Basic
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Movie Reviews of Basic
Movie Review: It keeps you guessing
Summary: 4 Stars
I need to provide some backstory on my viewing experience of John McTiernan's 2003 military thriller "Basic". Is there such a thing as a "military thriller"? Ah, never mind. Anyway, I rented a copy of "Basic" and let it sit on the DVD player for a few days before I got around to watching it. Big mistake. Between the time when I picked up the disc and when I popped it in the player, I came down with a serious cold. I'm talking a SERIOUS cold. The type of cold that makes you wish they sold Kleenex by the metric ton. The sort of cold where you breathe through your mouth because your nasal passages feel like someone packed them full of cement with a cannon ramrod. I did the only sane thing a person could do: I loaded up with cold medication. Cough syrup, aspirin, anti-histamines, cough drops, nasal spray--you name it, I was taking it by the handfuls. The resulting effect of my medicinal intake, I must say, can only be described as kaleidoscopic. I felt like my head had turned into a balloon filled with laughing gas. It was in this state of mind that I viewed "Basic".
That was a big mistake, as we'll see shortly. "Basic" begins by showing us a routine military training mission in the jungles of Panama. Amidst a raging hurricane, Sergeant Nathan West (Samuel L. Jackson) runs his team of Army Rangers ragged. He's a tough guy, as tough as a steel pipe, and all of the members of his squad despise him. Then a tragedy unfolds out in the jungle, a tragedy that claims the life of West and several other members of the squad. Only two survive, in fact. In order to figure out what happened, the Army brings in crack investigator Tom Hardy (John Travolta) to solve the mystery. Tom's an ex-Ranger and a DEA agent currently under investigation for unethical behavior. The base's commander and Hardy's pal Styles (Tim Daly) teams Tom up with a southern belle, Lieutenant Osborne (Connie Nielsen), and the two start interrogating the first survivor, Dunbar (Brian Van Holt). Tom's a whiz at questioning suspects, and he gets Dunbar's story--which we see unfold in flashback--in quick order. It's a weird tale about murder and mayhem out in the jungle. Of course, several details don't really match up with the facts, so Hardy and Osborne must move on to the next survivor.
Kendall (Giovanni Ribisi) lies in a hospital bed recovering from his injuries when our two heroes show up to start the questioning. His story, which we also see in flashback, differs from Dunbar's tale of woe in significant ways. As Hardy and Osborne begin to examine the threads winding their way through the two stories, they uncover more than they bargained for. They keep going back and forth between the two, Dunbar and Kendall, trying to pry more information out of them after confronting each one with their inconsistencies. Most alarmingly, Kendall suddenly dies in his hospital bed after bleeding out of every orifice in his head. Is this an attempt by someone or several someones to get him to shut up? Yes, yes it is. It can't be Dunbar because he's still locked up in another room on the base. Could it have something to do with one of the base physicians, Dr. Vilmer (Harry Connick, Jr.)? Maybe Colonel Styles knows more than he's letting on. He's Hardy's friend, but that doesn't mean he shares everything with him. Heck, what about Osborne? She seems like a straight arrow, but she couldn't get Dunbar to talk (which necessitated the arrival of Hardy). Maybe that was all an act to hide something.
I'm not going forward with more plot points because I don't want to spoil the film for you. Not that I could, mind you, since "Basic" ranks highly on my "Most Confusing and Convoluted Films Ever to Emerge from Hollywood" list. McTiernan and writer James Vanderbilt offer the viewer so many flashback scenarios, red herrings, and numerous plot twists that my head started hurting. Even more confusing was the tendency to tell further stories in the middle of flashbacks. Ouch! I just bailed on the story, blew my nose a couple of times, and tried to focus on things that made sense, like the performances. They're good. Travolta plays smart aleck pretty well, and Sam Jackson knows how to play an overbearing jerk. Connie Nielsen does an acceptable job, but that southern accent has to go, like, yesterday! It's nice to see Tim Daly in a major motion picture, and Giovanni Ribisi goes over the top as Kendall. The movie's atmosphere works well for such a murky murder mystery/conspiracy story, but the wind and crashing rain tend to drown out the dialogue. I was always fiddling with the volume control trying to understand what the characters were saying. I fiddled in vain.
I highly recommend you don't watch "Basic" while under the influence of cold medicine. A confusing film like this one becomes nearly unwatchable on Nyquil and anti-histamines. Having said that, I actually like it enough to give it four stars. I enjoy watching Italian murder mysteries called giallo, which often achieve heights of confusion more labyrinthine in execution than what "Basic" offered, so it's all to the good. The DVD version of the film offers us several extras, none of them very interesting. We get a boring commentary track with director McTiernan, an extended interview with writer Vanderbilt, and a lengthy lovefest with the actors. You've seen this last supplement a million times. It consists of interviews with the cast where everyone heaps praise on the film and on their fellow actors. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Whatever. If you're feeling adventurous, give "Basic" a shot. I hope you like it.
