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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gritty and Utterly Realistic Fights, November 27, 2005
"The Hunted" is a fantastically gritty, pulse-pounding chase film with refreshing realism, and is a fine return to form for the occasionally brilliant Friedkin, who has not been this on top of things since "To Live and Die in L.A." I will not here attempt to offer a synopsis of the film, as that has been done to death in this forum, but will instead offer some commentary.
First, those complaining that this film does not really have much of a plot, or that the plot of this film is confusing and messy, have entirely missed the point. William Friedkin was not here trying to make a story-driven film, at all. As for the second complaint, Friedkin has stated that he purposefully wanted much of the film to remain ambiguous. The viewer, for instance IS NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW whether the del Toro character is crazy or not. Those complaining that they can't figure out whether he's right in his suspicions or not have entirely missed the point of the film. Friedkin here was trying to develop an intense, gritty, extended, mano-y-mano conflict between two men who are clearly more dangerous than anyone else in their environment. Jones' character, fearing he's found himself in a Dr. Frankensteinian scenario, having created a monster only he can stop, feels both responsible to bring in del Toro and guilty for hunting a man he essentially feels fatherly towards. Jones' character could train del Toro's to kill, but, after having done so, he is unable (or unwilling) to help him psychologically. This is insufficient training, an insufficient initiation into manhood, resulting in the playing out of the Abraham/Isaac mythos. Unsophisticated viewers insisting on a "good guy"/"bad guy" take on the film will likely not enjoy this movie. Jones' character is not the "good guy" and del Toro's is not the "bad guy"; they are just both tormented men. Some viewers have interpreted Jones' character as the good guy, but just as many will see del Toro's character as a good guy being hunted down by his own government which he has just finished serving. This ambiguity of not having a clear cut "good guy" and "bad guy" is exactly what Friedkin was going for. Life is not black and white. In fact such Hollywoodian portrayals are naive and absurd.
Those complaining that Jones' character is unrealistic should watch the film with the commentary turned on, and learn about the real man that Jones' character is based on. Was it unrealistic that the two characters quickly fashioned knives out of raw materials in the wilderness? ...Not when the actors were trained to be able to do such themselves in real life.
What "The Hunted" has to offer the viewer is an absolutely enthralling action film harkening back to the grittier days of action movies (such as The French Connection or Bullitt). The main character is fascinating to watch. He's full of nervous energy that he is constantly shaking out. He can't stay still; he's twitchy. Something is clearly bothering him. He knows how utterly dangerous his adversary is, and feels responsible for teaching him the destructive maneuvers he knows. The army trains men to be cold-blooded killers. This changes some men. It's a door you can't walk back through. The army does not train them to reenter society. That's left to them, and not all of them can effectively pull it off. Benecio del Toro's character thinks the government is stalking him, spying on him. We don't know if this is true or if he's merely snapped. What we do know is that he is an extraordinarily dangerous man who is out on the loose.
Martial arts fans should take special note: this movie has the absolute best and most realistic hand-to-hand fight scenes this critic has ever scene (I say this having studied many martial arts in real life). The art on display is Kali knife fighting. Both Tommy Lee Jones and Benecio del Toro trained in the art and did the fighting in the film. It shows. (Allegedly Jones broke del Toro's wrist in one of their fights!) These are the most gritty and breathtaking fight scenes you'll ever see (the first of which I would pick as the best fight scene in film history). They are utterly realistic, and look very much the way a real martial arts fight looks (i.e. brutal and short). No nonsense wires or high-flying kicks here, just deadly street fighting.
The tracking scenes in this film are wonderful, relishing the details. The cinematography is downright breathtaking, and the soundtrack is one of the greatest and most effective in years. Friedkin makes the viewer feel that even after the antagonist is brought into the city that he's still in a wilderness...a wilderness of concrete blocks instead of trees and moss. Once the chase is on, it doesn't stop until the end of this wonderfully fun movie. Ignore the negative reviews and check this one out!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Plot flaws galore., January 13, 2004
I live right across the river from where this movie was shot and in that regard I enjoyed all the referrences to places I know and have been. But there are so many plot holes in this movie it was hard for me to recommend it highly. Both lead characters should have died long before the end of the movie. I suppose super soldiers have incredible endurance and twice as much blood as most people. Benicio Del Toro should have drowned when he jumped into the Columbia River. If the impact didn't kill him the current would have pulled him down. I know this river personally and the current is incredibly strong. Tommy Lee Jones character said Benicio could "swim like a fish" but I doubt he could breath like one. Also, Benicio is being chased by agents and cops so what does he do, he builds a fire and fashions a blade. Good idea. Tommy gets stabbed in the leg by a long, sharp stick which apparently only made him angry because he didn't bleed from that wound thereafter. Then he falls onto some rocks on his way down a large waterfall, then pulls himself out and shortly gets into a knife fight with Benicio. It is only near the end that the editing and plot take a back seat to reality. Am I supposed to believe that Benicio set an elaborate trap of two logs that come smashing together a la "Return of the Jedi"? I realize that he isn't your normal human soldier but hiding might have been a smarter plan. He is able to blend with the shadows, yes? Then there is the scene where Tommy is just dripping with water, and only moments later he is completely dry. Anyway...it wasn't a complete waste of time. In fact, the fight sequences were enjoyable, albeit bloody. And there were some other scenes that were fairly well done. It just didn't make much sense. Blood-loss usually causes people to feint or go into shock. I've even heard that some people die from it. It's true. I think I saw it on the Discovery Channel.
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10 of 11 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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