After watching the trailer of "British Showdown", the first thing I felt was Jackie Chan's version of "Hurricane Rescue"! The themes of terrorist attacks in the film are reminiscent of a series of commercial action movies such as "The Fall of Olympus", "London has Fallen", and "Shocking Crisis". After watching the film, I realized: In fact, "British Showdown" is not the kind of gun porn that is headless and thoughtless, seemingly hot and gorgeous-after all, the director is Martin Campbell and it is not "selling copies"!
To describe this film, the first thing that came to my mind was the names of a group of spy war/political thrillers in the 1960s and 1970s, such as "72 Hours of the Condor", "The Archives of Ipcres", "Spy Berlin" "Shadow", "Eavesdropping Conspiracy", especially the similar theme "Days of the Jackal", etc.; and in addition to the taste of the spy war movies of the 1970s, this film also incorporates the action/thriller films of the 1990s such as "The Spy of the Navy" ", "Patriot Game", "Ebrow Pursuit", "Highest Crisis" and other styles. Everyone knows that director Martin Campbell is a big name in action movies. He has produced "Vertical Limit", "007 and the Golden Eye", "Zorro's Mask", "Legend of Zorro", "007 vs. Casino Royale", "Green Lantern" And other classic action movies. "British Showdown" is actually more like the director's previous two relatively low-key thriller/crime movies "Blade's Edge" and "Edge of Darkness"!
The so-called taste of the spy war movie in the 1970s includes the gloomy and low atmosphere, calm and simple tones, fuzzy and tangled characters, realistic and natural shots, complex gray political background, etc., which are all reflected in this film. "British Showdown" was shot very calmly, without the gorgeous and exaggerated shots of "Fast and Furious", but the action and explosion scenes are also very exciting, while inheriting the clean, solid and powerful action/thriller movies of the 1990s style of. For example, Jackie Chan and the villain nephew have a forest encounter. The two sides use terrain and objects around them to fight each other. In this action scene, Jackie Chan’s existing "juggling" kung fu is combined with the simple and fierce "spy shadow" style. Quite unique.
From a narrative point of view, "British Showdown" did not adopt the narrative mode of today's commercial action blockbuster: "Transformers" and other series of films are basically story lines that pave the way for the environment, face crises, combine forces, and confront the crisis to solve the crisis. , Can be called a small alley to drive pigs-go straight. The opening scene of "British Showdown" was a bomb explosion. If it were filmed with general commercial action, it should be Jackie Chan tracking down clues to avenge his daughter. The villain terrorists are preparing for a bigger attack. Jackie Chan cooperates with the British police (but the key is When the biggest crisis came, the police misjudged that only Jackie Chan could see through the terrorist tricks. In the end, Jackie Chan and the villain had a death fight, and finally wiped out the enemy and saved England... This way, lively but lively, but can't help but wonder, there is no aftertaste, and you will feel tired and panic after watching too much.
"British Showdown" uses Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan's two protagonists to create a more complicated storyline. It can be seen that the director does not want to make the film into the British version of "Die Hard": When Jackie Chan was ready to trace the clues, he found Pierce Brosnan played Hannes, the British Deputy Minister in Northern Ireland. This Hannes is a shadow figure who wanders between various forces. He was a member of the Northern Irish Republican Army, a terrorist organization, and later came ashore, nominally working for the British government, but behind his back he was still disconnected from the Northern Ireland organization. This character who advocated violent revolution and made bombs himself is now a politician, using various forces to seek political benefits for himself. As a result, the two-line narrative of "British Showdown" makes the whole story open and complicated. On the one hand, Jackie Chan, who lost his daughter in a terrorist attack, seeks revenge on his blood relatives and seeks terrorists; on the other hand, it is the British counter-terrorism department and the middleman. Nice and a group of veterans of the IRA (Northern Irish Republican Army) intrigue and play games with each other to find out where this newly emerging terrorist organization comes from and who is in charge.
Generally, action movies involving terrorist attacks are very clear, and it is nothing more than a confrontation between the protagonist of justice (country/civilian) and evil terrorists-for example, Sheriff McLean in Die Hard 3 and everywhere Simon, the terrorist bomber. But Hannes, the key figure in "British Showdown", is difficult for people to judge whether he is good or bad. He has been condemning the new terrorists and asking the old IRA members to track down these people, but behind his back, he uses this as a bargaining chip to deal with the British government in an attempt to release the IRA members who have been detained for many years. Jackie Chan found Hannes to be a bit inexplicable at first, and soon we discovered that there were indeed many doubts behind it. In "British Showdown", terrorists are not the most terrifying, but even more terrifying are those politicians who secretly manipulate terrorists by various means, and whose hands seem clean and bloodless. Jackie Chan used all kinds of extreme methods to find the bombers, and at the last minute, he took the lead in the British special forces. But we really don’t know if this is the end of the revenge, or if he is just being used as a tool of murder... …
The "Chinaman" (the name of the original novel) played by Jackie Chan is very unique and innovative in Hollywood commercials. In the past, the image of the Chinese in such films was nothing more than kindness and cowardice, without any sense of existence and personality. The protagonist "Guan" in this film is old and slow in appearance, and not good at words. In fact, he is a revenge angel and a lone killer composed of bomb experts and predators! He acted decisively and persistently and fiercely. Although every step left room for the other party, he kept pressing and escalating step by step, which made Hannis annoyed and feared more and more. Jackie Chan's performance got rid of his usual funny and relaxed style. Although his skills are still great, it is not his movements or language that is most dramatic, but the delicate and rich "Chinese guy" face-a makeup Extraordinarily old, full of misery, despair, regret, and numbness caused by the departure of the three daughters and his wife in his life. This image is really a breakthrough in Jackie Chan's performance in recent years, and it will be difficult to surpass even in his future action movies!
At the end of the film, Jackie Chan silently returned to the restaurant he had handed over. The woman (Liu Tao) who had been unrequitedly in love with him came over to hug him. Revenge can no longer cause a smile on his old and desperate face. What this "China guy" gets is endless pain and nostalgia. Has the revenge succeeded? Is justice done? By the end of the film, I'm afraid we can hardly tell.
Unfortunately, I think Martin Campbell still lacks some logical connection on Jackie Chan's track of Pierce Brosnan (why "off" should bite Hannis?), if the design is more reasonable, the whole movie will be very smooth. Appropriately, it may even become a classic! (It also reminds me of Polanski's "Shadow Writer"!) In addition, the background of the story is quite a barrier for Chinese audiences. If you want to really understand it, it is best to have a little understanding of the history of the British and Northern Irish Republican Army and Sinn Fein in order to understand the profound meaning behind the film and its unique charm.
Despite the thrilling explosions, fights, and gun battles, "British Showdown" is by no means an ordinary commercial action blockbuster. Martin Campbell tries to tell a story that is more complicated and deeper than the revenge story, and even integrates history and politics into it. Story: There is betrayal, fraud, conspiracy, sacrifice... It makes us realize how complicated and intricate are behind the terrorist attack. But no matter what the various political forces advocate, it is the ordinary people who ultimately bear the pain, those living bodies that have nothing to do with politics—whether they are natives or outsiders.
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