Le vie della violenza

Two low-life criminals (Ryan Phillippe & Benicio Del Toro) kidnap a pregnant surrogate (Juliette Lewis) of a rich couple who, unknowingly, has ties to the mob.

"The Way of the Gun" (2000) is an offbeat flick in the tradition of "Pulp Fiction" written & directed by a proven screenwriter and featuring a quality cast, which includes James Caan. It's touted as a "modern Western" with two protagonists patterned after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (their names in the film are the last names of Butch & Sundance).

It starts out as a black comedy with cussing every other word, but then morphs into a serious crime drama with flashes of gunplay. The score is notable.

Two issues hinder the film: (1) A plot that becomes convoluted and therefore increasingly unbelievable, and (2) unlikable characters, except for maybe the surrogate. Concerning the second issue, I understand the concept of antiheroes, but even antiheroes require some redeemable or universally human qualities to make the audience root for them or care about them. Wolverine and Clint Eastwood's Western characters, like Josey Wales, are good examples, as are the antiheroes in films like "Runaway Train" and "Apocalypse Now," two cinematic masterpieces.

These two points naturally create disinterest and tempt the viewer to tune out. The first time I watched it I gave up by the 90-minute mark with a half hour to go, I could care less about the characters, their story or how it turned out, even though I tried.

On my second viewing, I decided to pay closer attention and stick with the movie till the end. I'm glad I did because this is a well-written examination of crime & violence and the fools involved. An attempt is made to flesh-out all the main characters and I'm talking no less than nine people, each of whom are a piece of the interlocking puzzle, often with their own agenda.

While it's no where near great like the seminal "Pulp Fiction," it has style and glimmerings of depth. If you can get past the convoluted story and unlikable characters, it certainly has its points of interest, like well-scripted dialogues and Del Toro's towering performance, not to mention Taye Diggs's interesting heavy.

The film was shot in Utah in the Salt Lake City area.

GRADE: B-

For any action movie fans out there that love shoot-outs that hinder on the brink of insanity then this movie is for you. The plot was hard to understand in some parts yet it was still good and sometimes the motives were beyond the viewer's grasp but it still flowed well regardless. There were some kick ass quotes as needed in this genre of film and James Caan was simply awesome in his role as an aging bag-man. While I'm not a huge fan of Ryan Phillippe he actually was passable as this character and utilized a suiting accent. Benicio Del Toro was probably the best as his expressions and just the way he says things is unbeatable. Even though it was two hours long it seemed like only half that, so overall it's a great watch. My only warning is that if you're included in the faint of heart then this probably is one to avoid as this was definitely a dab of the good OL' ultra-violence!

Final Say:

Movies: Would've been enjoyable to see it there.

DVD Purchase: Based on how low it's currently priced I probably won't be able to help myself.

Rental: Come on, you know you want to!!!

What I fail to understand is why if "The Usual Suspects" was so incredibly popular (because it was so freakin' good), "The Way of the Gun" gets stepped on, both at the box office upon its initial release, and in various, snarky IMDb user comments.

This movie isn't just good. It's INTENSE. It's DARK. There's not a single character in the movie who's likable, and some viewers attack that like it's a bad thing. The story line is complex, the relationships between the numerous characters are subtle and nuanced; and still, some viewers attack that like that's a bad thing.

Just because a viewer doesn't understand something, doesn't make the film bad. It's a difference of opinion, absolutely, but that doesn't make "The Way of the Gun" a bad film. Au contraire, this is a very smart film... and when a filmmaker is making a smart film about amoral, gun-toting outlaws, the people who come to see that sort of movie are going to feel confused and angry. Because they wanted it to be simple. They wanted easy answers, a clear-cut good guy and bad guy, and a happy ending. The way movies have gone since film noir faded away, decades ago.

