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General William Sherman, who served during the American Civil War, famously said "War is hell" and that "it is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation." This highlights the impact and effect that war has on those that are right in the middle of it. To this point, a significant number of soldiers from the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD. This leads us to the above question: how can we "turn it off" and regain some sort of normalcy?
The Hunted follows a soldier struggling with this: Sergeant Aaron Hallam (Benicio del Toro), a highly skilled Delta Force soldier that has gone rogue as he is burdened by the guilt from all the atrocities he has done and witnessed. Tasked with tracking him down is L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones), a retired Special Forces instructor that was in charge of training Hallam, and therefore feels responsible for what he's doing.
Director William Friedkin doesn't really waste a lot of time. After a brief prologue showing us what Hallam experienced in the Kosovo War, he drops us right in the middle of his search. Most of the film consists of this cat-and-mouse between both Hallam and Bonham. Coming 10 years after The Fugitive, it's interesting to see how Jones approaches his character. This is not the confident Samuel Gerard. Bonham is soft-spoken, determined but still hesitant at times. On the same note, Hallam is not Kimble. Although we might empathize with his struggle, his actions push him farther from us.
That contrast and duality between Hallam and Bonham is one of the best things about the film. Both characters are burdened and guilt-ridden, unable to "turn it off" and forced to go at each other. I wish the film would've done a better job at making this bond between the two feel stronger. The flashback scenes are there, but I don't think they do enough. The same can be said about Hallam's relationship with his ex-girlfriend or with the soldiers from his former unit, who are also trying to track him down. That would've given the film a bit more weight. Still, Friedkin delivers a pretty solid action thriller with some solid performances and great fight choreographies which, at 94 minutes, is quite breezy to get through.
Grade:
THE HUNTED
(2003, Friedkin)
(2003, Friedkin)
"Once you are able to kill mentally, the physical part will be easy. The difficult part... is learning how to turn it off."
General William Sherman, who served during the American Civil War, famously said "War is hell" and that "it is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation." This highlights the impact and effect that war has on those that are right in the middle of it. To this point, a significant number of soldiers from the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD. This leads us to the above question: how can we "turn it off" and regain some sort of normalcy?
The Hunted follows a soldier struggling with this: Sergeant Aaron Hallam (Benicio del Toro), a highly skilled Delta Force soldier that has gone rogue as he is burdened by the guilt from all the atrocities he has done and witnessed. Tasked with tracking him down is L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones), a retired Special Forces instructor that was in charge of training Hallam, and therefore feels responsible for what he's doing.
Director William Friedkin doesn't really waste a lot of time. After a brief prologue showing us what Hallam experienced in the Kosovo War, he drops us right in the middle of his search. Most of the film consists of this cat-and-mouse between both Hallam and Bonham. Coming 10 years after The Fugitive, it's interesting to see how Jones approaches his character. This is not the confident Samuel Gerard. Bonham is soft-spoken, determined but still hesitant at times. On the same note, Hallam is not Kimble. Although we might empathize with his struggle, his actions push him farther from us.
That contrast and duality between Hallam and Bonham is one of the best things about the film. Both characters are burdened and guilt-ridden, unable to "turn it off" and forced to go at each other. I wish the film would've done a better job at making this bond between the two feel stronger. The flashback scenes are there, but I don't think they do enough. The same can be said about Hallam's relationship with his ex-girlfriend or with the soldiers from his former unit, who are also trying to track him down. That would've given the film a bit more weight. Still, Friedkin delivers a pretty solid action thriller with some solid performances and great fight choreographies which, at 94 minutes, is quite breezy to get through.
Grade: