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| Basic |
| Genre |
Military Drama/ Thriller |
| Starring |
John Travolta |
| Director |
John McTiernan |
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“Basic” starts out as an intriguing military thriller, but is undone by an excess of flashbacks, plot twists and an ending which seems to have no purpose other than to confuse the viewer.
Director John McTiernan, who was responsible for the action-adventure classics, “Predator” and “Die Hard”, has faltered in recent years with the vomit-inducing “Last Action Hero” and “Roller Ball”. On paper, McTiernan, had a fine cast to work with on “Basic”.
John Travolta, who squandered his late 70’s fame during the 80’s, was bailed out 9 years ago by Quentin Tarantino. After films like “Mad City,” “Battlefield Earth”, and “Lucky Numbers”, we can all hope that he turns things around before he’s forced to make “Look Who’s Talking IV” where his co-star is a talking couch voiced by Horatio Sanz.
Travolta plays charismatic DEA agent Tom Hardy, who is asked by his old friend Col. Styles (Tim Daly) to come to an American Army base in Panama. His assignment is to investigate the suspected deaths of several cadets and their hard-nosed leader, Sgt. West (Samuel L. Jackson) during a routine training exercise in the jungle. The two survivors, Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) and Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi), give sharply conflicting explanations for their deaths.
After some sexually charged banter between Hardy and off-the-case interrogator Lt. Julia Osborne ("Gladiator's" Connie Nielsen) the truth begins to unravel along with a barrage of plot twists. (I have to give Nielsen a break because she’s Danish, but this is easily the worst Southern accent since Nicolas Cage in “Con Air”).
McTiernan and screenwriter James Vanderbilt owe a great debt to the Kurosawa classic “Rashomon”. Now I understand that comparing these two films would be like comparing David Lee Roth to Gary Cherone in Van Halen, but both films feature an important series of events depicted in flashback from different perspectives, rather than being shown objectively.
Both of the narrators are unreliable, so we're not sure what is real and what isn't. The problem is that we don't really care. In “The Sixth Sense” or “The Usual Suspects”, after the twist, the whole movie reveals itself in a way that's understandable, dramatic and kind of thrilling. But in “Basic”, the audience is manipulated into thinking the flashbacks are important, but the final reel proves them wrong. Scenes which the audience is led to believe are important are as casually thrown out the window as a piece of rotting animal flesh.
While I was still confused, I searched the web for a long time hoping to find a coherent explanation. Unfortunately, the only conclusion I came to was that the movie inspired no discussion or thought whatsoever, let alone a debate about the ending.
BOTTOM LINE: “Basic” starts out as an entertaining film, with decent performances, but loses it footing by piling on too many twists and complications. C+ |
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| "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it." |
- Jack Nicholson
A Few Good Men
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Distributed Beers
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| 5 |
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot |
| 4 |
Guinness Draught |
| 3 |
Newcastle Brown Ale |
| 2 |
Bass Pale Ale |
| 1 |
Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
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