MAN ON FIRE

MAN ON FIRE (2004)─In Mexico City, a former CIA assassin swears vengeance on those who committed an unspeakable atrocity against the little girl he was sworn to protect. Directed by Tony Scott from the novel by A.J. Quinnell, screenplay by Brian Heigeland. Man on Fire stars Denzel Washington, Christopher Walken and Dakota Fanning.

 

     After a wave of kidnappings sweeps through Mexico City, there is a growing sense of panic among the wealthier citizens, especially parents. In one six-day period, there are twenty-four abductions, leading many to hire bodyguards for their children. With this back story established, we first meet John Creasy (Washington), a burned-out ex-CIA operative, who has given up on life. Creasy’s friend Rayburn (Walken) convinces him to give it one last try and come to Mexico City to be a bodyguard for nine-year-old Pita Ramos (Fanning), daughter of a wealthy industrialist. At first Creasy rejects the idea out-of-hand, he’s not interested in being antibody's bodyguard, least of all to a little girl. After some convincing, he accepts the assignment. At first Creasy keeps his distance, barely tolerating the precocious child and her pestering questions about his dark past. But slowly, Pita works her wiles and begins to chip away at his rough façade The two learn to trust and the pair become bona fied friends, there exist a genuine chemistry, a bond between the little blonde white girl and the damaged black man with a deadly 9mm Glock. For Creasy, his new found relationship is redemption, then in one catastrophic instant his friend, his charge, Pita is kidnapped.

     I recently watched a broadcast of Man on Fire on Spike TV, I hadn’t seen this movie in five years and everything that I ever loved about Dakota Fanning suddenly came flooding back. What an absolutely wonderful performance. Dakota was at the height of her prowess, after a disastrous turn in the god-awful Cat in the Hat (2003) Dakota was back, a vulnerable wispy mercurial waif, with baby teeth intact. I don’t know if he knows it or not, but Tony Scott needs to get down on his knees and thank God that he cast Dakota Fanning in this movie! Dakota is awesome, she more than holds her own against the venerable Washington and even steals the show.

 

     Man on Fire is not an easy movie to like, it’s also a hard movie not to like. This is not what you call a perfect film, principally due to Tony Scott’s penchant for schizophrenic direction and head-ache inducing herky-jerky camera work. Man on Fire fails mostly in part as an action movie owing to its fragmented construction. When the movie works it works well.  One thing that does work well is Harry Gregson-Williams’ south-of-the-border Spanish guitar score is enhanced by soundtrack splashes of Chopin, Debussy, and even the Linda Ronstadt classic 1977 country-rock version of “Blue Bayou.”

       Man on Fire is really three movies in one. The first third of the movie is your basic introduction, the “set-up.” We are introduced to Denzel Washington’s character the hired bodyguard of little Dakota Fanning. This is the best part of the movie, the unfolding relationship between the little girl and the assassin. To Tony Scott’s credit, he takes time to develop this relationship, there’s no 30 second montage of Dakota and Washington frolicking on the beach and then *bang* you’re dead . . . 30 seconds is not enough time to invest in the characters and Scott understands this. No, the movie devotes some serious screen time to develop the quiet and intimate relationship between the gruff assassin and the little girl.  Washington and Fanning are wonderful together and establish a screen rapport that reaches the level of Hepburn and Bogart.  This sets the stage for the tragedy yet to unfold.  I personally, really enjoyed the Dakota sequences; the scenes with Dakota and Denzel are so good and so strong that I caught myself wishing the entire movie was about their relationship. Seriously folks, not since Ryan and Tatum O’Neal have I seen a movie about a relationship between an adult man and a 9-year-old girl that was this good.

 

     Sadly, the Washington-Fanning relationship was less than a third of the move. The second act of the film is about Pita’s kidnapping and Creasy’s obsession to exact revenge on her abductors. It's in this second act that the movie goes haywire. You tend to feel, with all the camera tricks, captions with a mind of their own, and jerky, over-the-top direction that the director was trying to obscure the fact that he didn’t know how to tell the story in this part of the movie. Scott calls attention to himself much too often his advant-guarde directing style. The middle part of the film lapses into cliché. I thought I was watching Charles Bronson in “Death Wish,”  about a character hell-bent on seeking revenge.  This only serves to drag the movie down. The third act of the film is more of a mix of the first two parts. There are some good moments, and some not so good, when it works, it works well, and when it doesn’t, it doesn’t work at all.         

    One of my favorite Dakota Fanning stories is a classic. Dakota is invited to appear on the TONIGHT SHOW with Jay Leno. Dakota’s comedic talents are greatly underrated. She told this story . . . On a day trip to the Aztec pyramids during the filming of Man on Fire. Dakota and her family, including her grandmother Mary Jane, took a bus tour to visit the ancient sites. Apparently, Mary Jane is very talkative. All during the time the tour guide was trying to explain some of the more important aspects of the ruins; Mary Jane kept up a constant chatter. Finally, in frustration the Mexican guide turned to Mary Jane and said (in his not-too-good-English):

“Mary Jane, if you would just shut-up a little, you can hear the jaguars.”

     Dakota tells it better than I─

Man on Fire (2004) ** ½