Tony Scott month: Man On Fire

A review by Azzam Abdur-Rahman In my humble opinion this is the best revenge film ever made. Man on Fire is everything you want from a B-grade revenge movie but it’s cranked up so hard you are waiting for the whole thing to collapse. It is a film that revels in the odd beauty in Mexico City as much as it loves the strange darkness of the city. Tony Scott by this point had proven has abilities as a director but this is where he really shows his ability to press meaning into action something later directors of big budget star driven action films lose. Man on Fire is the story of John Creasy, a former military man suffering from depression looking to die, and his time working as a bodyguard for the daughter of a prominent mexican businessman during a time where kidnapping of children are at an all time high. This film is an adaption of a novel but it changes so much while novel and film take place in Europe, Scott pushes the film to where a rise in crime is currently happening at the time of writing the film. This is a commonality of his filmmaking that he always tries to add reality to the unrealistic. Scott could have easily gone the easy route and stuck with the Italian location but instead he went with something that could have stoked more xenophobia. Instead Tony finds a way to add humanity to the people of Mexico. He shows the criminals are a part of a network made up of desperate people acting that way out of survival. It presents Creasy less as a vengeance filled force of nature but as a man walking through a broken world hoping only to keep his reason for living alive. That reason for living is Dakota Fanning in one of her incredible young performances. Fanning at the time is batting a thousand when it comes to roles. She has depth that she brings to each role which for a child is unheard of at the time. She finds a way to make us fall in love with her and ensuing film we feel Creasy response. We understand his pain. We understand why he is so willing to go to war with anyone in his way because Dakota saved us from the pain Denzel was feeling. Pita is a hopeful character in a dark world. That being said, the violence in this film is brutal. Scott provides the kind of wildly violent while being vibrant action we come to expect from him but every moment feels oddly justified while feeling ugly. It is rare that you agree wholeheartedly with Creasy’s actions you understand them as you want to do anything possible to save Pita. This is a movie that for a generation was one of the best action films they saw in theaters. This was the first time I saw a film that was brazenly ready to take on world visually and emotionally. The camera work in this film uses multiple film stocks and steadiness techniques creating a disorienting at times drunk feeling at other times feeling sobering. Major market cinema being released on a thousand plus screens is nowhere near as a visual interesting and arresting as this film. It stands out so much. Man on Fire is a masterpiece. I am sure Brooks may have a different take or we may agree but to me this is what Tony Scott’s career is. Scott is bombast and heart. He finds a way to make everyone human while making every moment riventing. He cares about his characters and gives his actors all the space in the world to make a drama while leading them right back to great set-pieces. I will write about more of his films but writing about this one really reminded me how sad it is that he is no longer making films.