Director – John Woo – 1993 – US – Cert. 18 – 100m (UK version), 86m (US version)
****
John Woo’s US debut is a New Orleans remake of The Most Dangerous Game with action star Jean-Claude Van Damme – 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
Essentially the first of two remakes of The Most Dangerous Game / The Hounds Of Zaroff (Ernest B. Schoedsack, Irving Pichel, 1932, shot using the same cast, crew and jungle sets as King Kong, (Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933) – the second being Surviving The Game (Ernest R. Dickinson, 1994) – this updates the original’s remote island to the urban jungle of and countryside surrounding New Orleans, making its mad game hunter (Lance Henriksen taking on the role originally played by Leslie Banks) prey not on lost seafarers but unemployed down and outs on dry land.
In true New Right nineties spirit, the hunter of humans has now graduated from being merely a gratifying personal sport for deranged psychopaths to a lucrative business attracting high rolling, thrill-seeking clients who get to pull the trigger themselves. Little in the script rises above an average, straight to video exercise, but the project is given box office clout by “Muscles From Brussels” star Van Damme and – more importantly – celebrated Hong Kong action director John Woo in his US debut.
Hard Target is not entirely successful since Woo wasn’t given the free directorial reign he was used to in Hong Kong: consequently, the violence is toned down, the blood is more or less absent and the action lacks the director’s characteristic mythic resonance (although it’s a lot better than most Van Damme vehicles, since Woo masterfully exploits the star’s kickboxing abilities on celluloid). Henricksen, a long-standing admirer of the director, acquits himself admirably as the villain and is rewarded with a showstopping stunt where he takes off his burning coat.
No doubt much of what does succeed owes much to the presence of Woo’s Hong Kong producer Terence Chang. The real problem, though, is a director who hasn’t yet got to grips with the American milieu – a really nice blues score underpins a fight scene with New Orleans muggers and an episode down at the docks manages some nice observation on (un)employment, American style, but that’s about it. The Hong Kong films were about brotherhood and loyalty, but the American action hero is essentially a loner struggling against the odds.
If Woo’s second US outing, the big budget Broken Arrow(1995), comes up against similar problems, his third, the likewise blockbusting Face/Off (1997), finally starts to overcome them. A much longer (and more satisfying) director’s cut of the film is rumoured to be in existence. John Woo’s earlier films include A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992). He would later return to Asia for Red Cliff (2008, 2009) and ManHunt (2017), among others. Star Van Damme would subsequently be directed in Hollywood by two further top Hong Kong directors – Ringo Lam (director of City On Fire/1987, Wild Search/1989, Full Contact/1992) on the less than satisfactory Maximum Risk/1997 and Tsui Hark, (director of seminal HK fantasy Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain/1983 and producer of the A Better Tomorrow series) on heist movie Double Team/1997.
Hard Target 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.
Trailer:
Season Trailer: