John Woo's -Broken Arrow -1996

This is one of those 'training wheels' films for a director learning to make Hollywood his own golden city. John Woo directed his first Hollywood flick, Hard Target with Claude Van Damme, in 1993. This is his second US effort.

I'm a fan of John Woo, in spite of the 'hard' action and violence of his films or perhaps more accurately, because of the way it is choreographed. A Better Tomorrow and a Better Tomorrow II rank among my favorite Hong Kong flicks. But something was lost in pandering to American audiences and censors. Woo had some adjusting to do, and you can tell with this film that he's starting to roll. A little.

Woo's first US film with Van Damme was a failure. It didn't pass the censors for violence, and it got chopped badly to play to audiences here. I have seen the theatrical release, and I am unimpressed.

In Broken Arrow Woo works more with special effects than flying bullets. And although the reviews of this movie aren't full of wonder, this movie with a budget of 54 million dollars brought back a box office of 160 million in the US and abroad. That has to translate as success in anybody's book. My personal opinion is that Woo hit a high mark with Face/Off which combines special effects with other Woo trademarks, in an interesting story, that is at least a little more appealing than Broken Arrow.

Hong Kong and Hollywood

If you see enough Hong Kong Action flicks, you'll realize that plot, as we know it, is secondary to the action. In some Chan offerings, you'd be hard pressed to discover a consistent story line. The heroes are rarely all good or all evil. In fact, in previous Woo offerings (A Better Tomorrow) it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys, and corruption exists on every level. Although American audiences don't necessarily toss out that scenario, Hollywood still persists in wanting to show us a hero with a happy ending. Happy endings were not typical of Woo, to this point.

Action Scenes in Broken Arrow are as good as they get, and delightfully unlikely in the split second timing required for the lead actors (and actress) to survive. There are lots of explosions, moving trains, boat chases, and plane crashes to make this one a nail biter, at least the first time you see it.

PLOTS and other important details

In Hong Kong action films , the women aren't typically any part of the plot, they are only added to make it interesting. Woo's Hong Kong flicks show stereotypical female characters, who are incidental to the plot but not developed as characters themselves. This film introduces a park ranger to help the good guy prevail, but she too is a little short on character development. The character of Terry the park ranger, becomes important in the action here, both by participating and by setting up and connecting the next major clash of the male leads.

Woo's HK films also has at least one of the good guys buying the farm, at the end. This is something Woo wanted for this flick, but changed for American audiences.

IMPORTANT DETAILS

The term "Broken Arrow" actually means a nuclear accident, sort of an "oops, we dropped one and shucky darn, it blew up". Here, the term 'Broken Arrow " means "We misplaced a nuclear missile, and can't find it." The correct term is "empty quiver", which isn't a very scary title is it?

Of course, there ARE those who rented this movie (like my ex-husband) thinking it was about a Cowboy/Indian war.

Impediments to Greatness

In addition to the wrong use of terms, there are moments where the action just drags, in spite of the explosions and battles. The villain in the end, is a testosterone driven control freak, with no major plan for wreaking havoc, only doing his deeds because he can. This doesn't sit as well with our Hollywood created need for fitting a character into a master plan for evil.

Besides that, I have to say I think it was a big stretch to accept Slater and Travolta in their roles, from the beginning. Travolta and Slater meet in the opening scene, boxing with each other. It is this scene that you have to overcome basic visual evidence to validate the rest of the flick. Slater's 5 foot 8 does not stand as an equal with Travolta's 6 foot 2, and boxing isn't Kung Fu. Enough said.

Also, to be fair, Travolta and Slater never really established a "buddy" connection that would make the rest of the story work, although you have to accept that premise to enjoy the rest of the movie.

The screenplay, by Graham Yost is about what you'd expect from the author of Speed with some admittedly good patter, but little substance.

The Plot

(Hale) "If we ever go to war with Utah, we'll really kick a-s-s."

Riley Hale and Vic Deakins are pilots for the US Airforce. We meet them in a boxing ring, where Deak pounds the snot out of Hale, all the while taunting him with his failures in not being able to prevail. This is a beautifully shot scene, no matter what I think of the rest of the flick. The key message is :

"Show him one thing and defeat him with something else."

The boys are sent on a test mission to fly their stealth jet close to the ground with 2 nuclear warheads attached, to test the warning system. (Simulated low level penetration).

The stealth jet takes off, and a split second before it happens, Hale sees a reflection of Deak about to shoot him point blank with his side-arm. He manages to eject, and quickly figures out what his buddy is up to. He's stealing the nuclear missiles.
There are other parties at work here, but you'll have to watch it yourself to figure out the details. Good luck.

A park ranger, wandering about on patrol in the Utah National parks system, Terry Carmichael, gets involved in the action when she and Hale team up to stop Deakins.

Meanwhile, back at "headquarters" another good guy shows up, by the name of Giles, who serves the sole purpose of explaining to the brain dead military the plot as it continues to unfold.

Cast

John Travolta as Vic "Deak" Deakins. This has got to have set a standard for Travolta's later cold blooded "bad guy" roles. The actor has had a career of ups and downs, popularity that wanes and waxes, but he does show a side here that is impressively over the top bad. Coming off his success as Vic in Pulp Fiction this one shows a reasonably good change of character. Travolta's part in Urban Cowboy had practically shut him down, and with this movie, he is on the comeback trail. To make amends he quickly did two of my sentimental favorites Michael and Phenomenon although my favorite role for him to date is his Archer character in Woo's Face/Off. In this movie, there is nothing really likable about Travolta's affected sophistication and arrogance, but he was believable in the role. The cigarette smoking sequences reveal his nature, from the start.
Christian Slater as Riley Hale. As the good guy in the flick, Slater got the worst of the deal, although he nearly pulls it off. Slater made some bad personal choices, from an early promising career, and this movie all but does him in. He is actually pretty limber in the action shots, and like I said, it almost works. Action hero, though?
Samantha Mathis as Terry Carmichael. Samantha had been Slater's steady girlfriend in the early nineties. To their credit, they have good chemistry here, in the only amount of romance or lightness present in the flick.
Delroy Lindo as Colonel Max Wilkins Great basso profundo voice, and impressively tall.
Bob Grunton as Pritchett-Whiney, completely secondary to the plot. Easily disposed of.
Frank Whaley as Giles Prentiss-the Yale thinker who thinks through the problems presented by Deakins' chicanery. Also seems incidental to the plot, with only a little credit to be given for comic relief.
Howie Long as Kelly.-as Deakins' military buddy, and accomplish, the ex LA Raider at very least looks good in fatigues. His presence was the only reason my ex-husband watched the film in the first place.

****

The DVD has no extras, except closed captioning and a couple of languages besides English. But you probably don't need any deep reasoning ability to understand the flick or it's intentions.

Final Recommendation

This movie is entertaining, if you keep your expectations low, and don't worry about the plot details. On the positive side, there is enough John Woo here to make the action scenes memorable, and Travolta's villain is primo in my book. There are some great shots of the red rocks in Utah, a very beautiful part of the country. I miss the Southwest, but I don't fancy finding Slater or Travolta there.