By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Pierre Morel
Country: france, spain, united_kingdom, united_states
Year: 2015
Running time: 115
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3104930
Kyle says: “The most interesting feature of the indispensable Internet Movie Database has become ‘Plot Keywords’, a virtual ‘CliffsNotes’ of movie plots so spot on that in most cases, you can read the list and skip the movie. Which increasingly I am learning is not a bad idea. There are 194 in the case of THE GUNMAN, the five on the main page being ‘assassination/hit squad/ mercenary/death/redemption’. Finding the urge to check out a few more impossible to resist, I read the next seven, to make it a dozen: ‘shot in the stomach/reference to murphy’s law/ranch/bullfighting/pistol whip/infidelity/broken arm’.
“What is missing from ‘Plot Keywords’ of course is the manner in which movies like this glorify violence and romanticize firearms, all in the dubious guise of entertainment. This one even offers Sean Penn, the man who has won countless acting awards for titles such as MYSTIC RIVER and MILK, pulling the trigger on a very powerful very expensive long-range firearm and splattering the blood of a Congolese politician all over the back seat of his chauffeur-driven van. Eight years later, Penn is set upon by a gang searching for ‘the white man’, his protestations about working for a humanitarian organization ignored, necessitating taking them down with machete, body blows, and machine gun. In this instance, black lives definitely do not matter, any more than Latino or Caucasian lives later on.
“Penn is on the run, next heading for Barcelona, where he is ensconced in a flat whose bathroom grate conceals an NRA wet dream of handguns and ammunition. Locked and loaded, he goes out to learn who is responsible and why he is targeted for removal. A scene of total mayhem on the ranch (remember ‘ranch’ in the ‘Plot Keywords’?) displays all kinds of advanced weaponry, including state-of-the-art hand explosives, and the body count continues to rise. Making his getaway with the woman he left behind (Jasmine Trinca), Penn actually delays valuable escape time to explain the plot to her, confessing not only that he used to be a bad guy, but also — Non-Spoiler Alert — that the real villains are CORPORATE BAD GUYS.
“There is a penultimate shoot-out with lots of guns and mayhem, after which Penn collapses into a pile of garbage, which may or may not be a metaphor. We even get a telephone revelation of Penn’s girlfriend bound and tortured, lest he lack proper motivation for more violence. An agreement is made to meet in a public place to exchange damning videos for girlfriend, which turns out to be a popular local bullfight (remember ‘bullfighting’ in the ‘Plot Keywords’?). As assassins chase Penn in arena corridors and stables, the CBG (Corporate Bad Guy) instructs them to ‘Shoot on sight’. As opposed to ‘Detain for questioning’? If you guess that CBG gets gored and trampled by a bull, you know your bad movies. There is a news item at the end about an investigation into ‘covert methods used by multi-national corporation to exploit natural resources regardless of humanitarian consequences’. Whew! There is one sort of natural resource I am not aware of the rampaging bull leaving on the CBG corpse, but bull shit would definitely serve as a metaphor for THE GUNMAN. Two of the final ‘Plot Keywords’ are ‘box office flop’ and ‘critically bashed’. 2 cats”