Ronin (1998)
Dir John Frankenheimer
Written by JD Zeik & Richard Weisz
Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Jonathan Pryce, Stellan Skarsgard, Skipp Sudduth, Sean Bean.
In Paris, a group of men, all experienced in either government or military are hired by IRA operative Diedre (McElhone) to snatch a secretive briefcase for her boss, the terrorist Seamus (Pryce). During the sting to steal the case, double crosses ensue and former CIA Sam (DeNiro), and the secretive Vincent (Reno) are unable to let the job go, until it is done.
Very well put together film, is strengthened by a stellar cast and strong screenplay. Not only for the multiple languages spoken throughout, but also for the realistic conversations that the characters share, the banter between Sam and Vincent are what make the film work well.
DeNiro delivers in his performance, and he makes a great anti hero here. While he’s not a traditional ‘good guy’ as he is a criminal – the way he holds himself and his demeanour are another positive that this film has. The camaraderie he has with Reno is also a variable that works well.
The European setting is quite lovely, and there are many moments that show the areas within cities like Paris and Nice. It would have been ‘nicer’ if there were some more moments that could have shown the expanse of these cities, rather than just the narrow streets of the neighbourhoods. The Score, which is tender at times, especially during touching diatribe between Sam and other characters, is also dynamic during the exciting times like the car chases.
The action sequences by the late great Frankenheimer are breathtaking, especially the car chases through the before mentioned neighbourhoods of cities within Europe. Sudduth (who plays Larry) did his own stunt driving. Frankenheimer makes the usual use of the Deep Focus, and once again I found this to be a little overused at times.
Some downs, I would have loved to learn more about Vincent’s backstory; there was some poor and noticeable usage of both stunt doubles, and green screen. However, scenes such as the ‘self surgery’ more than make up for these few downs.
Well worth a watch.