Man on Fire
Man On Fire
Directed by Tony Scott
Photographed by Paul Cameron
2004
Starring: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Marc Anthony, Christopher Walken
Cinema has always been a prodigious part of my life. Naturally, most of my conversations are about or relate to films. I know, it sounds a little geeky, and it is, but it can also be really cool. One of the questions that I ask with most frequency when I meet a person for the first is what their favorite film is. Based on their answer, if I've seen the film, I can tell a bit more about the person's personality. This has become some sort of social experiment for me throughout the past few years and the answers always vary depending on sex and age, of course. There is, however, one movie that has been named more among the others and that is Tony Scott's 2004 adaptation of A.J. Quinnell's Man on Fire. I have always enjoyed the movie but never really thought too much of it. I re-watched it recently in order to have a better understanding of the film's enormous impact. It didn't take longer than 30 minutes into the picture for me to realize the power it holds. To begin with, Washington's performance as an alcoholic ex-CIA agent turned body guard was beyond stelar. The narrative takes a sharp turn when Pita, played marvelously by Dakota Fanning, his employer's daughter get kidnapped. The film's grainy, shaky steady-cam aesthetic enable us to feel the anxiety and hopelessness that John Creazy (Washington) feels. It's almost as if the jittery camera represents Creazy's recklessness as he goes after the biggest organized crime mob in Mexico, looking for Pita. Tony Scott and Paul Cameron knew exactly how to visually take us into this world of violence and corruption in an effective way. Although this is not my type of movie, I do have to say it is probably one of the most underrated movies of the early 2000's. The film was received poorly by the critics but not by the audience (almost doubling its budget). This film will forever be a modern classic.
