| Jordan Kalfus |
| Quote: Family paid the ransom and they sent the kid home after a couple of days minus an ear, of course.-Jordan Kalfus. |
John W. Creasy, played by Denzel Washington, is a self-confessed, self-deprecating drunk and has-been. He was originally a C.I.A. agent and assassin and,
on the winding road to nowhere, he finds his way to Mexico City where the opening captions inform us:
There is one kidnapping every 60 minutes in Latin America. 70% of the victims do not survive.
To back this up we see such a kidnapping carried out over the opening credits. The kidnappers have their methods down; they telephone the next of kin and
coldly state: Family is everything! They follow this up with two questions, asking if you love your child and if you want to see him/her alive again? This is a
subtle method of mentally terrorizing the family into submission, reminding them of their priorities before they make their threats and ransom demands.
Enter Creasy, bearded and sullen, haunted by a guilty conscience. The place is El Paso, Texas, on the U.S. / Mexico Border. A place dubbed by some as the
Kidnap Capital of the World. Creasy meets up with his friend and former C.I.A. colleague, Rayburn, played by Christopher Walken, at a family barbecue.
Creasy's guilt is made clear as he sits at a table with Rayburn and they have the following exchange:
Creasy: Do you think God will forgive us for what we've done?
Rayburn: No.
Creasy: You don't?.. Me neither.
To help him, Rayburn recommends that Creasy take a job as a body guard to Samuel and Debra Ramos 9-year-old daughter, Pita. With no other choices
open to him, Creasy loses the beard, cleans up, suits up and takes the job.
Unbeknown to both Rayburn and Creasy, Samuel has already struck a deal with corrupt and impartial family attorney Jordan Kalfus, played by Mickey
Rourke. Samuel is so desperate to clear the debts he inherited from his father; he agrees to have his own daughter kidnapped and take a cut of the $10 million
ransom to solve his financial predicament.
At first Creasy is a fish out of water with this family and is most uneasy around the young, bright and enquiring, Pita, who immediately warms to him and wants
to be his friend, regarding him as her new teddy bear. But Creasy wants only to keep his job on a professional level and remain emotionally detached and
aloof. His level of mental detachment again comes clear when Pita asks him what music he likes and he cannot tell her.
He reluctantly settles in to his own room in the house, where he busies himself by checking his weapons, practising his fast-draw and speed-reload techniques,
contemplates the one bullet required to blow his brains out and drinks himself to a stupor. We see burns on the back of Creasy's right hand, possibly
indicating torture from being captured during a previous job or maybe even self-inflicted. Creasy's emotions, along with his state of mind, are fractured. In
spite of all this, he is searching for answers, hoping to find them in the pages of The Bible he carries with him.
He keeps one particular bullet, his 9mm suicide bullet, in a matchbox. It comes clear that the bullet failed to fire when he tried it indicating that the Hand of
God, mentioned by Sister Anna, was indeed present in Creasy's life to prevent him from committing suicide because Creasy has a job to do, even though he
doesn't yet know what that job is. His credo is stark and simple:
Rayburn: A bullet always tells the truth.
In spite of his reservations, Creasy can't help but form a bond with Pita. Pita reawakens the humanity in him and brings to the surface his good, caring side.
This happens when Pita's parents go away on a trip and Creasy coaches her for a swimming contest. With Creasy's patient help, Pita overcomes her
weakness. Creasy teaches her not to flinch and freeze with nerves at the moment the starting gun fires and she has to dive into the water. Pita wins the race as
a result. Their friendship is further strengthened when Creasy helps her with her history lessons and they have some humorous exchanges, in particular when
they have a first to smile is the loser contest and later, when Pita asks Creasy about his private life:
Pita: Do you have a girlfriend, Creasy?
Creasy: What?
Pita: Do you have a girlfriend?
Creasy: No. What kind of question is that, anyway? You're supposed to be studying history, okay?
Pita: It is history ... Creasy history.
Creasy: No, that's ancient history.
Pita: What was your first girlfriend's name?
Creasy: Nonya.
Pita: Nonya who?
Creasy: Nonya business.
