August 8, 2003
By D.K. Holm
Team Sports
S.W.A.T.
[nota bene: The following review, by necessity, contains some spoilers! If you don't want to know the ending, don't read on!]
I guess we all owe an apology to VANITY FAIR.
The magazine has for a long time been trying to create buzz for young actors we've never heard of. Gretchen Moll was one, and is perhaps emblematic of the problem with advance promotion of personalities the public doesn't anything about know yet. It's a delicate balance that a magazine has to maintain. It can't promote someone too early, because no one cares yet. And it can't promote someone too late, or the magazine will come across as out of step and lethargic. There's a precise moment when a magazine should "go" with a profile of a rising star, and the successful editors have an intuitive sense of that moment.
Which was all the more puzzling when VANITY FAIR, one of the more successful magazines at that sort of thing, suddenly began trying to ram various newcomers down our throats. Besides Moll there was Matthew McConaughey and Colin Farrell. Naturally, certain circles of gossipers took the youngsters' appearances on the covers of these issues as coded messages, or signs of an editor paying fealty to a movie distributor who was about to become an employer.
Farrell appeared on the cover of the July 2002 issue, with the headline, "Meet Colin Farrell: A Movie Star Not Programmed By Publicists," which was either a sly or an unconscious dig at its own reputation for collaboration with publicists — otherwise Tom Cruise would not appear on VF's cover some three times. The story, by Ned Zeman, painted Farrell as a foul-mouthed and disheveled pub boy with a natural if rough talent, "the first guy you'd grab a beer with and the last guy you'd want dating your ex-girlfriend." Farrell, according to the story, was a wild youth urged to go into acting by his oldest brother, who runs an acting school. From there he got a part in a play that Kevin Spacey saw while he was in London doing THE ICEMAN COMETH. Spacey also got him his agent. From there he got into TIGERLAND, directed by Joel Schumacher, who directed the movie that Matthew McConaughey was advertising when he appeared on the cover of VF. From there it was an easy trajectory to MINORITY REPORT, DAREDEVIL, THE RECRUIT, PHONE BOOTH, and now S.W.A.T.
There is an easy explanation for the sudden rise of Farrell and other stars like him who seem to come out of nowhere. Satanism. Show business is ruled by Satanists. Hollywood is populated by people who have sold their soul to the devil for international success. How else to explain the inexplicable rise of people such as Sylvester Stallone, Kate Hudson, and now Colin Farrell? They appear in an obscure movie or two and then suddenly they are getting $5 million per. Like the actor John Cassavetes plays in ROSEMARY'S BABY, they must have acceded to a proposition, which is that they can have worldly success and all the drugs, money, and women (or men) they want, in exchange for their immortal soul. If they cross Satan, however, they end up on the cover of THE STAR accused of propositioning a hooker.
Either that, or we cynics owe VANITY FAIR an apology.
Because Farrell, in his own parlance, is pretty fucking good in S.W.A.T.
Things don't start out promising. The first logo the viewer sees is Original Film, the name of one of S.W.A.T.'s production companies, the same company that did xXx and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS. The viewer is tempted to chuckle, for how "original" can a film be that is based on a two-season mid-'70s TV series (created by Robert Hamner) that rivaled only T. J. HOOKER for a sun-bleached blend of narrative tedium and outrageous dialogue (S.W.A.T leader Hondo on what a cult leader has to offer his followers: "a mind-bending netherworld of group acid trips, witchcraft, psychedelic Satanism, and reverse exorcism")? And is there any "irony" in an opening scene of such glass-shattering frenzy as to put you in mind of Steve Martin under a hail of a sniper's bullets (“He hates these cans!”) in THE JERK?
But soon you get your bearings, and the heritage of the film is shown to be, not that '70s show, but 21st Century cops shows such as THE SHIELD, BOOMTOWN, ROBBERY-HOMICIDE DIVISION, THE WIRE, and even THE SOPRANOS. These are all expertly produced shows (those that have survived), helmed by the best action directors now working, the guys who are going to take over for the De Bonts, McTiernans, and Harlins of yore, guys like movie vets Gary Fleder and Nick Gomez, as well as Scott Brazil, D.J. Caruso, Guy Ferland, Stephen Gyllenhaal, and the guy who did S.W.A.T., Clark Johnson, an actor turned director with a lot of experience under his belt. These programs are characterized by superb action scenes, carefully delineated characters who evolve over a full season, shaky HILL STREET style camera work, and the portrayal of a cityscape in which human life is held at a low cost.
 |
For the most part these principles are held up in S.W.A.T., which means that the movie is, paradoxically, as good as the best of today's television. S.W.A.T. inherits the names of some characters, Hondo, played by Steve Forrest on the show, and Jim Street, played by the late Robert Ulrich, and that's it. S.W.A.T.'s edgy camerawork (there's a trio of great overhead shots of the city) is spiced occasionally with video work, and it creates a patina of realism that the '70s show didn't have. The characters are re-thought for the '00s. And the narrative tells its story through action set pieces, while maintaining a dollop of character development that gives the inaction scenes as much urgency as the set pieces.
