Ronin (1999, DVD)

The Cold War's over. It was fun while it lasted. In the crummy rump-end of Paris a group of unemployed cold warriors meet in a little bar for a job interview. Robert De Nero plays Sam, nobody in this movie has a last name, a former CIA officer who has, for reasons never elaborated upon, gone free-lance. He is recruited as part of a team of professionals formerly of the security services of both sides in the recent unpleasantness known as the Cold War. Jean Reno ("The Professional") is Vincent and Sean Bean (Boromir from "The Lord of the Rings") plays Spence a guns and musle guy recently seperated from the SAS. Stellan Skarsgard, who Director John Frankenheimer informs us is the "Robert DiNero of the Czech Republic", is Gregor, an ex-KGB tech guy. Skipp Sudduth is Larry the team's driver. That's labor, on the management side we have relative newcomer Natasha McElhone, long of leg and thick of brogue, as Deirdre. "Relative newcomer" means I hadn't seen her before, although she was in "The Truman Show". Her boss, Seamus, is played by Jonathan Pryce who abandons his usual suave image for a sort of working-class-gargoyle look. His character has a personality to match.

The point of the whole exercise is the recovery of "The Case". A metal hard-side briefcase carried by an unidentifed money-man containing an unspecified object or objects. The story that ensues is filled with all the twists of plot and twists of the knife that one would demand from a modern, or post-modern spy thriller. This is a rather gritty story, though, not too much James Bondery on display in "Ronin". The ending is a bit predictable and something of a let-down.

De Niro is the spark plug of the cast. He gets most of the cool lines (sample: when asked if he's ever killed anyone... "I hurt somebody's feeling once..." ) but McElhone has the cool accent. Only someone from Ireland or the American South could make a three syllable word out of "case" ("Cay-a'se). Reno is cool as always. Bean plays a character remarkably similar to Boromir, maybe he specializes in playing bent tough guys...

"Ronin" was filmed largely on location in Paris and southern France. The Paris scenes do an excellent job of showing the sides of Paris that tourists don't, and wouldn't want to, see. I guess every town has a run-down side. The scenery in the shots filmed around Nice and Arles are stunning. The quaint backdrop makes a nifty contrast to some of the shoot-out action scenes.

"Ronin" has a few slower passages where the characters are allowed to ease down and reflect on their odd choice of profession and the encroachment of age and redundancy. This is done quite deftly and never seems talky-talky.

The action scenes are first-rate. Of particular note is the chase scene in the underground traffic tunnels of Paris in the last third of the film which one magazine (it may have been "Maxim", but don't hold me to that) crowned "The best chase scene ever." I'm not so sure about that, but it certainly compares favorably to the classics such as the "French Connection" chase scene, which it will put you in mind of. Frankenheimer informs us that all of these scenes were shot at full speed. That expression of stark terror on Natasha's face is not fully acted, it would seem. Frankenheimer cut his teeth directing a movie called "Grand Prix" with the same technique. A bit 'o trivia: this movie was playing when Princess Diana was killed in one of these tunnels (not the one where "Ronin" was filmed, though) and some members of the Princess Diana cult demanded the movie be removed from release or re-edited, "out of respect." Those people have way too much time on their hands.

Yes, Japanophiles, the title does refer to the masterless Samurai of feudal Japan but no ronin appear in the film, sorry. The title actually refers to the story of the "47 Samurai" of Japanese history and legend. Ice skating fans will be pleased by the appearance of Katarina Witt, the (former) East German Queen of Figure Skating in a small role. She plays... An ice skater. There's an ice skating stunt involving her character. I'm still wondering if she did it herself, can't disclose any details without spoiling. If you watch the movie, you'll see it.

The DVD includes a few worthy extras. There's an audio commentary track with director Frankenheimer, I didn't listen to the whole thing, I'm afraid, but the parts where I did turn it on were interesting and reasonably non-film-school technical. Also included is the original noxious ending. It was excised after preview audience hated it. I hated it. It would have removed at least a whole "star" from this review. It almost shocks me that they needed a preview audience to figure out how vile it was. Go figure.

Fans of gritty, Robert Ludlam style spy/action flicks will be well rewarded by "Ronin". If you're more of a whiz-bang James Bond kind of person you probably will still like this move, but perhaps not quite as much.