The stark reality of the threat of kidnap comes home to Creasy when he first escorts Pita to school and discovers that he has to show I.D. He has a brief
exchange with the school headmistress, Sister Anna, played by Angelina Peláez.
Sister Anna: Do you ever see the Hand of God in what you do?
Creasy: No, not for a long time.
Sister Anna: The Bible says, Do not be over come with evil, but overcome it.
Creasy (interrupting): But overcome evil with good.
Creasy (in Spanish): That's Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 21.
Creasy (switching back to English): I am the sheep that got lost, Madre.
As they travel, even though they don't discuss it at first, Creasy and Pita are both tuned to the threat of kidnap. When a car suspiciously swerves in behind
them, they both independently of the other record the car license plate on paper.
During a social meeting with Rayburn and his wife, Pita presents Creasy with a gift: a small bear containing a pendant of St. Jude the Patron Saint of Lost
Causes.
Pita doesn't want to attend the piano lessons her parents have insisted upon. Instead she wants to focus on her swimming. When she confides this to Creasy
he tips her off with a cunning method of getting the piano teacher to dislike her: compulsive belching! As Creasy waits outside for Pita to end her lesson,
corrupt police officers block both ends of the street and get into position. Creasy realizes what is about to happen and, when Pita emerges from the building,
he fires his gun into the air signalling to her to move just as he had trained her for the swimming race. Pita runs as the gunfight begins, but returns when she
sees Creasy fall after taking multiple wounds. She runs to him as he lies fading and the kidnappers bundle her into a car.
Creasy is hospitalized and arrested for killing 2 police officers. As he lies in a coma, the police officials theatrically and callously parade him in front of the TV
news cameras. Rayburn, assisted by Miguel Manzan, played by the Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini (in a role reminiscent of the inspector he played in Ridley
Scott's 2001 Hannibal), moves Creasy to a secret location, to prevent other corrupt police officers assassinating him as he lies in his sick bed.
The ransom pay-off goes wrong due to a double-cross. A shoot-out results in the murder of the kidnappers nephew and the ransom money being stolen. The
negotiations are over and the kidnapper, known only as The Voice, assures Samuel and Lisa that Pita is dead.
During one scene Rayburn explains Creasy's nature to Manzano:
Rayburn: A man can be an artist ... in anything, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy's art is death. He is about to paint his masterpiece.
Rayburn informs Creasy of Pita's apparent murder and the other side of Creasy's character then takes possession of him. His credo then becomes: Revenge is
a meal best served cold.
When he recovers enough, Creasy visits the area where the kidnapping occurred. It is here he is approached by Mariana, played by Rachel Ticotin, who
offers her unofficial assistance to bring down the organization responsible, known as La Hermandad, translated as The Brotherhood, a criminal empire that
provides a protective shield around the corrupt police and criminals alike. Creasy agrees and uses Mariana for information as he sets after them all.
Creasy arms up with a variety of weapons as Rayburn watches him become the avenging angel he was always destined to become.
In a subtle, controlled and powerful scene, Lisa gives Creasy her blessing:
Lisa: What are you gonna do?
Creasy: What I do best. I'm gonna kill em. Anyone that was involved. Anybody who profited from it. Anybody who opens their eyes at me.
Lisa (whispering tearfully): You kill em all.
From here on, Creasy is unstoppable as he beats, burns, bombs, slices, shoots and tortures his way through the entire organization, devoid of pity or mercy
for people who do not deserve any in the first place. Creasy has a duel motive for his actions; he destroys them not only to avenge Pita, but also to stop them
from doing this to anyone else. In the nightclub scene he rescues another girl who has been kidnapped by the same organization. After killing two men and
taking a woman hostage, Creasy clears the building by firing his shotgun into the air and leaves them to cheer at the curb side and watch as the entire building
blows sky-high.
