Customer Reviews

The Way of the Gun [VHS]

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(58)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

First off if you're considering buying this movie, definitely read at least three pages of the reviews here and more if possible. You'll get a good feel of the film that way. Some folks get this movie and some have no clue at all.

I'm just going to add some comments that are lacking or that have been mis-stated.

First, only in the most loose definition of plot twists or subplots, does this film have either. The story is entirely linear, however you have to piece together parts of the story from sparse information. The story begins at least 9 months prior to when the movie starts with the relationship and "deal" between the bagman and the surrogate mother (but you don't know this until nearly the end and it's subtle enough to miss). The film story fully begins with the kidnapping. From that point on the various antagonists all see opportunities and then angle to make it happen, except for the bagman who is protecting more than his employer.

Second, this is not about petty crooks and a botched job. This is a story that involves professional criminals, professional mobsters and professional bodyguards, all of whom show clarity and intelligence beyond typical clever, one-liner, hollywood scripting.

The fact that police are only peripherally involved in any part of the film simply indicates that the dealings are far beyond your average cops and robbers style movie. This is a subculture that is not visible to normal society. The dialogue between Longbaugh and Sarno should illustrate this nicely. There is an understanding between them that goes well beyond the simple words. This is equally true for the relationship between Longbaugh and Parker, and Sarno and Abner - much is conveyed but little is said. This is a product of excellence in both acting and directing.

Lastly, the viewer is conflicted by the characters. Bodyguards should be good guys, but are not sympathetic and are really just mercenary. Chidduck is a bad person, but is the only person with a good intent. Longbaugh, Parker and Sarno are criminals pure and simple, but can be sympathetic. All of these characters show that the line between good/evil, or honor/dishonor, or morality, etc is a very blurry line, and one that the characters cross over without regret. There are no absolutes.
This is good script writing, because that does not happen by sheer good fortune.

One last thought. I feel that this film is better than the Usual Suspects. Simply because I think the Way of the Gun is more believable and more steeped in reality. The Usual Suspects to me was clever but ultimately a fantasy.

I have to say, walking into this film, I was expecting more, but that can only be because of the fine credits of the writer/director. I mean, of course you're going to have to expect double and triple crosses and enough plot twists for ten movies when you go and see a movie from the man who wrote The Usual Suspects. However, I have to say that even though I was at first dissapointed, that quickly went out the window as I got into this terrific action/noir piece by Christopher McQuarrie. His barage of bullets and profanity is some of the best stuff to come out of Hollywood in recent years. The story, which I'm not going to spoil, is a work of criminal genius, and the acting is very good (even Ryan Phillipe!). This film crosses Pekinpah's The Wild Bunch with Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (through with huge nods are made) and a little bit of 40's noir. The two antiheros are by far some of the best written characers in recent months, and the two actors tacked on to play them are great. The supporting cast, which consists of James Caan, Taye Digs, Nicky Katt, and Juliette Lewis is masterfully crafted and very low key, which is necessary when trying to make a film of this manner. There is not a single over the top performance, which gives a sort of cohesion among the ensemble. Benicio del Toro gives the films best, and sometimes most hilarious performance and has been given some of the best lines to work with. Phillipe actually does a good job with his role, considering how few lines, besides the narration, that he has. His boyish charm works perfectly as a man who doesn't give a damn and is extremely mature for his young appearance. To me, the only thing that was lacking in this film was the direction. There are too many stationary shots and a little bit too much of the Pekinpah factor involved in the direction. There are certain scenes the scream of The Getaway and The Wild Bunch, along with a little bit of Straw Dogs' claustrophobia. The script is top notch and shows how good of a writer McQuarrie is, especially when you consider that he wrote the film in five days just to get the corporate monkeys who wanted him to make a crime film off of his back. This is the great type of neo-noir action thriller that will stabalize the genre, but it is sad to read interviews with McQuarrie in which he says this will be his last foray into the noir genre. A talent like his in a genre this hard to work correctly in is definitely few and far between, and this film will be studied, not for the direction, but for the always odd plot that drove this film to the great heights that it reached.

Does this movie compare to THE USUAL SUSPECTS?

Does it matter?

