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Man on Fire (2004)
Starring Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Marc Anthony, and Christopher Walken. Cinematography by Paul Cameron. Edited by Christian Wagner. Produced by Lucas Foster, Arnon Milchan, and Tony Scott. Written by Brian Helgeland. Directed by Tony Scott.
John Creasy is a haunted by a dark and violent past. He tries to wash his fear and sadness away with alcohol, but it always seems to find him the next morning. He visits Rayburn, one of his military buddies, in Mexico to reminisce about old times. Rayburn suggests to him that he take a job as a bodyguard for a wealthy Mexican family. Mexico has become the world’s leader in kidnapping for ransom and good security is in high demand. Creasy finds work with the Ramos family and is assigned to protect their nine year old daughter Pita. She approaches Creasy like a potential playmate, but he quickly shoots her down citing that he was hired to protect her, not be her friend. Eventually her sweetness prevails and he begins to love the little girl. But with emotion comes vulnerability and when an attempt is made to kidnap Pita, it is successful. Creasy is badly injured, but even before he can fully recover he has set out on a murderous rampage to find anyone involved in the kidnapping and immediately put them to death.
A.J. Quinnell’s first novel, Man on Fire, was published in 1980 and was the first of about a half dozen books to feature his serial character John Creasy. The brutal story of vengeance and redemption is entirely fictional but was based on an event that happened in Italy in 1975. A couple years after the book’s release Tony Scott attempted to adapt it to film, but his inexperience prevented him from finding a producer that would take him seriously so he dropped the project. The story was eventually filmed overseas in 1987 by Elie Chouraqui with Scott Glenn playing the lead role, but ultimately it received little attention. Scott (Tony that is) had remained enthusiastic about the material over the years and when Arnon Milchan, the producer of the first film, offered him the chance to remake it, he jumped on the opportunity. After over twenty years of waiting, Scott finally had the chance to make his film.
Not only did Man on Fire find success at the box office, it may ultimately prove to be one of the best reviewed films of Tony Scott’s career. The highly energetic style that has he has been developing over the past few projects seems to have found it’s creative peak with this film. Scott experimented with new techniques to keep the camera constantly in motion, adding to the chaos, anger, and stress of the film. He even used the Spanish to English subtitles to display emotion; throwing them up hatefully against the screen or letting them wash away in a flood of tears. Man on Fire is a lesson in dark and gritty filmmaking, and while it might simply be a genre piece, it is certainly the zenith of what the genre has to offer.
Budget: $70,000,000
Total US Gross: $77,906,816
Genre: Action
Runtime: 146 Minutes
US Release Date: 4/23/04
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: none
Tagline: none
Quote: “Forgiveness is between them and God. It's my job to arrange the meeting.”
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