The Hunted (La presa)

Although it would be easy to write The Hunted off as a simple chase film (I can see the pitch now: "It's First Blood married to Predator with a dose of The Fugitive", and in reality that is a pretty fair description) but it's straight forward manner lends a constant sense of urgency. Throughout this gory (yeah it's pretty graphic) cat and mouse thriller we are also given some real insight into Del Toro's character. Unwilling to make sweeping judgments about nearly any of the characters (Connie Nielsen's FBI agent is a bit stubborn and single minded and occasionally very careless in discharging her firearm in public, Tommy Lee Jones'survivalist trainer has a guilty conscious of his own and even Del Toro's transformation is understandable), the finale is exciting but emotionally complicated, even tragic. The camera work and editing are very effective and affective while not overwhelming the finished product with the typical Hollywood style over substance dilemma. Combined with some very strong performances by the leads THE HUNTED makes for a very intense and satisfying thriller experience.

Jones and Del Toro show why they are amongst the best of their respective generations. Not only with strong acting, but also for the precisely coordinated and physically demanding fight scenes. While it may be hard to believe that Jones can deliver such impressive action at his age, he is more than believable as the type of grizzled ass-kicker who can square up against Del Toro's world-class assassin. The movie's plot is too simple; its basically two men hunting each other. Still, legendary director William Friedkin delivers a sharp well-paced 90 minute chase through the film's third star, the beautiful city of Portland and the magnificent forestry that surrounds it.

The movie is pretty well-produced overall, though there are a couple of glaring editing goof-ups (the knife being dunked into water, for example.) And the fact that it's clear Jones and Del Toro are doing much of their own stuntwork in the fighting sequences (and other places) is pretty impressive.

However, there is really nothing of substance here that will make you remember the movie long after you've seen it. While the action gets bloody at times, the actual struggling around is only okay at best. The Jones and Del Toro characters are thin, with little background revealed about them, and they don't have that much dialogue. There are some interesting themes that start to peek out, but they are simply not expanded on. (Like: Why didn't Jones' character answer those letters he got? You have to hear the explanation from director Friedkin on one of the DVD documentaries!) Ultimately, the movie becomes a simple-minded action movie, of the mentality of many direct-to-video movies.

A P.S. to Hollywood filmmakers: If it is heavily snowing in British Columbia, it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that at the same time it would be sunny and warm in Oregon! The weather patterns in both places are more or less the same!

Hey, out there. You guys who slammed this in your reviews, did you see the same film I did? Not real? Improbable? Impossible? Huh. If those of you who found this thought-provoking film about two men on the edge of the social plane, one who is over the edge and the other given the task of hunting the first one down-- both men, socially disaffected and on their own, unbelievable and impossible, give some attention to Alston Chase's article in the June, 200, pp.41-65 of the Atlantic Monthly on Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber and the effects of his experiences being part of the ill-conceived and unethical study on human subjects during his undergraduate years there. The formula is simple: Take a bright, talented person who is teetering on the edge of emotional stability, fill them with lots of head stuff about social and environmental corruption, train in the technology of killing people and then, turn them loose. While no one wanted to turn Kaczynski into the unabomber, the circumstances, however well-intended, did. The film story of Aaron Hallum played by the competent Benicio Del Toro and his counterpart, L.T. Bonham, played by Tommy Lee Jones, bring this theme into clear focus. OK, if you are a shoot'em up thriller fan (as I self-confessedly admit to being), you might have missed the car chase, the sex and all that, but gang, it is a gripping and thought-provoking story. Not real? I submit, read the data on Columbine, The Minn Indian Res and the Unabomber and guess again. It's real. Damn real.

BDT and TLJ are both in top form here. Del Toro gives us prescient glimpses of 'Sicario,' while Jones serves us up a two-finger shot of his 'US Marshalls' character with a sort of 'Life Below Zero' twist added to the rim of the glass.

The Hunted is clearly inspired by the famous short story, "The Most Dangerous Game." However, Hunted manages to flip "The Most Dangerous Game" on its axis by giving us a primally brutal wolf fight between two alphas instead of TMDG's original novel of helpless souls wandering into a rich psychopath's well-placed bear trap. This time around, it's not an expert killer hunting down a fatigued cast-away with no combat experience but instead two special-operations-capable-veterans-turned-bushcraft-survivalists testing each other's capabilities and prowess to their absolute limits.

But there's also a little more complexity to The Hunted than just a life or death versus match between two hardened soloists in the bush. The movie also explores the horrors of war on the psyche, the way such unbridled brutality erodes even the soundest of minds when time progresses, and how PTSD can deconstruct a person at their very core.

This movie is harrowing at some points, particularly during the war crime flashbacks that are absolutely barbaric like the desecration of skeletons and mass Graves being filled with groups of living prisoners who are than obliterated at point blank with M249 SAWs weilded by laughing guerilla fighters.

There's a thick air of tension that runs through the entirety of the film's run time, something I would largely attribute to three things: it's realistic, intense violent subject matter; it's lack of a consistent music score flooding the speakers every five minutes and sparse dialogue; it's setting mostly taking place in the desolate bush. It's quiet, lethal and bloody--just like BDT's sadistic knife weilding character.

The Hunted is a unique action movie that deserves your time. Its pacing is slow and methodical, purposefully scripted as such to match the film's title no doubt. The slow burn of the story and the film's execution is almost reminiscent of a 70s film before massive explosions and ridiculous, cheesy one liners from steroided freaks took the genre over; back when movies were smarter and crafted with more earnest and inspiration. It's also a recommended watch if you're into Bushcraft survivalism or military drama--much of The Hunted feels like you're watching the first day of SERE school when you're being dropped into the forest.

7/10, one of BDT and TLJ's best.