Creasy does not just despatch those responsible, he makes damned sure they know and understand exactly why they are going to die. When reminded by an
old man about the importance of forgiveness, Creasy justifies his actions this way:
# Creasy: Forgiveness is between them and God. It's my job to arrange the meeting.
To the people he kills, he delivers lines of cold condemnation. At the end of the car interrogation, hack and scorch scene, Creasy tells one man:
# Creasy: Okay, my friend. It's off to the next life for you. I guarantee you, you won't be lonely.
In another scene, under a motorway bridge with one man tied to the bonnet of his car, and a C-4 bomb put in a place where the sun never shines:
Creasy: I got all the time in the world. YOU don't, but I do.
Fuentes: A last wish, please, please. Please.
Creasy: Last wish? I wish you had more time!
There is one word to describe the script in this movie: PERFECT! Brian Helgeland has done a superb writing job. The dialogue cuts so deep it could have
been written with a razor and inked in blood.
The cinematography is also excellent, with subtitles drifting in and out of the action in a way never used before. The movie switches from colour to black and
white to freeze frame, giving the action an edgy fractured energy that mirrors the way Creasy is experiencing the world around him, haunted by Pita's voice
and seeing her image watching him, reflected wherever he goes, a ghostly reminder of the task he has set himself to perform.
Mickey Rourke, even though he is here in a small role, excels as Jordan Kalfus; quietly calm and articulate when he needs to be, but money-orientated and
indifferent to the human cost and lasting suffering his dealings cause to the victims. Jordan is one of the true monsters that prowl among us a man who can
shake your hand, smile, look you right in the eye when he lies to your face and utters empty reassurances all the while knowing that he is taking your life apart.
At the end of it, he will walk away from the calamity he has participated in, count and spend his money and be devoid of any conscience or remorse. Mickey
Rourke knows how to play the bad guy and play him with depth and conviction, both violently (as he has in some of his previous roles) and with controlled
and sly menace, as he displays in Man on Fire. Jordan and Creasy exist at opposite ends of the arc? where Jordan is the demon and Creasy is the avenging
angel.
Denzel Washington is electrifying in this role. He brings to mind the same single-minded, dogged determination that Lee Marvin invested in his role, as
Walker, in John Boorman's 1967 Point Blank one of the greatest revenge thrillers ever made. Denzel Washington's authoritive and compelling screen
presence has already been established in movies like The Seige, Crimson Tide, The Hurricane and Training Day. His powerful performance in Man on Fire
will rank as one of his very best.
The supporting cast add tremendously to the quality and impact of Man on Fire.
# Look out for Marc Anthony's unforgettable role as Noel, who rants about his cravings for water and death in Martin Scorsese's 1999 Bringing Out the
Dead .
# Radha Mitchell previously gave effective performances in Finding Neverland, Phone Booth and Pitch Black.
# Rachel Ticotin is a great actress whose credits include roles in Fort Apache the Bronx, Total Recall and Falling Down.
# Christopher Walken has been an actor since 1953 and has made so many great movies that they are simply too numerous to list here. He previously
worked with Mickey Rourke in Michael Cimino's 1980 Heaven's Gate and Michael Seresin's 1988 Homeboy.
# Much credit goes to Dakota Fanning, only 10-years-old when she acted as Pita and who has worked in film since 1988. This bright young star has greater
acting ability and screen presence than many adults working in the industry. Recently she has starred with Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's 2005 War of the
Worlds.
# Tony Scott has directed Mickey Rourke and Christopher Walken in the forthcoming and long-overdue Domino, focussing on the life of the tragic
model-turned-bounty hunter Domino Harvey.
# On a trivia note: listen for a subtle, sublime and surreally ironic snippet of the Spanish version of Toni Basil's 1982 pop hit Mickey's playing.
# Also, the author A.J. Quinnell's source novel was previously filmed under the same title in 1987(the same year in which three of Mickey Rourke's movies
were released: Barfly, A Prayer for the Dying and Angel Heart). It was a French/Italian collaboration, directed by Elie Chouraqui, and starred Scott Glenn,
Brooke Adams, Joe Pesci, Jade Malle and Danny Aiello.
In the genre of revenge thrillers Man on Fire is deservedly rated as one of the very best. It is one of those stories that illustrates the point that there are times
when the good guys have to become as bad as the bad guys in order to dispense justice and get the job done.
