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One thing William
Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) knows is action. And that’s
a lot of action, well-paced action. When
he’s at his best he doesn’t give us a lot of reaction shots and shots of
people thinking in the middle of battle, no time wasting character
development. No, he knows how
to provide slam-bang, constantly moving, action!
And that’s what you
get in The Hunted. L.T. Bonham
(Tommy Lee Jones) trained Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro) to be a, …well,
a trained killer while in the armed forces.
After some violent action in Bosnia, Hallam has kind of gone off the
deep end and is in the forest, killing people who come after him (not an
unreasonable response). L.T. is
called in to find him. Aaron’s
captured, gets away, and the chase is on.
It’s L.T. vs. Aaron, teacher vs. pupil, hampered by the FBI and
local law enforcement who all want Aaron…dead.
Those who have
been reading me should know by now that I abhor gratuitous violence.
Be warned, there’s a lot of graphic violence in this film. This is a tough film and violence is what it’s about.
I turned my head a couple of times.
And if you’re an experienced film watcher, you should know when to
turn your head or close your eyes if you don’t want to see blood.
As with a lot of
Hollywood films, you do have to suspend disbelief in the way L.T. tracks
Aaron, but I did so willingly. This
is Hollywood; what’s to believe? To
its credit there isn’t anybody who flies, and there aren’t a lot of
ridiculous kung fu fights. But there are some very bloody fights, which contain normally
lethal strikes that leave the combatants still fighting.
Who cares? This is a
quintessential chase film and it held my interest throughout.
I thought that
there was a plot line that was brought up and could have been better
developed and explained. Aaron is sometimes presented as a sympathetic, manipulated,
misunderstood character. But,
although the issues are raised, they are not explained or resolved.
And maybe therein lies Fiedkin’s shortcoming.
The music (Brian
Taylor) adds to the tension and the cinematography (Caleb Deschanel) is
gorgeous, showing spectacular shots of the forest and raging rivers.
There’s very little in this movie I didn’t enjoy.
But although it’s devoid of humor and bloody, it’s old-fashioned,
Hollywood tense. As the pursuers are walking down aisles looking for Aaron,
you’re never quite sure when he’s going to pop out and commit mayhem.
They way Friedkin sets it up, you’re not sure whether you’re rooting for
Aaron or against him. As a final plus, it comes in at 94 minutes; perfect!
March 14, 2003
The End
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