Though prior to the release of
this film John Woo had completed one full decade as action director; but it is
with this film he made his creative breakthrough that not only redefines action
genre but also brought him to the attention of Hollywood. After Peckinpah, here
is a successor who depicts violence on screen as poetry with stylistic traits
that derived from Jean Pierre Melville. Though presence of two other lead
actors, the film rocketed the career of Chow Yun Fat into Hong
Kong cinema’s superstar. Stylistically Woo represented him as
Alain Delon’s Melville roles and Fat has done marvelous job here; both in
action and emotions.
Great action films keep you
hooked to the sequences on screen and that’s the biggest USP of cinema of Woo.
The sequence of Fat hiding guns in flowerpots with romancing a girl, shooting
out the traitor gang and shot on leg is something I love to watch time and
again, same can be said about rollicking climax. The film has potboiler plot
depicting drama between brothers on opposite sides of law, camaraderie between
two friends, romance, struggle and emotions all coiled up into the genre of
action but then Woo maintains certain amount of charm in telling of story with
fast pace, absolutely brilliant action sequences and style that oozing
impressive for makers like Tarantino. Woo used Fat brilliantly in many of his
other films, especially ‘Hard Boiled’ and ‘The Killers’ but this one is absolutely
belongs to him. Bollywood Director Sanjay Gupta in his debut film made a
complete rip off of the film titled ‘Aatish’ starring Sanjay Dutt and Aditya
Pancholi and keep on making his plagiarized action factory copying Tarnatino,
Oliver Stone and Park Chan Wook.
One of the best action film of
all-time.
Ratings-7.5/10
2 comments:
And they had to get the dead man back for the equel!!
ya, i watched the second part too and as far as Woo and CYF combination is concerned it's again impressive watch. Do catch 'The killer' and 'Hard Boiled' too. CYF is jus brilliant there too:)
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