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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Thriller, November 20, 2003
From the first frames of this interesting and somewhat offbeat movie, I found myself fascinated by the setting in the snow-graced forests of the Pacific northwest, where retired government martial-arts and assassin training expert Tommy Lee Jones walks with both grace and purpose through the winter splendor of the chilly landscape. However unlikely the action as depicted in the scenes, it was a marvelous set of opening scenes, providing a key insight into the lead character's humanity and perspective. Little would I know that this was perhaps the most satisfying aspect of this taut suspense thriller. Lee is soon whisked away almost involuntarily to help solve a pair of horrific murders of seasoned and well-armed hunters in the area, only to discover the assailant was one of the expert assassins he helped train. From there the mystery begins to deepen, and Lee finds himself locked into a death struggle on a number of levels both with the assassin, played well by the charismatic Benico Del Toro. Del Toro's character is haunted by memories of atrocities he witnessed in Kosovo, and his former government handlers are trying to convince Lee that Del Toro has simply gone renegade. Yet there are signs that there may be some truth to Del Toro's suspicions, as told to Lee indicating that he had been set up, that the hunters he executed in the forest were in fact government assassins come to terminate him. The viewer is taken on a whirlwind ride through forest, suburb, and through a variety of cityscapes, and a few of the chase scenes are entertaining, amusing, and quite ingenuous. The plot sometimes suffers from more bullet holes than any of Del Toro's victims, but if you can suspend your critical faculties enough to enjoy the fireworks, you will likely enjoy this potboiler effort at government intrigue gone horribly wrong. Enjoy!
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie!, March 16, 2003
The Hunted is not based on a very original idea, but it is executed in a unique manner. Some people might think it looks like the third "Fugitive" movie, and the idea is similar--Tommy Lee Jones has to chase down and catch Benicio Del Toro, but unlike Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes, Del Toro is actually guilty of murder. Jones plays "LT," the man who trained Hallam (Del Toro) to kill for the government. This is why he is the one to track Hallam, because he taught him. This element makes Jones' role much more believable. This movie is full of violence, none of it overdone, but every act of violence is shown onscreen, and not much is left to the imagination. The hunt for Hallam is intense, and the skill with which Hallam continuously evades his hunters is intriguing. This movie is well worth watching, because both Jones and Del Toro offer terrific performances.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two men caught in a myth., September 7, 2004
Other reviewers have already commented on action, plot, etc., so I would like to take this into realms psychological.
First of all, this film is a wonderful demonstration of a thesis basic to depth psychology: those mythic stories we fail to take account of when they address us get lived out unconsciously. "Mythic" in the sense of a primordial tale, not an archaic explanation. The primordial tale addressing these two men is that of Abraham and his son Isaac. The narrative voice at the start of the film lets us know that: "And God said, Abraham, kill me a son." This, then, is the given, the symbolic framework in which the older tracker/weapons master and the young soldier must operate.
Then comes the personal. L. T. (Tommy Lee Jones) learned how to track, hunt, survive, and kill from his own father. He taught those skills to Aaron, but they were not enough. Overloaded with the stresses of war's insanity, Aaron writes to L. T. for help, but the older man does not know what to do, how to help (perhaps because his own father did not).
There are many traditions and myths describing how the older men initiate the younger ones into adulthood. This film depicts a failed initiation: the dilemma of an elder who ought to be a mentor but, never having been mentored himself, cannot give the male blessing to the younger man who needs it so badly. Because of this, both have little choice but to live out the story of Abraham and Isaac in its most destructive implications.
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