 | The Hunted Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio del Toro, Connie Nielsen |
Aaron Hallam (del Toro) is a trained killer with, presumably, a Special Forces unit in the American military. Thanks to his training by L.T. Bonham (Jones) many years ago, Aaron Hallam has reached the legendary status of super soldier. He can blend into any background, crawl and slither in foul pipes, butcher an evil enemy commander, and return to his unit unscathed. Simply put, Aaron is a Rambo for the 21st Century. When Aaron's robot mind falters and the poor guy goes nuts, only L.T. Bonham can stop this mad butcher. The hunt for Aaron takes us into the forests of the Pacific Northwest and into the environs of downtown Portland with a growing body count of slaughtered innocents. When 'ol L.T. reluctantly leaves his quiet, reclusive life in a snowbound hut to put a stop to crazy Aaron's butchery, the thrill ride begins as these two evenly matched men go at one another with a savage passion. Finally, when the two men meet, mano a mano, the mutual slaughter begins. With both men carved, "filleted" and bloody, Aaron falls dead and L.T. limps back to his snowy retreat near what seems like the North Pole. Fade to black. In spite of the many flaws in this film (and there are many) I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it more for what it could have been rather than what it is. A badly chopped film that makes little sense of its narrative, it wastes the talents of two talented actors, particularly Benicio del Toro. At some time during the film we learn that Aaron has written many letters to L.T. of his growing madness. For some reason, L.T. ignores them. No explanation given. We are never quite sure what sent Aaron over the edge. A newspaper article flashes on the screen about a messed up operation and Aaron's responsibility for many deaths, but it's all too vague. On the few occasions that Benicio del Toro gets to talk, the dialogue is brief and nothing is revealed about his character. We never really understand anything about either L.T. or Aaron. Loose ends are left hanging all over the film. One cannot blame Friedkin or the writers for this hacked up mess. It is obvious that some slick executive in his even slicker office upstairs decided to make this an action flick pure and simple. Orders must have been given to cut anything that might slightly resemble character development or a sensible narrative. Get to the action and stay on it. This, "The Hunted" does quite well. The knife fights are about as real as it gets (minus phony wirework). With the gripping intensity of the hand to hand fighting, one can understand why Benicio del Toro accidentally sprained his wrist and delayed production for two months. The chase scenes through Portland are a terrific use of location shooting. The fast pace of the film keeps one on the edge of the seat until the final blood splattered slaughter on a raging river. It's a fun yet brutal ride but the characters leave one about as cold as L.T.'s frozen hut. "The Hunted" will do little for the careers of Tommy Lee Jones or Benicio del Toro. Perhaps one day, in the future, we will see the director's cut on DVD when the slick executive, who destroyed the film, is out of the biz and selling used cars. A nice thought, no? |