Movie Review: A military murder mystery that does not stand up to scrutiny
Summary: 4 Stars
I almost always watch a film twice, even if I have to wait for it to come out on video or DVD for the second viewing. I can distinctly remembering being aware that I enjoyed watching "It's a Wonderful Life" more the second time around with all the ways that Frank Capra set up the nightmare sequence at the end. Since then I have enjoyed watching films a second time to appreciate how stories and surprises are set up. After watching "Basic" I was really looking forward to a second viewing to appreciate how this one set off the dramatic payoffs at the end. Having listened to John McTiernan and James Vanderbilt talking about the directing and writing of "Basic" I wanted to really pay attention to how they set me up, because I never saw the end of this one coming. But once I finished watching the film a second time I realized something rather depressing: I never had a chance. On the one hand I like the fact I did not see the ending of this one coming; but while there are hints that point to the resolution there is only the empty feeling of being tricked, not the joy of having been played. "Basic" is a military murder mystery involving a number of deaths in a Rangers training exercise in the rain soaked jungles of Panama. Samuel L. Jackson plays the drill sergeant from hell and John Travolta is the former army officer called in to investigate by an old buddy. The film has been compared to both "Memento" and "Rashomon," and both comparisons are faulty. "Memento" was brilliantly constructed and the audience understood exactly how it was being played. In "Basic" you are fooled, not because you have been tricked, but rather because you have been lied to. "Rashomon" had different characters telling their own decidedly different version of the same event, which is certainly a key part of "Basic," and in both films you do get the truth at the end. But when you watch "Rashomon" a second time you understand why each character tells the story that they tell; the "lies" or "self-deceptions" make sense in that they present the teller in the best light. But in "Basic" the lies are intended primarily to confuse the audience. Which they do. All we can assume is that each telling of the tale is closer to the truth, but even that knowledge does us no practical good.
This is disappointing because we are talking a movie directed by McTiernan and starring Travolta and Jackson and we would expect something better. However, after listening to the various interviews on the DVD I can see what happened. McTiernan and Travolta were impressed with Vanderbilt's script, but the director objected to the fate of Jackson's character and Travolta was not happy with what happened to his own character. Consequently, the second half of the script was rewritten to make everybody happy. However, when you are talking about a carefully constructed murder mystery, these sorts of revisions clearly turned what might have been a delicate mechanism into a cinematic bulldozer.
Maybe you will not be offended by the way it all works out. "Basic" is certainly compelling, not only in the way Travolta's character of Tom Hardy interrogates various witnesses to what happened out in the jungles of Panama, but also the way he banters with Captain Osborne (Connie Nielsen), the young officer who has the misfortune of being the closest thing the base has to an investigative officer. The cast is excellent, with Giovanni Ribisi, Taye Diggs, Brian Van Holt, Tim Daly, and Harry Connick, Jr. running around tangling with Travolta and Jackson. To be fair, I did not really understand how badly I had been had until I watched the film a second time, but "Basic" should have been the real thing and it is not.
Movie Review: Basic - Twists and turns!
Summary: 4 Stars
Taken as a whole, this movie is a pretty good one, with plenty of plot twists and turns that aren't too transparent or predictable; for the better part it will keep you guessing as to who the real killer or killers are. While I must admit that I've never really been a big John Travolta fan, I would have to say that his performance in the movie was better than his norm. Samuel L. Jackson's performance is, albeit brief, poignant and in good keeping with his usual high standard of performance. Connie Nielsen does a wonderful job of playing a Provost Marshall. With actors of such high caliber and a high profile director like John McTiernan, whose work includes "Die Hard", "Predator", "The Hunt for Red October" and other such high profile films; this movie does move along at a high pace and it is a well told story.Conceptually this movie is highly plausible, the plot is well written, the actor's performances are well done and the soundtrack is well suited to the movie. I do have one major problem with this film though. Without searching the credits, I'm going to have to make one of two assumptions about whether or not the filmmakers hired a technical consultant with knowledge about the United States Army or not. I'm guessing here that they didn't hire one because if they did, they wouldn't have had a scene where Samuel L. Jackson is wearing BDU's (Battle Dress Uniform), yelling and screaming at his soldiers, with them calling him Sergeant and then you look at his collar and he's wearing the rank of a Specialist, which is a junior enlisted member, "below" the rank of Sergeant. Later of course, he's wearing the stripes of a Master Sergeant which would be in accordance with how he was being addressed. Then there is the issue of a Ranger squad having a female as a member. While the films producers addressed this, quite briefly, in one of the special features, where they basically said that they knew she didn't belong, but they threw her in the bargain anyway. These two issues and the "soldiers" referring to their ruck sacks as packs, instead of "ruck," blew a lot of this films credibility with me, a soldier with several years in the Army.