Anyone brilliant enough to write the screenplay for SUSPECTS must have more than one movie in him, and McQuarrie proves he does with this. Some reviewers remarked about how he doesn't make you care for the characters in his film. And I think they missed the point: you're not supposed to. McQuarrie figures out how to make you enjoy watching them without either caring about them or being totally replused by them. He achieves a sacred principle of both writing and directing--making it a lot easier on even great actors like Del Toro and James Caan: freeing you from existential judgment or the self-referentialness lessor screen writers can fall into. This creates room for the nilhist philosophy and betrayal that competes with anything that can be called deep and abiding love whereever it occurs in this film.

EVERYONE in this movie is a "bag man;" even the unborn children. As such McQuarrie is saying something pretty deep about the modern world in total. And yet he does it in the context of not boring us to tears with preaching or burdening our minds with too much philosophy, pertinent or otherwise. All while giving us some of the most innovative car chases and shoot-em-up action scenes done in some time.

This movie came out in 2000, and to see how the actors have evolved since then is refreshing and exhilharating all by itself. Caan looks about ten years younger in the successful NBC-TV show LAS VEGAS of today than he does in this movie; showing off, obviously, the prodigious acting skills that forever remind us that THE GODFATHER was no fluke. (He is acting older and more beat down in this movie than he probably ever has been.) Every actor puts in some serious work in this, and make it worth seeing, and worth owning. And McQuarrie's writing and directing make it worth thinking about afterwards.

Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro star as two small time crooks who decide to step off the path and look for the big score. The plan was to kidnap a surrgate mother of a wealthy couple. Before long they find out who the parents are but its to late thier in over thier heads. Two body guards (Taye Diggs and Nicky Katt)looking for redemption and a bagman (James Caan) are closing in. The result lots and lots of guns.

I really liked this movie. It has one of the best opening scenes I have ever seen. There are lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing. As the story unfolds everyone has a hidden agenda and nothing is as it seems. The three main shootouts are just awesome. If you like movies with twists and lots of gunplay this is it.

The dvd has a decent amount on it. From cast and crew interviews, trailers, production notes and script and storyboards. Also its worth mentioning the commentary on this movie is one of the best I have listened to.

I reluctantly went to the theater with my husband to see "The Way of the Gun" as it was his turn to pick a film to see. I'm not your usual chick-flick kinda chick, I really appreciate good films that keep my attention and leave me wanting to talk about it afterwards (in a positive way! re: "Signs" *shudder*).

I'll admit that the title had me a bit set against it, and surely the first scene of the movie also turned me off as it was completely pointless and should have been cut from the film entirely. After that, however, is where it really begins.

I wont get into plot specifics as I see many reviews have touched on that aspect already. The first action scene where the kidnapping occured blew me away. It was unlike ANY scene I had ever seen in a film. It set the tone for the entire movie to have intense emotional drama without noise, without running or shooting blindly. It showed that these two criminals were a step above your average thug or person who "is more interested in being a criminal than wanting to commit a crime". The bodyguards also prooved to be a step above your typical bouncer thug, but rather very well trained men who entered the profession for it's strategic and competitive appeal.

I loved the old man who was hiding behind the motel with the cel-phone that just wouldn't operate. He cracked me up all the way through with the odd russian roulete to the silliest death scene ever to be shot. Him and the main Bag Man had womderful dialoge and set the tone for his obvious wisdom and experience in the life of a hitman. I liked how the older gentlemen were depicted as wise, and not as bumbling old coots.

I did not understand one part of this plot. What did Dr. Painter do? Something with an abortion? Huh?

I enjoyed the dialogue emmensely, and perhaps this is why it's appealing to women and men because it doesn't assume that you the viewer is a mindless dingleberry who is easliy bored by interesting plot and character development *ahem!*

A pulp tale with loads of action.

The story: Two hoods (Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Philippe) kidnap a young pregnant woman (Juliette Lewis) who carries the child of a mob-connected millionaire (Scott Wilson). Wilson's experienced enforcer (James Caan) and bodyguards have to handle the situation from then on. Lots of shoot-outs, double-crosses and small twists ensue.

