of a trophy wife to this man of power. She acknowledges she loves him but its obvious that she isn't necessarily in love with the guy.
And so it goes that she is in the relationship out of that same honor of being faithful to your spouse but when Cochran comes around and essentially rocks her world, she takes it upon herself to act on her inhibitions and put herself into a situation where she knows the repercussions are brutal but still stays with Cochran. Ends up getting the brute of the vulgar display of power and does so out of love.
It's a real great trifecta here of characters caught within a situation and dealing with the consequences of this extra-martial affair. I haven't seen anything like it before and I doubt that it will be seen again unless someone does another adaptation of the novella.
The look of the film is fantastic. The aesthetic that Tony Scott had during this creative period is one of lights streaming through a window while there is at least the exhaled smoke of 82 smokers hanging in the air to showcase the beams of light. It's quite a look.
A real solid look that brings a real seediness to the already seediness of Mexico. This look though is even more effective in showing off the violence that occurs throughout the film.
That scene of Tiburon enacting his vengeance towards his backstabbing friend and his cheating wife is absolutely tough as nails. One goon enters the cabin they retreaded to and immediately shoots the dog and kills him. I mentioned it before but goddamn do they kill that dog. Then they put the gun to the both of the persons heads and Tiburon walks in and marks his wife by slicing her face as mentioned before. Then they beat the living shit out of Kevin Costner. Lots of punches, a lot of kicks, I think, and then a couple hits of the butt of the gun just in case. Then toss the guy out of a moving car and he rolls bloody and bruised down a small cliff side into sand. Real brutal stuff.
Then there's a scene where Costner is in a bar and recognizes the guy that was throwing the punches at him and follows him into the restroom. They both stand next to one another in adjacent sinks with Costner throwing looks at the goons way and brandishing a knife that he plans on using. The goon doesn't recognize him but then when he does, the first thing he yells is 'Amigo' with a smile but Costner is no amigo and shoves the knife into his stomach. They fight a bit but Costner gets the upper hand and manages to put the goon into a headlock and then slice his neck open. He washes up then hits the road while leaving the goon to bleed out in a toilet that hasn’t been clean in quite some time.
This movie is really something that has grown on me over the past decade. It was one where when I first saw it, it didn't do much for me. Upon reflection, its easy to see why. I hadn't done any living up to that point. I was just a sober loser who thought the answer was people. Now I'm a complete drunkard that understands that the only thing worse than a hateful woman in bed is an empty one.
I am this movie. or better yet, I have grown up in such a way to appreciate exactly what the movie was going for. Even more so, I found a greater enjoyment out of the film after reading the novella.
The Jim Harrison Connection
Possibly one of the greatest American writers who has ever spent his time writing. There are a lot of writers that are given the spotlight and that people surely won't shut the fuck up about but when it comes to a writers writer, then Jim Harrison is that kind of guy.
Well known mostly likely to the movie freaks from the adaptation of his novella Legends of the Fall which is pretty much an ass movie all around but man is that novella something absolutely amazing. I am a great fan of Jim Harrison's fiction and need to get my ass around to reading his poems but until then, I should give that Jack Nicholson movie Wolf another watch since Harrison was the one that ended up writing the script but then again, that movie seems to be one that no one wants to admit they were a part of but goddammit! I enjoy watching Nicholson prance around as as he hunts for a deer to eat.
what a look
Anywhoo, he wrote the novella Revenge and upon reading that, since its about a 100 pages or so, I figure I should give Tony Scott's adaptation another shot. This bring around the 3rd time I would give it a view and this was a turning point in truly appreciating the movie but right now, on 10/30/1927, I have seen the movie for about the 6th time and it seems to be hitting harder than ever now.
Intermission
What does this movie have that makes it stand out from Tony Scott’s filmography? The first piece of the puzzle is the fact that this was the true introduction of Tony Scott’s love to shooting film in Mexico.
It's possible that the man went about in directing commercials where the location is south of the border but I can't be certain but what I am certain is that the film is shot extensively in Mexico, around the cities of Durango, Puerto Vallerta, and Cuernavaca.
Mexico will become the location for the film that will take place as the 2nd half of this double feature and so I must now declare this to be a: Tony Scott Mexico Location Double Feature.
The First 1/2 Comes to an End
high class
And so, the first movie ends and the bottle of wine is near completion. I take a break now in order to prepare my mind for the next feature. One that also takes place in Mexico but compels the country to become involved as another character in the film but more importantly is the exact location of Mexico City and all its surrounding boroughs and towns being a piece of the story being told within Man on Fire.
Thus Begins A New Era
Man on Fire is not only one of the greatest revenge films to come out of that dismal era known as the mid 2000's but possibly one of the greatest moments of infusing style into the narrative in such a way that to conceive that this movie could be considered to be played straight without that style is absolutely insane.
I have absolutely no clue on what occurred within Tony Scott for his style to grow into something so much more but my god, what a true blessing that was for all the fans of the movies but before I go on about the movie, lets about the mechanics of the narrative being told because that shit fascinates me.