The premise:
Samuel L. Jackson plays a Ranger Master Sergeant, in Panama, prior to our pulling out that country, and he's in charge of training what looks like a platoon of Rangers in jungle warfare. As the movies main title rolls, we see Jackson and a squad of his, in a Huey (an aircraft long since relegated to the National Guard), flying over the canal, preparing to drop in and run an exercise, all the while, a hurricane is raging around them. The scene cuts to another helicopter searching for the Ranger squad which is well over due for their check in and then they spot one Ranger carrying another and being shot at by another of the Rangers. Here is where the murder/mystery kicks in and the Colonel, played by Tim Daly, calls in John Travolta to interrogate the witnesses to determine what happened out there in the field.
What follows from this point is an intriguing movie that gets rather fascinating as the plot carries forward and you're trying to figure out "whodunit." Outside of the "annoyances" of improper Army uniforms, terminology and tactics, this movie is good film to watch. {ssintrepid}
Special Features:
- Director's Commentary
- Filmographies
- Theatrical Trailers
- Featurettes:
* Basic: A Director's Design
* Basic Ingredients: A Writer's Perspective
Movie Review: Buy this movie
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie was really good. Some people just don't appreciate these types of movies. After reading some of the other reviews, I can understand how some people did not like this movie. Some of the twists and events are fairly farfetched, but all movies are like that. If you go into a movie pessimistic than your bound to dislike it. I did like this movie very much, and I thought it had a lot of qualities that made it a very compelling story. The character played by John Travolta is a quick-witted DEA agent who doesn't follow the rules and is hard on the bottle. His counterpart, the character played by Connie Nielsen, is the exact opposite; a very by-the-book kind of person who never deviates from her objective. Together, they have the task of finding out what happened to a group of army rangers during a training exercise in the jungles of Panama, where only one of them returned. This movie reminded me of Courage Under Fire, another war drama that involves the lengthy investigation of the deaths of soldiers during an unknown event. If you liked Courage Under Fire then you will love Basic because Basic has more action and great actors like John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. This movie has so many twists that you have to pay attention to every second of the movie, but that's easy because the movie is so intensely entertaining. You may not get the story the first time watching the movie but the second time you will and you'll be glad you did. Another winning quality of this movie that had me going was the grade-A cast. The entire cast was spot on in the movie and every word and action was totally convincing and compelling. I didn't even recognize one of the actors in the movie until the very end, when she was in civilian clothes. That's how well they were played. Every movie that Samuel L. Jackson is usually good because he is such a unique character and I thought he was excellent in the movie. If you like Samuel L. than you'll like this movie because he acts the stereotype of the sadistic drill sergeant to the bone. Overall I thought Basic was a superb movie with its ridiculous twists and witty remarks. You cannot go wrong renting this movie, and after watching it you will be that much cooler.Movie Review: Entertaining Whirlwind Ride!
Summary: 4 Stars
The hell of this entertaining movie is that one likes it despite the fact that it is centered around such a preposterous plot that one finds the denouement at the end so unbelievable as to wonder if one had confused a "caper" movie" like "The Heist" for a gritty melodrama in which soldiers and others are butchered, murdered, shot point blank, etc. as are some of the protagonists in this strange tribute to Travolta's sheer star power and screen magnetism. Yet it does work, much along the lines of other preposterous action plots Travolta has been involved with, such as "Broken Arrow" or even "Phenomenon". And as with both of these other previous outings, the intrepid John-Boy surrounds himself with an excellent supporting cast, which helps to frame the action and spin the yarn along toward its unlikely and unexpected conclusion. Thus, Samuel L. Jackson plays the central figure in the unfolding drama, an unforgiving, unapproachable, and somewhat sadistic Drill instructor who takes the trainees out on a dangerous exercise in which all but two wind up dead. The two left are somehow involved in all that has transpired out in the jungle, and Travolta is called in to help sort it out for an old friend (Timothy Daly), who is now the Base Commander. With the aid of the scrumptious Connie Neilson, the chase for the truth is on. Yet while the viewer is taken on a whirlwind cascade of facts so contrived, confusing, and calculated that one wonders if there is a manufactured maelstrom machine operating here. It is, as they say, an enigma wrapped in a mystery and confounded by a riddle. When one discovers just what is really going on, one realizes he or she has been suckered by the screenplay and the actors, and that according to the director's depiction, nothing is really what it seems to be. It is a neat way to spend a diverting hour or so watching Travolta do his star thing, but nothing anyone could possibly mistake for reality-based drama. Pass the popcorn, and enjoy!