But this film is not so simple, and neither are the characters within it, nor is the plot. Chris McQuarrie refuses to write something so cut-and-dry, so black-and-white. It's taut, it's tight, it rides a bad vibe from the opening sequence all the way down to the last line. This film is so gritty it makes me feel dirty after watching it... McQuarrie may be a victim of his own success, because it was released in the aftermath of "The Usual Suspects," but if it built up an underground following like "The Killer," it would be on the shelf of must-haves next to John Woo, Guy Ritchie and any other art film your parents wouldn't approve of.

Every character has his own motive, has his own backstory, and not all are necessarily spelled out for you. The dialogue is wound so tight, it snaps: "Fifteen million dollars is not money. It's a motive, with a universal adapter on it."

I own this movie, and on a dark, rainy afternoon, I'll whip it out on the unsuspecting guest... "It's from the writer of 'The Usual Suspects'" I tell them. And from the opening scene, they're INTO IT.

It's not for everyone. But don't you dare call it a bad film. This is where YOUR favorite filmmaker steals all of his ideas.

Written by the same dude who wrote The Usual Suspects, The Way of the Gun is a much simpler tale compared to the award winning Suspects. It tells of two small time crooks, played by Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro, who get entangled in a game of crooks versus crooks when they try to pull of a kidnapping.

Dreaming of bigger things in life, but regardless of the method used to achieve their dreams of riches, they overhear a conversation at a sperm bank clinic (one of the most happening dialogues in the movie happens there) about a surrogate mother bearing the child of some rich family. They decide to kidnap the lady, played by Juliette Lewis, and hold the mother and child hostage.

However, they embroil themselves into a bigger web of intrigue, as every character, from the mother, the husband and wife who employed her, the doctor, the bodyguards, to the "bagmen", all have their own agenda, and the relationships between one another must be one of the most complex written for the screen in recent times. Everything is more than meets the eye, and betrayals and double crossings are the agenda for the day.

The pacing is well measured, and there are moments of suspense masterfully injected at points in the movie. I like the initial hostage taking scene, where the sudden shift of focus and introduction of complexity catches our two anti-heroes Longbaugh (Del Toro) and Parker (Phillippe) completely off guard. The car chase and pursuit is also one of the more innovative and quirky scenes in the movie, one which Del Toro actually suggested, and got it made on screen. You have to watch it to believe.

The finale gives a kick to western shoot-em-up fans, as Longbaugh and Parker go head to head with everyone in a Mexican brothel, using modern day weapons of shotguns and handguns. Thrown into the mix is veteran James Caan, as a bag-man extraordinaire, having been so long in the business because of his experience in staying alive.

Del Toro and Phillippe exude an excellent bond of camaraderie between their characters - they trust nobody except for themselves, while I thought Juliette Lewis was terrific in her role as the very pregnant mother caught between both sides, and yet bringing out strength as she fights for her child's and her own survival, taking her interests in her own hands.

It's a good mix of action and workout for your brain as you figure out the relationships between the characters as the narrative moves along. Suited for those mundane afternoons in which you want to break out from.

No special additions in this Code 1 DVD.

THE WAY OF THE GUN (2000) ***1/2 Ryan Phillippe, Benicio del Toro, Juliette Lewis, James Caan, Taye Diggs, Nicky Katt, Scott Wilson, Kristin Lehmann, Geoffrey Lewis, Sarah Silverman.

Christopher McQuarrie makes his directing debut in a big way with an obvious nod to Sam Peckinpaugh with his screenplay about two ne'er do well criminals (Phillippe and del Toro, both exemplary) who decide to make a mark for themselves by kidnapping a very pregnant surrogate mother (Lewis) to a wealthy businessman (Wilson) that eventually pans out to be a big mistake in a tangled web involving the woman's bodyguards (Diggs and Katt) and the bagman friend of the rich man (Caan in one fine, low-key performance of nuanced dread). More than enough rich dialogue and pinpoint camera angle set ups to go around with some live wire moments of unexpected turnarounds, double crosses and shoot outs may be the film's only fault in being an excess of too much of a good thing. A roundelette of pulp fiction best served by its exciting cast (as a side note, del Toro reminded me for some reason as a young Robert Mitchum in some scenes; go figure) and a filmmaker to watch.