Ronin [DVD] [1998]

A great deal of the action takes place at high speed on either very narrow urban roads, or wildly twisting mountain stretches that lack the same manner of safety barriers we are accustomed to in The USA, that make the chase scenes all the more amazing. The director and other key players who made the film have racing backgrounds which allowed them to bring a type of realism that goes beyond the typical Hollywood chase.

Jean Reno, Natascha Mcelhone, Stellan Skarsgard, Sean Bean, and Jonathan Pryce all make for a wonderful ensemble cast. The chase is for a case, and the cast that is assembled are allegedly a team in the hunt for a box that no one knows the contents of. The traditional players like the Russians are involved, the CIA, and then the new Russians along with the Irish, and members of agencies that either are active or are not, you never know until the film ends. And even when it does, the DVD offers an alternate ending that changes in a very dramatic manner how the film you just watched concluded.

"Ronin", is a very good film, a definite cut above the average, and well worth the one minute and two hours of your time it will occupy.

Ronin is the story of 5 freelance killers, who are mysteriously employed to obtain a briefcase before it is sold to "The Russians"

fast paced, and well executed from the start, this film did a lot for me and would be the perfect accompanyment to any night when there is bugger-all on the telly.

DeNiro delivers a typically slick performance to go along with another from Jean Reno, which confirms what already knew - he is one of the best actors in the world.

i must say i was dissapointed with Sean Bean's character, not because of hs acting (which was brilliant) but with his character. Being English i took a little bit of offense at the insinuation that an ex-SAS soldier could be so inept, but maybe that was just me. i am afterall used to seeing Bean in roles such as Sharp from the TV series of the same name, so it seems wrong for him to be such a snivveling coward. if you have never seen Bean in any other role (have you been living in a cardboard box behind marks and spencer?) then you would never know his "action man" past; he performs so well in hs role in Ronin. it just goes to show that he is a talented and adaptive actor.

the highlight of the film is it's beautiful carchase in and around Paris.

all in all Ronin s a solid action thriller. it loses something in the plot and a few details seem to be skipped over quickly but this makes the film fast paced and action packed.

the 2 hours will pass all too quickly

We learn little about the ronin who are the protagonists of this movie, and one of director John Frankenheimer's greatest coups is the understated way in which he uses that very mystery to keep the viewer's interest: not hyping it up, making us want to find out more, but downplaying it: What matters is not who precisely they are but their interaction as such. So, we only learn that there is Sam (Robert de Niro) who, although initially keeping his cards close to his chest, is eventually cornered by Vincent (Jean Reno) into implicitly revealing his CIA past (even though later he still refuses to directly own up, responding "I don't remember" to Vincent's question who trained him: "That's the second thing they teach you;" the first lesson being how to spot an ambush) Vincent himself - hired mainly for his local expertise as a Frenchman and soon striking up a friendship of sorts with Sam - manages to keep mum about his past throughout; as does Larry (Skip Sudduth), the team's car expert. Gregor (Stellan Skarsgard) specializes in electronic surveillance and has obviously learned his craft in the KGB ... and Spence (Sean Bean) tries hard to convince them that he is ex-22SAS. But he merely talks the talk (and way too loudly at that), and after having jeopardized a weapons deal preceding the team's main operation he is effortlessly exposed as a fraud by Sam, and dumped with a stern warning to forget them. - The operation is headed by Deirdre (Natascha McElhone) on the behest of renegade IRA terrorist Seamus O'Rourke (Jonathan Pryce), with the aim of commandeering a certain case, whose content - again, in one of Frankenheimer's little ploys - remains unknown throughout the movie. At some point, the overall objective shifts when Gregor takes off with the case alone, trying to sell it to the Russians; although from a revelation by Sam to Deirdre towards the end (and by a close look at his final exit) we can infer that his true purpose never really changed at all.

There are several things that make "Ronin" compelling even to someone who, like me, doesn't generally count action movies among her favorites. First, and obviously, the stellar cast: Robert de Niro in one of his last truly good recent performances (even sporting a virtually accent-free French), Jean Reno his match in acting skill, mysterious aura and veiled menace paired with straightforwardness, Stellan Skarsgard as the chillingly ruthless Gregor, Michael Lonsdale in a brief but crucial appearance as Vincent's mentor Jean-Pierre (likewise without any English accent whatsoever), Jonathan Pryce as the coldblooded IRA renegade, Natascha McElhone looking and sounding as if she had no problem at all standing up to a group of alpha male stars such as these (even managing to keep her cool after a brief fling with de Niro's Sam) - and last but not least double Olympic and quadruple world ice-skating champion Katarina Witt as Russian skating princess Natacha Kirilova, during whose performance the action's climax is set.

Moreover, this is the masterpiece in editing and camerawork we came to expect from director Frankenheimer ever since "The Manchurian Candidate," "The Birdman of Alcatraz" and, for that matter, "French Connection II" (I am also glad the DVD was produced in time to ensure a directorial commentary track before Frankenheimer's 2002 death); complete with his excellent sense of authenticity, making France come to life even in shots not done on location, and paying attention to a myriad details as much as the big picture. And then, of course, there are the car chases: If you've ever been to Vieux Nice, driven along the Corniche outside Nice, in downtown Paris or on the "Peripherique" (freeway circle around the city), you know that you need to be on your toes there even under normal circumstances - now imagine creating car chases in these settings, one of them even against the oncoming traffic from La Defense outside Paris! This takes both an immense amount of precise planning and highly skilled, thoroughly unafraid stunt drivers; not surprisingly, some stunts were performed by race-car drivers - although Skip Sudduth even did some of his scenes himself; and all sequences were filmed with the actors actually in the cars. Kudos to everyone who participated in these scenes and came out physically and mentally intact!

"Ronin" does have a conclusion of sorts, but leaves both Sam's relationships with Vincent and Deirdre partly unresolved. Yet, the warrior code doesn't always require an express resolution. Even the last dialogue between Vincent and Sam feels more like a translation added for the viewer's benefit, expressing things they ordinarily would not have to say in words. And Vincent's last lines provide a perfect closing summary: "No questions, no answers. That's the business we're in. You accept it and move on. Maybe that's lesson number three ..."