Director – John Woo – 1996 – US – Cert. 15 – 108m
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Woo’s second US outing pits Christian Slater against nuclear stealth bomber co-pilot turned bad John Travolta in the Arizona desert – part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024
The first project to see the light of day from WCG Entertainment, whose initials stand for Woo Chang Godsick. This triumvirate of names belongs to respectively the director of A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), and Hard Boiled (1992), his longstanding Hong Kong producer Terence Chang, and former agent Christopher Godsick – whose William Morris client list had included Woo himself and the director’s onscreen alter-ego Chow Yun‑fat.
Like his earlier successful action blockbuster Speed (Jan de Bont, 1991), Graham Yost’s script was initially written for producer Mark Gordon. After Woo’s more modestly budgeted US debut Hard Target (1993) was followed by disappointing setbacks on other American projects; Yost’s screenplay was exactly the entry into the US blockbuster market Woo needed. While the resultant film may be ultimately less satisfying than Woo’s best work, it quickly established him as a top Hollywood A-list director.
As for the plot, USAF test pilot buddies John Travolta and Christian Slater fall out when the former steals the stealth bomber they’re flying over the North Arizona desert. On the ground, the latter must retrieve the Broken Arrow (the military term for a lost nuclear device) from his former colleague.
The two men’s relationship provides a moral centre, crystallised in the opening sequence where, as sparring partners, the pair fight in a boxing ring. Travolta, who talks a lot about possessing the killer instinct which Slater does not, is superb as the villain – most memorably appearing in slow motion over the dune ridge to the strains of Duane Eddy’s guitar in Hans Zimmer’s score.
As in Hard Target, the blood seen in Woo’s Hong Kong output is largely absent from the violence – aside from the best scene, where Travolta’s arms buyer buddies shoot the occupants of a tent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the blood lends a gravity to their appalling deaths.
Elsewhere, while Woo has a good time crashing the bomber and blowing up mine workings, trains and automobiles, the pyrotechnics he substitutes for blood are scarcely relevant to the Travolta-Slater moral core, whereas blood would have been. Besides, that core is clearly secondary to the big pyrotechnics action spectacular.
The attempt at male-female bonding of Slater with Samantha Mathis’ out of her depth park ranger doesn’t really come off either. Woo hadn’t yet found an American metaphor to express his trademark Hong Kong themes of loyalty, brotherhood and betrayal.
Furthermore, where Hard Target had at least to engage to some degree with its New Orleans setting, Broken Arrow’s North Arizona wasteland lacks any such potential. Woo was, however, to hit artistic, critical and box office paydirt with Face/Off (1997) where Travolta again plays a leading role.
Broken Arrow plays as part of Art of Action, a major UK-wide season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography at cinemas across the UK October-November 2024.
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