Bullet in the Head by John Woo (Review)
John Woo. Mention those two words, and immediately several things come to mind: heroic bloodshed; calm, cool hitmen with a .45 in each hand; extremely emotional displays of honor and loyalty; quasi-existential dialog intercut with scenes of violence that are almost beautiful in their choreography and brutality. In many ways, The Killer and Hard Boiled are two of the greatest action movies ever made, because they transcended the violence of the genre with very intimate looks at the characters, often on opposite sides of the law, engaged in deep philosophical dialog amidst a flurry of bullets. They are the thinking man’s action movies. Watch those and you see where Tarantino got many of his ideas in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
If you couldn’t tell, I’m a fan. So one night, I rent Bullet in the Head, one of the classic Woo films I haven’t seen. In many ways, it consists of the best and worst of Woo’s filmmaking. The film follows the lives of three friends — Paul, Frank, and Ben — during the Vietnam War. All three want to become successful. They leave Hong Kong for Vietnam, hoping to strike it rich in the chaos of the war as smugglers. Everything goes wrong from the start. Soon the friends find themselves in a living hell as they watch their lives and friendship slowly spiral out of control while being subjected the horrors and violence of the war. Eventually, all three end up committing unspeakable acts to themselves and to each other.
The premise makes for a gripping story, and in many ways it is. This film has some of the most moving and powerful scenes of any movie I’ve watched in recent memory. Especially haunting is a scene in a POW camp after the trio have been captured by the VC. After being tortured, Frank is forced to kill other prisoners for the guards’ amusement. Frank is hysterical by what he is forced to do, so Ben steps in to spare his friend the guilt and anguish. Watching it, I couldn’t tear my eyes from it. I challenge anyone not to watch that sequence and not find it wrenching. Scenes like this elevate Woo’s filmmaking above your average “hail of bullets” films.
Unfortunately, some scenes get to be too much, even for Woo. I know this sounds blasphemous, but some of the battles in the POW camp remind me of something that I’d see in a Rambo film. While okay for a mindless action flick, they only serve to undercut the emotional aspects of the film. Ridiculous and inane scenes follow emotionally devastating scenes, the former completely lessening the impact of the latter.
Even though this movie doesn’t star Chow Yun-Fat (Woo’s most famous counterpart), the acting is pretty top-notch, especially Tony Leung’s. As Ben, he serves as the emotional and moral anchor of the trio, a position that gets sorely tested. Leung’s portrayal is right on, and his scenes are some of the most riveting. Of course, the acting does get overly melodramatic, but most of the time, it is quite earnest and perfect for the subject matter.
If you can get past some of the more outlandish gunfights and extended battles, and the somewhat cheesy opening sequence (which the shows the trio getting each other in and out of trouble), you’re left with a very powerful movie that shows, in often brutal detail, the effects of war on the friendship of three young men. When the movie is focused, it’s heart-wrenching and haunting. Just be ready to shake your head and ask yourself “What were you thinking John?” when you’re watching certain scenes.