We all exist for a reason. None of us are put on this earth for nothing and no life is meant to be pointless. Some like John Creasy have a harsher, seething,
more violent reason than others. A man on fire fighting fire with fire and winning!
on the winding road to nowhere, he finds his way to Mexico City where the opening captions inform us:
There is one kidnapping every 60 minutes in Latin America. 70% of the victims do not survive.
To back this up we see such a kidnapping carried out over the opening credits. The kidnappers have their methods down; they telephone the next of kin and
coldly state: Family is everything! They follow this up with two questions, asking if you love your child and if you want to see him/her alive again? This is a
subtle method of mentally terrorizing the family into submission, reminding them of their priorities before they make their threats and ransom demands.
Enter Creasy, bearded and sullen, haunted by a guilty conscience. The place is El Paso, Texas, on the U.S. / Mexico Border. A place dubbed by some as the
Kidnap Capital of the World. Creasy meets up with his friend and former C.I.A. colleague, Rayburn, played by Christopher Walken, at a family barbecue.
Creasy's guilt is made clear as he sits at a table with Rayburn and they have the following exchange:
Creasy: Do you think God will forgive us for what we've done?
Rayburn: No.
Creasy: You don't?.. Me neither.
To help him, Rayburn recommends that Creasy take a job as a body guard to Samuel and Debra Ramos 9-year-old daughter, Pita. With no other choices
open to him, Creasy loses the beard, cleans up, suits up and takes the job.
Unbeknown to both Rayburn and Creasy, Samuel has already struck a deal with corrupt and impartial family attorney Jordan Kalfus, played by Mickey
Rourke. Samuel is so desperate to clear the debts he inherited from his father; he agrees to have his own daughter kidnapped and take a cut of the $10 million
ransom to solve his financial predicament.
At first Creasy is a fish out of water with this family and is most uneasy around the young, bright and enquiring, Pita, who immediately warms to him and wants
to be his friend, regarding him as her new teddy bear. But Creasy wants only to keep his job on a professional level and remain emotionally detached and
aloof. His level of mental detachment again comes clear when Pita asks him what music he likes and he cannot tell her.
He reluctantly settles in to his own room in the house, where he busies himself by checking his weapons, practising his fast-draw and speed-reload techniques,
contemplates the one bullet required to blow his brains out and drinks himself to a stupor. We see burns on the back of Creasy's right hand, possibly
indicating torture from being captured during a previous job or maybe even self-inflicted. Creasy's emotions, along with his state of mind, are fractured. In
spite of all this, he is searching for answers, hoping to find them in the pages of The Bible he carries with him.
He keeps one particular bullet, his 9mm suicide bullet, in a matchbox. It comes clear that the bullet failed to fire when he tried it indicating that the Hand of
God, mentioned by Sister Anna, was indeed present in Creasy's life to prevent him from committing suicide because Creasy has a job to do, even though he
doesn't yet know what that job is. His credo is stark and simple:
Rayburn: A bullet always tells the truth.
In spite of his reservations, Creasy can't help but form a bond with Pita. Pita reawakens the humanity in him and brings to the surface his good, caring side.
This happens when Pita's parents go away on a trip and Creasy coaches her for a swimming contest. With Creasy's patient help, Pita overcomes her
weakness. Creasy teaches her not to flinch and freeze with nerves at the moment the starting gun fires and she has to dive into the water. Pita wins the race as
a result. Their friendship is further strengthened when Creasy helps her with her history lessons and they have some humorous exchanges, in particular when
they have a first to smile is the loser contest and later, when Pita asks Creasy about his private life:
Pita: Do you have a girlfriend, Creasy?
Creasy: What?
Pita: Do you have a girlfriend?
Creasy: No. What kind of question is that, anyway? You're supposed to be studying history, okay?
Pita: It is history ... Creasy history.
Creasy: No, that's ancient history.
Pita: What was your first girlfriend's name?
Creasy: Nonya.
Pita: Nonya who?
Creasy: Nonya business.
The stark reality of the threat of kidnap comes home to Creasy when he first escorts Pita to school and discovers that he has to show I.D. He has a brief
exchange with the school headmistress, Sister Anna, played by Angelina Peláez.
