Broken Arrow

A few years before “The Matrix” hit cinemas and changed everything about the movies, a unique blend of Hollywood and Hong Kong style action was making itself known. And it wasn’t the Wachowski Brothers (directors of The Matrix) as the innovators, rather a guy from China who had been directing action films for years.

Broken Arrow was the film that introduced John Woo to American audiences, after he had been leaving his mark on the action films of Asia since the late 1960’s. He was probably hand chosen to direct a film that on paper would have read as your usual action fare. But what brought it up to a much higher level than it could have achieved on its own, was the casting of John Travolta. With his career resurgence from “Pulp Fiction” shooting him back into the celebrity stratosphere, Travolta was hot shit in the mid nineties, and would enjoy a strong but brief career post Fiction, until he made his Scientology tribute film “Battlefield Earth”… His career never recovered. Oh well, back to the review.

I was just that bit too young to see Broken Arrow at the movies, but caught it on Foxtel as soon as it premiered. I liked the premise; two stealth pilots crash on a test flight, loosing the nuclear weapons they’re carrying, then one of them becomes the bad guy, battling the other across the Utah desert for control of the weapons. Travolta plays pilot Deakins; smooth, confident and clever. Along for the ride is his younger co-pilot Hale (Christian Slater) who is way in over his head once the weapons go missing. But he’s joined by a resourceful park ranger, and the two of them set out to stop World War III from happening. Like any action film, the plot is short on substance, but this movie is all about the action. 

Up until this point in the nineties, action movies belonged to Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme and Seagal. Muscular Men or Martial Arts Maestros who were bred to make action films. Their acting range had its limits but they knew how to put on a fight. You could say Broken Arrow was part of the movement of action films staring the everyday guy. Slater was not known for action films, having starred in a long list of teen films and romantic dramas in the eighties and early nineties. He had the looks, but could he swing a punch? Then Travolta, the disco dancer of Saturday Night Fever and the low-life criminal in Pulp Fiction. Not a guy you would expect to run around shooting guns and setting off bombs. But these were action heroes reinvented, pre-empting the onslaught of actions films with an Eastern flavour throughout, that thrilled and dazzled audiences with gun fights and car chases that were stylish and somehow, realistic. 

The following year, John Woo and John  Travolta teamed up again for “Face/Off”, arguably one of the best action films ever made, and took action movies to a new place; the heart. The days of brawn over brain were starting to fade, as the tough guys of yesteryear were being pushed aside by actors who headlined movies like “Grease” and “Heathers” The movies were changing and they changed for the better. Of course, when The Matrix came out of nowhere in 1999, reinventing action, science fiction, philosophy and making black trench coats cool again, the action heroes we knew before (Arnie, Sly, The Muscles from Brussels) had to adapt or get out.

I still watch Broken Arrow from time to time these days, and although it’s no classic, it’s cool, daring and different. This film also suffers from a rare case of the musical score being better than the movie. Once you’ve heard the music from Broken Arrow once, you’ll never forget it. Dramatic, mysterious and cool as shit, it took this sometimes average films to Awesome heights, anytime that tune kicked in. You know the one I mean? In case you don’t, have a listen below. Go on, listen I’ll wait… 

            

Aside from it’s spectacular score, the locations used in the film were beautiful, the plot was twisting, and the characters were believable. Just your everyday guys thrown into a situation with no warning, in which a game of cat and mouse played out in our own backyard. Hey, if Christian Slater, the young stoner from all those chick flicks my older sisters used to watch could jump out of a helicopter onto a moving train, then leap out while disarming a nuclear warhead and land gracefully on the ground as the train blew up, and get the girl in the end, then maybe I could. Of course, I haven’t found myself in that situation yet, but I reckon I would be resourceful enough to handle it :-)






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