Ronin (1999, DVD)

I remember seeing the original trailer for the 1998 Robert DeNiro film Ronin, and dismissing the movie as simply another two hours of car chases, gun fights and explosions. I recently discovered that to some extent I was correct, but there is a fairly decent plot hidden beneath the obvious theatricalities, but a plot which does not quite live up to its potential.

The film opens in one of the seedier sections of Paris, with DeNiro strolling into a dilapidated bar and casually making contact with several of the locals, who of course are not what they appear to be. This brief interlude leads to a meeting with an attractive female Irish terrorist named Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), who resembles a young Meryl Streep, and four other roguish individuals, played by Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean and Skipp Sudduth. Instructing the four modern desperadoes on a need-to-know basis, Deirdre simply tells them that the objective is to steal a locked metal box, which will be heavily-guarded by a group of men. She discloses neither the identities of the box s owners nor the contents of the box, saying only that her organization will pay each of the would-be thieves $5,000 per week, and that the job will last at least four weeks. For the rest, they are basically on their own.

Although the action is intense throughout a good portion of the film, keeping pace nicely with the concurrent suspense, the film starts rather tamely. The first bullet is not fired until at least 20 or 30 minutes into the movie, but instead of being boring, this effectively builds the anticipation. Movies that literally begin with a bang often lose momentum soon, and although Ronin is a flawed film, its flaws are in other areas.

The action, however intense, has a serious credibility problem. DeNiro and his cronies pull off stunts that are more fitting for James Bond films, such as the ten-minute car chase in which the vehicles involved are driving at top speed in the wrong direction on a three-lane highway. Initially, viewers may bite their fingernails and say Oh, my God, but after a couple of minutes, will slap their foreheads and say Come on!

The significance of the title is briefly explained before the opening credits. A ronin was a samurai without a master, ostensibly because the samurai failed to protect his master from assassination. Dishonored, the samurai took to wandering the countryside as a mercenary or robber. The band of four, which gradually shrinks due to betrayal and desertion, are a lot like the Ronin of old. This significance is later explained in a scene about an hour into the movie, but by this point the explanation is superfluous.

Although they are basically assassins like the other free lancers, DeNiro and Reno are a bit more likeable than their cohorts, but given that they have no compunctions about blowing away dozens of innocent bystanders to achieve their objective, they do not really evoke much genuine sympathy. Reno looks exactly the same as when he played a hitman employed by the French government in the 1990 foreign film La Femme Nikita, opposite Anne Parillaud. In Ronin, he is very good as a low-key, laid-back sort of thug. An admiration that grows into friendship develops between Reno s character, Vincent, and DeNiro s character, Sam. The plot has an interesting final twist, but astute viewers might anticipate it.


The DVD comes with an alternate ending, but one that really does not effectively change the movie, just contains an additional 30 seconds or so of footage. In some sense this is good because it does not really affect the viewer s final impressions of the film, but my final impression was that on the whole, I was unimpressed.