The film opens with Jim Street (Farrell) sent into a bank hostage situation, a cross between the North Hollywood gun battle from April 30th, 1997 and the premise of DOG DAY AFTERNOON. As a consequence of what happens in the bank, Street is busted down to the equipment room, the equivalent of a high school football star reassigned to the A-V department. While in purgatory his ephemeral girlfriend dumps him, he cleans the guns of his superiors, and he works out until he pukes.
 |
Redemption comes in the form of Hondo (Samuel L. Jackson). He's been assigned the task of creating a special unit within S.W.A.T. (which stands for either Special Weapons and Tactics or Special Weapons and Tactical — they say "tactical" in the movie). Using Street as a chauffeur, Hondo tours the city's police stations looking for likely candidates, assembling a team in the fine tradition of THE SEVEN SAMURAI and THE DIRTY DOZEN. The finished product consists of Street, Boxer (Brian Van Holt), who is also the brother of Street's ex-girlfriend, Kay (LL Cool J), Chris (Michelle Rodriguez), and McCabe (Josh Charles of SPORTS NIGHT). Most definitely not included is Street's grumpy ex-partner, Gamble (Jeremy Renner, who played Dahmer).
Also like DIRTY DOZEN, once the team is assembled it has to prove to an unrelentingly hostile boss, Capt. Tom Fuller (Larry Poindexter), they can get the job done. "You feel me?," he likes to ask of Hondo contemptuously.
Once they leap that hurdle, the plot proper can begin. This concerns a drug lord named Alex Montel (Olivier Martinez). He has come into Los Angeles to kill his uncle and take over the business. But after accomplishing this anti-filial task, he is picked up for a burnt-out car light, the arresting officers not knowing who he is. Once his identity is exposed, however, he finds it even harder to get out of jail. To circumvent the legal system he uses CNN to announce to the world that he will give $100 million dollars to whoever breaks him out, in something of a reversal of Mel Gibson and Glenn Ford in two versions of RANSOM.
Every O.G. and hood in the city plots Montel's breakout (with material capabilities the troops in Iraq would envy). In a premise borrowed from Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op story "The Big Knockover," the whole city turns into a WWF cage match. Meanwhile, S.W.A.T. has to grab Montel before he can get out of town.
S.W.A.T. is almost all action, all the time. In my view, it's good action. I felt surprised and pleased with it, the way I did the first time I saw SPEED. On the other hand, it is about cops. If you don't like ennobling portrayals of cops as sentimental toilers for an ungrateful nation, then this movie is not for you. Rampart is alluded to only in sanitized passing. Personally, I don't mind cops portrayed as heroes in movies. I just don't really want to have to talk to these power-mad control-freaks in reality (though I do, since I have a couple of cop friends). On behalf of the film, though, I would point out that there are a few rotten apples in the S.W.A.T. barrel.
 |
One of the things I like about S.W.A.T. was how well-written and funny it is. This may be the only film in history in which Mr. Pibb contributes to a punchline. There is a funny bit about a vegetarian S.W.A.T. candidate who insists on being called David instead of Dave. And in contrast to his equipment room partner, a Mormon who treats his body as a temple, Street says, "I treat my body like an amusement park." A miscreant is felled right over Alex Trebek's Hollywood star (the guy lost at Jeopardy), and a guy takes one look at Street's new partner Chris and makes a crack about "Busting down doors with J. Lo."
But the novelty of the film is not just the wisecracks. The narrative confounds expectations as well. A possible romance between Street and Chris is kept to a minimum (perhaps held off for a sequel?). And in a conventional film, when Montel kills his uncle, the gangster's hoods would engage in exciting but rather irrelevant and illogical gunplay designed to please the groundlings. Here the expressions on their faces say, "Hmmm, the boss is dead. I guess we're unemployed. No need to get in any further trouble." Montel seamlessly takes over.
S.W.A.T. also has a great soundtrack, with a score by Elliot Goldenthal and appropriate yet fresh pop tunes ranging from Jimi Hendrix doing "Crosstown Traffic" to a rap song about Samuel L. Jackson.
By the way, you may leave the theater thinking that S.W.A.T. is pretty hard for a PG-13 film. In fact, there is very little cursing in it. At one point Hondo refers to Fuller as a "paper-pushing punk," and Jackson clearly really says "paper pushing fuck." On such subtleties are Rs avoided.
 |
In the end, VANITY FAIR may have got it right. Colin Farrell is really good in this film. But he is good in a way that many might not appreciate, nearly hidden as the performance might be to some by explosions and gunfire. He's just like Jackson in the film. He doesn't distract you by seeming to be acting. He inhabits the role naturally. I especially like how Farrell says his name to Jackson when they are first introduced. It had the ring of authenticity; the way people say their name to each other in the real world. I also liked the way he looked back and laughed at someone who was ribbing him. It was natural and calm, as well as confident and even admirable. Farrell as Street may well be one of the great screen performances.
NEXT TIME:BUFFALO SOLDIERS, PASSIONADA, and/or AMERICAN SPLENDOR
E-MAIL THE AUTHOR |
ARCHIVES