The Plot Points of the Movie
The way that Man on Fire plays out isn't necessarily the most common place when it comes to the revenge genre because it goes into the direction of letting the characters breath and exist by having the film spend at least an hour with just them and their plights.
A real standard of the genre would be to have the characters be introduced and just as soon as they come to be characters, they would be put into a situation that violates their new existence and then needing to seek revenge because of this violation.
A real solid way that works again and again is that sometimes there’s a montage scene for the characters becoming more comfortable with guns but it mostly comes down to the revenge moving piece by piece until the final boss appears.
A good example of a modern revenge story would be that first John Wick film. It goes about it in a very stylish way but it’s not necessarily the most character driven revenge film no matter how hard the film tries to make it a character driven revenge film.
So this film in particular has a different pace than your average revenge film with the first hour or so being just about the character of Creasy and his place in the world. He doesn't have one. He doesn't fit in anywhere and is basically a washed up CIA agent with the past haunting him at every corner and a bottle of Jack helping him cope.
He meets up with his buddy Christopher Walken who is doing pretty good these days running a security service to foreigners in Mexico. Creasy looks to be in the worst of ways and Walken throws a job his way. The main goal being to protect a child from the possibility of kidnapping being that the credit sequences that starts off the film is one where the beginning, middle, and end of a kidnapping take place. A real solid way to kick off a movie. That is for sure.
Creasy takes the job amid suicidal thoughts and the one thing he doesn't expect to happens, happens. He starts to open up to the kid he's protecting and slowly but surely, becomes a person again but at the hour mark or so, all that's taken away. A kidnapping happens with the deal to get her back going wrong when a double cross happens at the money drop. The end result being that the kid is now dead.
Within that first hour, watching these two characters slowly grow and bond as the film beats along with Creasy finally seeing but more importantly, feeling as though he is able to live again but to have that all taken away and have Creasy thrown back into a pit of despair is a truly great turning point in a revenge film that will always get me going. Especially the scene of the mother asking him to “Kill them all.” You know at that moment, the feelings of affection that you have gained from watching those character be taken away, that this is going to being fucking fantastic.
Because that entire next hour is Creasy getting his vengeance on all those involved. With not a hint of mercy to be seen. It's the fucking best. The greatest highlight is the fact that its a real solid actor like Denzel Washington that makes it all the better to watch because during all the interrogations and the insanity that starts to ensue, you believe it 100% and that is what makes the film as a whole end up being just the greatest.
The whole crux of why the film works is because they have such a high grade actor in the lead. That’s not to shoot down the other revenge films that have come around before it. Other great leads in such revenge genre films are William Devane as Major Charles Rane in Rolling Thunder and Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey in Death Wish but Denzel brings such a compassion/empathy/sympathy towards this character that you can’t help but feel his plight in needing to exact revenge.
The Other Face of the Coin
The other side of that coin as to why this film works is the fact that by this point Tony Scott has reached his stylistic climax. All throughout his career, Tony Scott has been absolutely comfortable in the use of his camera in such a style that would be common place in the world of music videos and such.
Just so fucking slick and sleek that even as you watch something like The Fan, Top Gun or Beverly Hills Cop 2 which aren’t necessarily the greatest of films, you still have a grand appreciation for what is being shown being the style being used is so original. Then something happened after the filming of Spy Game. What happened, I am not sure nor can ever achieve an understanding but Tony Scott reached some point of going beyond his previous sensibilities.
For what is seen all throughout is a film of its own being. There seems to be no particular outside influence on this film. Mexico City is shown in a way that hasn't really been seen before. Overexposed and Underexposed shots as the camera is cranking fast and slow. There is hardly a shot within the film that doesn't last a solid 5 seconds. I think there is one but then it goes back to this notion of cutting and cutting and cutting.
Now cutting like this can cause a frantic sensibility and could lead to having the viewer be lost at the confusion but Tony Scott seemed to just have it all settled in his head in regards to how it would all come together. This sensibility was one that started a real weird trend in action movies where the shaking camera would become a mainstay for some time but this movie doesn’t necessarily fall victim to that.
Somehow with all the various cuts within a scene, the different film speeds of the cameras going from high speed to slow motion, the jumps of one angle to another that would hinder a novice filmmakers, Tony Scott proves that he knows what the fuck he is doing and its truly fantastic here. This is where it all meshes together to create a vivid color scheme that seems to be jumping out of the screen. It can be said, and I do agree with what I say as a unlicensed genius, that his next films would go in excess with style especially with Domino, which I do love but DAMN, but here it was to perfection. This was a director firing on all cylinders to not only make a solid movie but to create a high standard of a commercial action film and it is one that hasn’t been touched since.
Bone Dry Bottle
The tears have flown down my cheek and into the bottle which was enough to fill halfway and for there, I was able to truly kill the wine. What a double feature. So much so that I had to take a break for 4 months to get this rambling going and since then, I have been drinking more wine as I should. Good for the heart. Especially by the 3rd bottle. And so I say goodnight for this double feature coming to an end. As well as this rambling.
Pouring one out for Tony Scott. A director who could have changed the game again for the better if only he kept on living. Rest in Peace.
