Too messy too recommend, I'd say this one is only for Woo fanatics.
Listen at the podcast providers of your choice.
If you're an action movie junkie like myself, you're already familiar with John Woo. You know his signature elements, including a penchant for melodramatic bullet ballets, slow motion, and all of the doves the film crew can get their hands on. And you're also probably familiar with his Hong Kong films featuring Chow Yun-Fat including his breakout A Better Tomorrow as well as The Killer and Hard Boiled. But like many directors, Woo seemingly got the kinks out in his signature style in a non-stop action flick pitting mercenaries against drug dealers and warlords called Heroes Shed No Tears.
The Setup
The film centers around a group of mercenaries led by the stalwart warrior Chan Chung, who are hired by the Thai government to capture a powerful warlord and transport him through the Golden Triangle. But the drug lord's gang and a vengeful Vietnamese colonel may make this already dangerous mission near impossible.
Heroes Shed No Tears is what I'd loosely call a "trying things out" kind of movie. It's a bit all over the place, for reasons that actually make a lot of sense, but there's moments of the kind of movies Woo would make in the future.
So what's so strange about this particular movie? Let's start with tone.
A Kitchen Sink Tone
As I indicated before, John Woo typically makes melodramatic movies. Big emotions, big characters, big action. Big big big. All with this combination of stylistic chaos that makes it feel as big as the characters are playing things. So it's really weird to see things like...long form comedy bits that literally end with an explosion or a bunch of topless ladies in another segment. Really weird for a filmmaker who uses comedy to punctuate action beats (if he does that at all) and keeps his on-screen romance sensual vs. exploitation cinema style.
Which makes a lot of sense when you learn that a fair number of the bits in the movie, including the sex scene bits and drug bits that weren't shot by Woo and that Woo basically disavowed after a falling out with the studio.
That explains the tonal inconsistency, which prevents the movie from either being another bit of Woo goodness or a proper exploitation movie.
Set Piece to Set Piece
Another problem with the movie is that it is pretty relentless when it comes to action. Let me be clear, I'll never complain about a bunch of action scenes and some of my favorite movies are essentially extended chase sequences. But you need some kind of added heft to make these scenes really work other than our lead characters don't want to die.
And that's where this movie struggles.
There are some very effective scenes like when Chan decides to intervene to save a French woman from a corrupt military officer. Because...it reveals character and ups the stakes. There's plot and character purpose here.
Whereas a lot of these scenes happen, seemingly at random because it's been about five seconds since we had a fight and we've got to thin the herd as the movie progresses. The lack of down time also means that every character is so one note it's hard to latch onto anything about them. At one point we get a glimpse into Chan's backstory and I was genuinely thrilled, like oh this is who this guy is! Great! And then never again. That's not to say there isn't stuff that works.
What Does Work: John Woo's Chaotic Action and A Couple of Little Touches
While we're still a few clicks away from the dual wielding pistol madness Woo came to popularize, Heroes shows glimpses of the kind of action that Woo would specialize in. In particular, that one man army vs. cannon fodder enemies approach when everything is being torn up by bullets and explosives and every goober the baddy throws at the hero dies in slow-motion. The opening raid, for instance, is right at home with the finale from A Better Tomorrow 2 for the scale of destruction and feels like a Hong Kong answer to Arnold's Commando.
There's also some hints of some of Woo's favorite recurring elements such as the "enemy who respects the hero or has some semblance of values" represented by a local tribe that Colonel sics on the team, or the mostly cowering woman who shows her mettle when it matters most. Little things that you can tell Woo either consciously or unconsciously cataloged for movies like Hard Boiled later.
The Verdict: For Completionists Only
Too messy too recommend, I'd say this one is only for Woo fanatics. 4/10
No comments:
Post a Comment