Sister Anna: Do you ever see the Hand of God in what you do?
Creasy: No, not for a long time.
Sister Anna: The Bible says, Do not be over come with evil, but overcome it.
Creasy (interrupting): But overcome evil with good.
Creasy (in Spanish): That's Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 21.
Creasy (switching back to English): I am the sheep that got lost, Madre.
As they travel, even though they don't discuss it at first, Creasy and Pita are both tuned to the threat of kidnap. When a car suspiciously swerves in behind
them, they both independently of the other record the car license plate on paper.
During a social meeting with Rayburn and his wife, Pita presents Creasy with a gift: a small bear containing a pendant of St. Jude the Patron Saint of Lost
Causes.
Pita doesn't want to attend the piano lessons her parents have insisted upon. Instead she wants to focus on her swimming. When she confides this to Creasy
he tips her off with a cunning method of getting the piano teacher to dislike her: compulsive belching! As Creasy waits outside for Pita to end her lesson,
corrupt police officers block both ends of the street and get into position. Creasy realizes what is about to happen and, when Pita emerges from the building,
he fires his gun into the air signalling to her to move just as he had trained her for the swimming race. Pita runs as the gunfight begins, but returns when she
sees Creasy fall after taking multiple wounds. She runs to him as he lies fading and the kidnappers bundle her into a car.
Creasy is hospitalized and arrested for killing 2 police officers. As he lies in a coma, the police officials theatrically and callously parade him in front of the TV
news cameras. Rayburn, assisted by Miguel Manzan, played by the Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini (in a role reminiscent of the inspector he played in Ridley
Scott's 2001 Hannibal), moves Creasy to a secret location, to prevent other corrupt police officers assassinating him as he lies in his sick bed.
The ransom pay-off goes wrong due to a double-cross. A shoot-out results in the murder of the kidnappers nephew and the ransom money being stolen. The
negotiations are over and the kidnapper, known only as The Voice, assures Samuel and Lisa that Pita is dead.
During one scene Rayburn explains Creasy's nature to Manzano:
Rayburn: A man can be an artist ... in anything, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Creasy's art is death. He is about to paint his masterpiece.
Rayburn informs Creasy of Pita's apparent murder and the other side of Creasy's character then takes possession of him. His credo then becomes: Revenge is
a meal best served cold.
When he recovers enough, Creasy visits the area where the kidnapping occurred. It is here he is approached by Mariana, played by Rachel Ticotin, who
offers her unofficial assistance to bring down the organization responsible, known as La Hermandad, translated as The Brotherhood, a criminal empire that
provides a protective shield around the corrupt police and criminals alike. Creasy agrees and uses Mariana for information as he sets after them all.
Creasy arms up with a variety of weapons as Rayburn watches him become the avenging angel he was always destined to become.
In a subtle, controlled and powerful scene, Lisa gives Creasy her blessing:
Lisa: What are you gonna do?
Creasy: What I do best. I'm gonna kill em. Anyone that was involved. Anybody who profited from it. Anybody who opens their eyes at me.
Lisa (whispering tearfully): You kill em all.
From here on, Creasy is unstoppable as he beats, burns, bombs, slices, shoots and tortures his way through the entire organization, devoid of pity or mercy
for people who do not deserve any in the first place. Creasy has a duel motive for his actions; he destroys them not only to avenge Pita, but also to stop them
from doing this to anyone else. In the nightclub scene he rescues another girl who has been kidnapped by the same organization. After killing two men and
taking a woman hostage, Creasy clears the building by firing his shotgun into the air and leaves them to cheer at the curb side and watch as the entire building
blows sky-high.
Creasy does not just despatch those responsible, he makes damned sure they know and understand exactly why they are going to die. When reminded by an
old man about the importance of forgiveness, Creasy justifies his actions this way:
# Creasy: Forgiveness is between them and God. It's my job to arrange the meeting.
To the people he kills, he delivers lines of cold condemnation. At the end of the car interrogation, hack and scorch scene, Creasy tells one man:
# Creasy: Okay, my friend. It's off to the next life for you. I guarantee you, you won't be lonely.
In another scene, under a motorway bridge with one man tied to the bonnet of his car, and a C-4 bomb put in a place where the sun never shines:
Creasy: I got all the time in the world. YOU don't, but I do.
