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Ronin
(***1/2)
What a refreshing and exhilirating motion picture this has turned out to be! In a time where movies are either all talk or all lame special effects, director John Frankenheimer has constructed a nearly perfect action film. Now, I don't have a problem with dialogue. When it's done correctly it can be a great thing. But not every movie has to be the same. No more than 10 minutes go by without at least one well crafted sequence.
The only confusing part of the movie is the story. We don't know what they're doing, and what they're after. However, that doesn't matter. Frankenheimer has constructed a movie that is as close as I've ever seen to a "pure" action picture. We don't need to know the details, all we need is to see them moving now.
In the opening title card, we learn that ronin were Japanese Samurai who lost their master. So they would go out and serve the highest bidder to live. That's pretty close to what we have here. The story is around Sam (De Niro) an ex-CIA from the Cold War who must now offer his services to anyone who can pay him. Everyone else in the room are the same, no matter where they're from.
Their services are needed to obtain a black briefcase for their employers, who I can only assume are the IRA. That really doesn't matter, because the suitcase becomes the perfect MacGuffin. It makes its appearance, and once it's started the story we see very little from it. We also learn very little, if nothing, about our characters besides what is relevant to both getting that briefcase and later getting revenge.
For example, we learn that Sam is ex-CIA. That's all we know about him. And that's more than we learn about any other characters. I say that the people who hire the group are IRA, but I really don't know. They're terrorists of some sort, and they're Irish. That's about all I can get. But none of that matters. That's not the movie. The movie is about showing some well choreographed action, and seeing things get blowed up real good. In that sense, Ronin delivers perfectly.
I suppose this will throw people off, although I really can't imagine why. There's not much of a story, and trying to follow a story will just throw the viewer off. The part that confounds me is that most movies don't seem to know how to construct a decent story anyway!
The fun part of the movie is that the characters treat themselves and the world around them with complete seriousness. When I watch a movie, I don't necessarily demand realism, but I do want it to pretend to be realistic. In that sense, Ronin succeeds. After all, imagine what movies would be like without something like this to give us a break.