For those of you who like rip-roaring action flicks with a few moments to ponder, you could do a lot worse than to check out "Shooter", the new film from Antoine Fuqua (director of "Training Day"), and starring Mark Wahlberg in the lead role.
Wahlberg plays the character of Bob Lee Swagger, an ex-military sniper living in the remote Arkansas mountains who was left to die by his superiors in Ethopia. He's contacted by a Colonel (Danny Glover) who asks him to come out of retirement to "plan an assassination of the President" in order to out-think a suspected plot by terrorists to do just that. However, the Colonel represents a faction of conspirators within the US government and Swagger has been chosen as their prime patsy for the crime. Of course, Swagger doesn't die so easily and ends up on the run from the government and the conspirators, seeking to clear his name and expose the conspiracy.
The film has great cinematography, unique action sequences, good script, character development and an interesting plot. I quite liked Fuqua's previous effort "Training Day", and was not disappointed by "Shooter".
There is some very interesting political comments in the film. When Swagger is kicking back in his cabin in Akansas, there's a copy of the 9-11 Commission Report next to his computer and he clicks on a news website stating, "Let's see what kind of lies they're selling us today". When the Colonel asks him to save the life of the President, he bluntly states, "Don't like this president much. Didn't much like the one before that, neither". There's a couple of monologues by the bad guys that show their contempt for regular folks and the corrupt Senator at the center of the web who states toward the end, "The truth is what I say it is!"
Shades of the Bush neocons and their "reality-creation" paradigm.
There's also more than a little bit of a nod towards the JFK assassination as well, with an old guns & ammo prof making hints about it, as well as parallels with 9-11 and Iraq. There's also a reference to Abu Ghraib as well, with an ex-shooter telling Swagger, "It's only the little guys that get busted... but they knew about it all the way to the top" (paraphrasing).
Despite the commentary, it doesn't quite go "all the way". The conspirators are a "rogue faction", although it's hinted that there are more people in the network. The government as a whole are still presented as the "good guys" that don't know they've been infiltrated. Despite that the bad guys are obviously psychopathic characters, there's a mention made of "basic human weakness" at one point - leading the audience back to the old "power corrupts" chestnut, which does not really reflect the truth: that "power attracts the corrupt".
Still, I think this movie does what it does very well, and has a few truths in there that might percolate through the sleep of the average Joe/Jane. Recommended.
Wahlberg plays the character of Bob Lee Swagger, an ex-military sniper living in the remote Arkansas mountains who was left to die by his superiors in Ethopia. He's contacted by a Colonel (Danny Glover) who asks him to come out of retirement to "plan an assassination of the President" in order to out-think a suspected plot by terrorists to do just that. However, the Colonel represents a faction of conspirators within the US government and Swagger has been chosen as their prime patsy for the crime. Of course, Swagger doesn't die so easily and ends up on the run from the government and the conspirators, seeking to clear his name and expose the conspiracy.
The film has great cinematography, unique action sequences, good script, character development and an interesting plot. I quite liked Fuqua's previous effort "Training Day", and was not disappointed by "Shooter".
There is some very interesting political comments in the film. When Swagger is kicking back in his cabin in Akansas, there's a copy of the 9-11 Commission Report next to his computer and he clicks on a news website stating, "Let's see what kind of lies they're selling us today". When the Colonel asks him to save the life of the President, he bluntly states, "Don't like this president much. Didn't much like the one before that, neither". There's a couple of monologues by the bad guys that show their contempt for regular folks and the corrupt Senator at the center of the web who states toward the end, "The truth is what I say it is!"
Shades of the Bush neocons and their "reality-creation" paradigm.
There's also more than a little bit of a nod towards the JFK assassination as well, with an old guns & ammo prof making hints about it, as well as parallels with 9-11 and Iraq. There's also a reference to Abu Ghraib as well, with an ex-shooter telling Swagger, "It's only the little guys that get busted... but they knew about it all the way to the top" (paraphrasing).
Despite the commentary, it doesn't quite go "all the way". The conspirators are a "rogue faction", although it's hinted that there are more people in the network. The government as a whole are still presented as the "good guys" that don't know they've been infiltrated. Despite that the bad guys are obviously psychopathic characters, there's a mention made of "basic human weakness" at one point - leading the audience back to the old "power corrupts" chestnut, which does not really reflect the truth: that "power attracts the corrupt".
Still, I think this movie does what it does very well, and has a few truths in there that might percolate through the sleep of the average Joe/Jane. Recommended.