Fuentes: A last wish, please, please. Please.
Creasy: Last wish? I wish you had more time!
There is one word to describe the script in this movie: PERFECT! Brian Helgeland has done a superb writing job. The dialogue cuts so deep it could have
been written with a razor and inked in blood.
The cinematography is also excellent, with subtitles drifting in and out of the action in a way never used before. The movie switches from colour to black and
white to freeze frame, giving the action an edgy fractured energy that mirrors the way Creasy is experiencing the world around him, haunted by Pita's voice
and seeing her image watching him, reflected wherever he goes, a ghostly reminder of the task he has set himself to perform.
Mickey Rourke, even though he is here in a small role, excels as Jordan Kalfus; quietly calm and articulate when he needs to be, but money-orientated and
indifferent to the human cost and lasting suffering his dealings cause to the victims. Jordan is one of the true monsters that prowl among us a man who can
shake your hand, smile, look you right in the eye when he lies to your face and utters empty reassurances all the while knowing that he is taking your life apart.
At the end of it, he will walk away from the calamity he has participated in, count and spend his money and be devoid of any conscience or remorse. Mickey
Rourke knows how to play the bad guy and play him with depth and conviction, both violently (as he has in some of his previous roles) and with controlled
and sly menace, as he displays in Man on Fire. Jordan and Creasy exist at opposite ends of the arc? where Jordan is the demon and Creasy is the avenging
angel.
Denzel Washington is electrifying in this role. He brings to mind the same single-minded, dogged determination that Lee Marvin invested in his role, as
Walker, in John Boorman's 1967 Point Blank one of the greatest revenge thrillers ever made. Denzel Washington's authoritive and compelling screen
presence has already been established in movies like The Seige, Crimson Tide, The Hurricane and Training Day. His powerful performance in Man on Fire
will rank as one of his very best.
The supporting cast add tremendously to the quality and impact of Man on Fire.
# Look out for Marc Anthony's unforgettable role as Noel, who rants about his cravings for water and death in Martin Scorsese's 1999 Bringing Out the
Dead .
# Radha Mitchell previously gave effective performances in Finding Neverland, Phone Booth and Pitch Black.
# Rachel Ticotin is a great actress whose credits include roles in Fort Apache the Bronx, Total Recall and Falling Down.
# Christopher Walken has been an actor since 1953 and has made so many great movies that they are simply too numerous to list here. He previously
worked with Mickey Rourke in Michael Cimino's 1980 Heaven's Gate and Michael Seresin's 1988 Homeboy.
# Much credit goes to Dakota Fanning, only 10-years-old when she acted as Pita and who has worked in film since 1988. This bright young star has greater
acting ability and screen presence than many adults working in the industry. Recently she has starred with Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's 2005 War of the
Worlds.
# Tony Scott has directed Mickey Rourke and Christopher Walken in the forthcoming and long-overdue Domino, focussing on the life of the tragic
model-turned-bounty hunter Domino Harvey.
# On a trivia note: listen for a subtle, sublime and surreally ironic snippet of the Spanish version of Toni Basil's 1982 pop hit Mickey's playing.
# Also, the author A.J. Quinnell's source novel was previously filmed under the same title in 1987(the same year in which three of Mickey Rourke's movies
were released: Barfly, A Prayer for the Dying and Angel Heart). It was a French/Italian collaboration, directed by Elie Chouraqui, and starred Scott Glenn,
Brooke Adams, Joe Pesci, Jade Malle and Danny Aiello.
In the genre of revenge thrillers Man on Fire is deservedly rated as one of the very best. It is one of those stories that illustrates the point that there are times
when the good guys have to become as bad as the bad guys in order to dispense justice and get the job done.
We all exist for a reason. None of us are put on this earth for nothing and no life is meant to be pointless. Some like John Creasy have a harsher, seething,
more violent reason than others. A man on fire fighting fire with fire and winning!
| This character synopsis was written by John Walker feedback is greatly appreciated. |
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