Ronin (1998) being one of the late John Frankinheimer's final films before his passing is a much improved formulaic film to the disastrous turnout of the Marlon Brando led Island of Dr Moreau. The story contains a "McGuffin" being a plot device that the characters want very much, but the audience cares little or nothing about. The device of Ronin is a boxy Metal Case, with contents unknown. At the same time the film's title draws its name to the similarities of the leads....The Ronin were ancient Japanese Samurii warriors without Masters to serve. Mercenaries. Our film contains a group of former spooks of multiple nationalities turned freelance mercenaries without a master aka a Country to serve. Sam, Vincent, Gregor, and Deidre plus a handful of others whose names are unimportant. For this movie, our hodgepodge of Ronin are hired by parties unknown (accept that they have Irish and/or Russian connections), for reasons unknown to capture a case whose contents remain unknown in possession by French gangster whose reasons for possessing the case remain unknown. The Ronin do their homework and manage to snatch the case after hair-raising car chases and violent gun battles. But then the double cross begins and a new chase (both literally and figuratively) ensues for the now split Ronin the recapture the case and send it on its way to its unknown Desiree.
For all its splendor and suspense, Ronin, still lacks a clear direction to follow. Clearly, Frankenheimer's direction was utilizing a Hitchcock McGuffin (the case) to explore the characters. However, the script lacks a real clear direction for any of the characters, perhaps thats why the title was named Ronin. Despite all their combined acting talents and prestige Robert De Niro and company all come across as dry characters. All are basically amoral and suspicious of their fellows. The audience really has no like or dislike of what constitutes the good guys from the bad ones. None really show passion towards the Case beyond its perceived monetary rewards, which is what they are trying to obtain. Unfortunately, the McGuffin fails in this film because, the audience really cares more about the case than the characters. As if the Case itself had a personality and history. Clearly the Case's contents are of high value given all the trouble and time that the higher-ups are paying to get it. However what the movie lacks inward looking makes up for in high stakes stunts, car chases and gunfights, that makes the viewer more interested in the momentary safety of both the supposed good and bad guys. Well done on that part.
In an otherwise typical Hollywood way of illustrating things for the audience to understand better, occurs about 2/3 of the way in the movie after Sam performs surgery on himself, at the old man's house in the Mountains. This man had a hobby of designing and building diorama-like miniature sets of legendary battle scenes, complete with handcrafted characters in proper attire. On this particular day he was designing scenes of Japanese Feaudal Samuri, and he began a little monologue about how certain warriors who lost their masters were known as Ronin. In a sense he compared these ancient feudal warriors to the freelance spooks of the movie. This is how the filmmaker's tied the film's title to the film, which would otherwise be called something like "Hire, then Betray, then Die"
Possible spoilers below. On a footnote, at the movies conclusion during the little coffee shop scene between Sam and Vincent, a reporter mentions in a sound only byte that some new twist had occurred concerning peace negotiations in Northern Ireland...suggesting that the case's contents contained some sort of instrument of negotiation that the parties involved need to help in the peace negotiations...what that could be I couldn't tell you.
Provided you can look past the desire to learn about whats in that ubiquitous case, Ronin is a film that any action fan will rave about, but mystery fans might find a little lacking. My opinion...I enjoyed it but still left wanting to know more about the case and why all the destruction and death to get it, when the characters themselves had no desire to keep it permanently.
For all its splendor and suspense, Ronin, still lacks a clear direction to follow. Clearly, Frankenheimer's direction was utilizing a Hitchcock McGuffin (the case) to explore the characters. However, the script lacks a real clear direction for any of the characters, perhaps thats why the title was named Ronin. Despite all their combined acting talents and prestige Robert De Niro and company all come across as dry characters. All are basically amoral and suspicious of their fellows. The audience really has no like or dislike of what constitutes the good guys from the bad ones. None really show passion towards the Case beyond its perceived monetary rewards, which is what they are trying to obtain. Unfortunately, the McGuffin fails in this film because, the audience really cares more about the case than the characters. As if the Case itself had a personality and history. Clearly the Case's contents are of high value given all the trouble and time that the higher-ups are paying to get it. However what the movie lacks inward looking makes up for in high stakes stunts, car chases and gunfights, that makes the viewer more interested in the momentary safety of both the supposed good and bad guys. Well done on that part.
In an otherwise typical Hollywood way of illustrating things for the audience to understand better, occurs about 2/3 of the way in the movie after Sam performs surgery on himself, at the old man's house in the Mountains. This man had a hobby of designing and building diorama-like miniature sets of legendary battle scenes, complete with handcrafted characters in proper attire. On this particular day he was designing scenes of Japanese Feaudal Samuri, and he began a little monologue about how certain warriors who lost their masters were known as Ronin. In a sense he compared these ancient feudal warriors to the freelance spooks of the movie. This is how the filmmaker's tied the film's title to the film, which would otherwise be called something like "Hire, then Betray, then Die"
Possible spoilers below. On a footnote, at the movies conclusion during the little coffee shop scene between Sam and Vincent, a reporter mentions in a sound only byte that some new twist had occurred concerning peace negotiations in Northern Ireland...suggesting that the case's contents contained some sort of instrument of negotiation that the parties involved need to help in the peace negotiations...what that could be I couldn't tell you.
Provided you can look past the desire to learn about whats in that ubiquitous case, Ronin is a film that any action fan will rave about, but mystery fans might find a little lacking. My opinion...I enjoyed it but still left wanting to know more about the case and why all the destruction and death to get it, when the characters themselves had no desire to keep it permanently.