Great directorial debut by Christopher McQuarrie, the Oscar-winning screenwriter for 'The Usual Suspects'. He directs with attitude giving the movie a slight noirish atmosphere yet interrupting this with Hong-Kong movie style shoot-outs (the actors shoot whole clips at a go) in perfect harmony. He brings the best out of the actors, especially Del Toro and the always reliable Caan who gets some great lines from McQuarries's script.

This movie is enamoured with the gun and eventually overkills because some characters get introduced just to be shot down with loads and loads of bullets in the climax which is reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah's classic 'The Wild Bunch' with undertones from 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. In fact Del Toro and Philippe's characters are named Parker and Longbaugh, the real surnames of Butch and Sundance.

At two hours this movie is not overlong because there are many subplots and interesting supporting characters, actually too much. Anyway, the movie is entertaining and I will eagerly await McQuarrie's second feature.

Christopher McQuarrie's directorial debut in this film which he also wrote. Of Chris is the winner of a Best Screenplay Academy Award for his script of "the Usual Suspects".

While not as mind boggling as Suspects, Way of the Gun is a gritty feature with plot twists, superb dialog, and as the title suggests, some great shoot-outs.

This is probably the best performance Ryan Phillippe has ever given. And of course as in everything he does, Benicio Del Toro is great. Even James Caan gives a good role as a bagman out to get the pair.

Basically Phillippe and Del Toro are two end of the line thugs with expert gun skills with nothing to lose. They kidnap the surrogate mother of a baby for a rich couple, who are tied to organised crime.

This is one of the best films of 2000!

I have had the DVD of this movie for a few years now, and was pleased to see a Blu Ray version out, as this is one of my favorites, and worthy of a replacement upgrade.

For a review of the film itself, there are many out there, I will not repeat them. It is entertaining, with many funny moments, and a story that keeps moving along.

This Blu Ray is a great transfer, there is not much to complain about. The detail and sharpness are amazing, good contrast and solid blacks throughout. The DTS sound is crisp and clear, with good range, although I do not have the system or the ear to thoroughly evaluate it.

I was fearing this movie would suffer on Blu Ray as others of its type have, a 10 year old not-so-popular release, but I was thankfully not disappointed.

You know, for someone that was voted one of `The 25 Future Powers under 35' by Premiere Magazine, Christopher McQuarrie seems to have fallen off the radar recently, with The Way of the Gun (2000) being his last film, which is too bad as I think he has a really good sense of how to tell a story in a unique and interesting way. Along with writing the film, McQuarrie also makes his directorial debut. Appearing in the film is quite a cast (perhaps drawn by the siren song of working on a project by the person responsible for highly popular The Usual Suspects) in James Caan (Misery), Benicio Del Toro (The Usual Suspects), and Ryan Phillippe (I Know What You Did Last Summer), along with Taye Diggs (Chicago), Juliette Lewis (Cold Creek Manor), Geoffrey Lewis (Salem's Lot), and Scott Wilson (In the Heat of the Night).

The film starts with an exercise to see how much profanity can be crammed into the first two minutes. If there ever were a contest for such a thing, The Way of the Gun would surely rank. Once we get past that, we meet two individuals in Longbaugh (Del Toro) and Parker (Phillippe). They appear to be a couple of grifter types, surviving on the fringe of the system, collecting money where they can, including, but not limited to, donating baby batter, which is where they conceive (pardon the pun) an idea to kidnap a pregnant woman (Lewis) and hold her for ransom. Turns out the woman is a surrogate mother, and her benefactors, the soon-to be recipients of the unborn babe, are going to pay the woman one million dollars once the transaction is completed, so the duo figure they got some very deep pockets. Oh yeah, she's also constantly by bodyguards, which probably cost a pretty penny. The plan goes off, but not without a hitch as a gun battle between the duo and the bodyguards ensues, but they eventually do make off with the woman, only to learn the surrogate father is a rich and powerful figure linked to various underworld elements, and has no problem in using such elements to avoid any nasty entanglements with the police. One of these elements is Joe Sarno (Caan), essentially a bagman (a person who collects money, as for racketeers), but also someone who has a unique interest in the events so far, much more so than just performing a task assigned to him by his employer. As the once duo, now a trio (a foursome, if you count the unborn baby) head south of the border (that's Mexico to you and me, pard), things get really complicated as certain aspects of certain relationships are revealed, leaving this viewer to often time be left scratching his head, not so much out of the need to relieve an itch, but in a bewildered sense, as confusion settled in...but never fear, things do sort themselves out in their own, sweet time, at least enough to stop me from scratching my head and move on to other parts of my anatomy...(ain't thet a pretty picture)

