It plays as if Scott knows the plot is threadbare, and wants to patch it with an excess of style. "Man on Fire" has a production too ambitious for the foundation supplied by the screenplay. As the net and the cast widen, we begin to wonder if anyone in Mexico City is not involved in the kidnapping in one way or another, or related to someone who was. Creasy, meanwhile, depends on a plucky journalist named Mariana ( Rachel Ticotin), and she depends on an ex-Interpol expert named Manzano ( Giancarlo Giannini). Rayburn may be the only person he can trust.Īt the Ramos home, Samuel negotiates with the kidnappers, gets advice from his family lawyer ( Mickey Rourke), and consults with the head of the Anti-Kidnap Squad, who is a busy man if the movie is correct in its claim that someone is kidnapped in Mexico every 90 minutes. After she is kidnapped, the movie goes through the standard routine (police called in, telephones tapped, ransom drop arranged), but with additional local color, since off-duty Mexico City police were apparently involved in the snatch, and Creasy feels surrounded by vipers. But eventually he bottoms out in his despair, begins to love the little girl, and becomes her swimming coach, Marine-style. Pita wants to be his friend he explains he was hired as a bodyguard, not a friend. As we think back over the film, this conversation will take on added importance.Ĭreasy keeps his distance on the job. At the job interview, Creasy is frank about himself: "I drink." Ramos is able to live with this information, but advises Creasy to tell nobody, especially Mrs. Rayburn has a job for him: acting as a bodyguard for Mexico City industrialist Samuel Ramos ( Marc Anthony), his American wife Lisa ( Radha Mitchell) and their daughter Pita ( Dakota Fanning). "Do you think God will forgive us for what we've done?" Creasy asks Rayburn. He's fallen on hard times, drinks too much, and travels to Mexico for a reunion with his old military buddy Rayburn ( Christopher Walken). Washington plays Creasy, whose resume includes anti-terrorism. Even the last scene involving his character is a disappointment there's a moment when one thing and one thing only should happen to him, and it doesn't, and the movie lets him, and us, down gently. Denzel Washington creates a believable, sympathetic character here - a character complex enough to deserve more than fancy action scenes. We count those still alive, and ask ourselves if the Law of Economy of Characters applies: That's the one that says a movie contains no unnecessary characters, and so the otherwise unexplained presence of a star in a seemingly insignificant role will be richly explained by the end.Īll of this is true, and yet the movie has real qualities. When it seems that everyone who could possibly be killed is dead and the movie must surely be over, there's another whole chapter. Sure, he gets shot now and again, but can you walk around Mexico City as an accused cop-killer and outgun professional killers indefinitely? And as he plows his way through the labyrinth of those responsible for kidnapping the girl, the body count becomes a little ridiculous, and Washington's character, who seemed very human, begins uncomfortably to resemble an invulnerable superhero. He seems to be homeless, yet has frequent changes of wardrobe and weaponry, even producing a shoulder-mounted missile launcher when necessary. The hero outshoots and outsmarts half the bad guys in Mexico City. This is despite being emotionally broken inside.Īs events unfold during their time together, we begin seeing glimpses of who did what before becoming a hermit at heart via flashbacks interspersed throughout the main storyline that unfolds.The screenplay is by Brian Helgeland, whose work on " Mystic River" dealt with revenge in deep, painful personal terms. Later, Pita Ramos’ father offers him money to bodyguard her while she goes around Mexico City with him, and he accepts. He had suffered an emotional breakdown caused by a personal tragedy for which he blames himself. He was previously a CIA agent but has since retired from his job. The protagonist in the film Man on Fire is John Creasy (Denzel Washington). While the movie isn’t based on a true story the main character John W Creasy was inspired by a person. The book ‘Man on Fire’ was published under his pseudonym, A. The movie is based on a 1980 thriller novel by the English novelist Philip Nicholson. Wasdin who retired as a Navy SEAL Commander after serving with distinction for 23 years.īut which is which? Find out more in this post. One is Frank Horrigan from the book “The President’s Club” and Howard E. Some people have speculated that John Creasy might be an amalgamation of two different people.
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