Movie Reviews

For the first half-hour or so while watching The Hunted, I was about ready to write it off as a goofy pyscho-killer-on-the-loose-chased-after-by-a-reluctanct-adversary type of film. And essentially, that is what it is. The pyscho-killer is Aaron Hallam (played by Benicio Del Toro), a former U.S. military assassin whose involvement in various unpleasant military operations has left him a little wonky in the head, namely in the way that he can no longer switch off his 'killer instinct'. The adversary is L. T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones), the man whom the military hired many years ago to train assassins -- including Aaron -- but who now lives peacefully in northern British Columbia, working as a wildlife officer and physically assaulting any hunters he finds setting leg-hold traps in the forest.

Aaron basically wants to live a normal life, but his mental instability -- coupled with the fact that he's an AWOL military assassin with knowledge of confidential military secrets -- means that the military doesn't want him walking around in public. Whenever any operatives try to bring him in, they're quickly and brutally murdered.

Enter L. T. Bonham. The top brass in the military figure that the person most likely to be able to bring Aaron in is the person who taught Aaron to become what he is. And so the film goes: L. T. first tries tracking Aaron through the dense forest where he's been hiding out, but later the chase moves into the city. As I already mentioned, some of this stuff is kind of goofy, like how L. T. easily and uncannily tracks Aaron through a busy downtown core and how both men, in preparation for their final encounter, manage to find time to fashion makeshit fighting knives merely with some paper-clips and duct tape (okay, that's not true. L. T. carves one by chipping away at a a piece of rock, and Aaron 'blacksmiths' one by building a fire and heating a piece of steel). In the final fight, the two men cut each other up so much that it's beyond improbable that the loss of blood doesn't cause them to keel over and fall unconscious.

Yet, I can't write off The Hunted as a bad movie. I think this has to do primarily with the direction of William Friedkin, who paces the film so swiftly and tightly that there's no time to stop and evaluate its goofiness. It seemed to me that there wasn't a single scene in the film that was unnecccessary to the story or that dragged on for longer than it needed to, and I appreciated that (although I didn't appreciate Benicio Del Toro's horrific American accent). Friedkin also directed the classic action film The French Connection, which I felt kind of the same way about: it's not a great story, but it's so well made and tightly-paced that it's hard not to get caught up in (Friedkin is also responsible for The Excorcist, which I haven't seen yet).

If an action movie is going to be of the 'brainless' variety, this is the kind of form it should take.