Now let me say upfront, I'm wary of writers who also want to direct. It's not uncommon, as they feel that's the best way to translate their vision to celluloid, and sometimes it works well, but that's not always the case. In his previous two films, Public Access (1993) and The Usual Suspects, the directing chores were assigned to Bryan Singer (X-Men), and while I haven't yet seen Public Access, The Usual Suspects was a o fun (Singer is currently working on the new Superman movie, scheduled to be released in 2006, with Kevin Spacey to appear as Lex Luthor...does anyone remember Spacey's cameo as Dr. Evil in the last Austin Powers film?). I did enjoy the film, but I felt there were really no standout performances. It was almost like the story overshadowed the characters. Phillippe and Del Toro's characters seemed to be the main ones early on, but they soon became peripherals as the story progressed. As far as Caan's character goes, it isn't like we haven't seen him do virtually the same character he's done many times before..and then there's Juliette Lewis...I don't really care for her as an actress that much, as I tire of the waifish idiot routine, and imagine that same routine except now she's waddling around, about to spew forth a baby. She actually does well, and I give her agent a ton a credit as he/she/they have kept her working continuously, with five films scheduled for release in 2005. While I did enjoy the film a lot, I thought McQuarrie got a little too cutesy with the dialogue at some points, and maybe he himself realized this as there's one scene featuring one of the characters making fun of the way another talks. The pacing of the story felt a little odd, as the beginning starts out with a lot of action, then wanes throughout the middle, finishing up stronger than it began. The plot proceeds in a linear fashion, but the details involving the characters do not, as bits of crucial information are revealed when McQuarrie deemed necessary. This results in confusion and sometimes frustration, but he doesn't leaving you hanging too much, as things become clear near the end. I respect his ability to visualize telling a tale in this manner, as if I tried to do it, I would mess things up horribly, constantly tripping over my own plot threads. All in all, there's lots of gunplay, lots of blood, smart performances, smart writing, and an entertaining film.

The widescreen anamorphic (1.85:1) picture (enhanced for 16 X 9 TVs) looks sharp, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is clear. Special features include a commentary track by the director and composer, an isolated music track featuring commentary by the composer, storyboards and script of a deleted scene, production notes, and biographies with video interviews with the cast.

Cookieman108

By the way, if I learned anything from this film (as I'm sure Ryan Phillippe's character of Parker did), it is to always look before you leap, especially in and around a Mexican brothel...

I bought this as an Artisan Entertainment 2-pack, along with the film Killing Zoe (1994) from Amazon. Separately, The Way of the Gun is listed as $9.98, Killing Zoe $13.48, and the two pack cost $17.98, so you do the math.

Written and directed by the scriptwriter of the excellent The Usual Suspects, Way of the Gun has a conventional plot, lots of shoot 'em up action, and a number of lines which will stick with you for days.

The best thing to say about the movie is that it stars two strong actors in del Toro and Caan. Sadly, most of the rest of the cast is doomed to playing caricatures and not characters. del Toro and Caan are excellent. Their conversation inside the cantina half way through the movie suffuses with poignant regret. The two men learn quickly that in another time and place, they might have been friends. However, the circumstances they're in place them irrevocably at odds. Although reprehensible people, the viewer starts to care about them.

Not so for the other characters. They either play set-cast roles largely there to keep the plot moving or they deliver performances as if they were walking through their lines hoping to get quickly to the other side (the actor playing the second gunman is the epitome of this problem.)

There are some odds quirks about this movie to like. Seldom will one see an inability to get a cellular signal play such a repeated or important role in plot development. There's a very slow motion chase scene in an alley which is photographed beautifully. The use of vivid colors at night in Mexico is visually arresting.

But if you want a serious plot with your crime thrillers, this is not going to be the movie for you.