Style and substance conflict within this noirish melodrama, style easily being the victor to a viewer's gratification, while the highly fanciful plot attends to a disenchanted United States military veteran, Pershing Quinn (Michael Pare), part-time jailer in a small southern U.S. town that has been numbed due to a robbery and murder of six gangland individuals, the take being cash, drugs, and art, masterminded by Clifton Santier (Peter Greene), erstwhile "peacekeeping force" comrade of Pershing while stationed in Africa, each comrade believing the other to have died, with Quinn journeying to Quebec for the purpose of capturing and returning his former friend to justice, bringing about a vivid psychological and physical duel between two SWORN ENEMIES (the video, and a better, title). Scriptor Rod Hewitt and director Shimon Dotan join in creating many effective scenes among those used as sops to action craving audiences, and creative camera-work of cinematographer Sylvain Brault provides memorable imagery as exemplified through utilization of incongruity into bucolia; indeed, some of the footage is startling, with silence employed effectively as antidote to occasional hyperbole born of themes revolving about codes of morality, although an unexpected existential climax is nicely done; amid the expansive textual landscape is acting that is never less than interesting from all members of the cast, Greene easily having the most provocative role and plumbing it to the fullest extent with his especial demeanor of incipient danger.
