Unleashed
Director: Louis Leterrier
Writer: Luc Besson
Cast:
Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Kerry Condon
First, lets get some stuff out of the way. The film does go over board when it comes to character development. It is pretty easy to see that “Uncle Bart” (Bob Hoskins) is a slimy, evil human being and that Danny (Li) is a pitiful slave, with no options in his life.
But, it gets tiring seeing it over and over for the majority of the film. Sure, I don’t see anyway that Bart could ever be described as remotely ‘decent’. He is a slave master, of the worst type.
Taking a child, and turning him into a human killing machine shows the true depths of human depravity. Keeping him in a collar, leashed, living in a cage only taking him out to hurt of kill some enemy, Hoskins shows a style of evil that is almost unparallel in movie villainy.
Li, as Danny, shows some of his best work in this film. His actions when he rips open the punching bag in his exercise was interesting. As well as the fight in the supermarket when he is looking for a ripe fruit was both intense and humorous.
The last real gripe I have is the soundtrack. It was beautiful, and perfect throughout most of the film. Using classical piano made the film almost surreal in places.
But during the end credits they start off with this beautiful ‘torch song’, a cross between jazz and blues, then suddenly they launch into this God Awful hip hop crap that served no purpose or made any sense with the style of the film. Why? What sense did this crap make in a film like this?
Ok, my rant is over now.
Danny is a slave who has lived his entire life shackled and treated like a dog, with no human interaction outside of violence. He has the mind and emotional level of a young child and has been taught only one thing. To kill and fight, as he is referred to by his
uncle, “a human guided missile.”
During one of his ‘assignments’ he meets blind piano tuner Sam (Freeman) and the two strike up a tentative bond, which become stronger when Sam brings the ‘stray’ home after Danny is injured in a car accident in which he thinks Bart has been killed.
Sam is an American living in London with his stepdaughter Victoria who is a student at an exclusive music school.
Sam and Victoria begin to try and teach Danny about human life, accepting him as both a son and older/younger brother, and asking no questions about his past.
Seeing Danny as he learns about fresh fruit, kisses on the cheek, and ice cream is actually sweet and funny to watch. I still say this is the best Jet Li film I have ever seen, showing a lot of growth in Li as an actor. He is still one of the best martial artists in the industry, and the skill he shows in this film demonstrates that over and over.
In one scene, while still a slave he is taken into an illegal ‘pit fight’ against an opponent who has killed over fifteen challengers. Watching this battle is amazing and shows the ability of Besson to write a suspenseful scene and of Leterrier to direct it in a way that will stun viewers.
Kerry Condon as Victoria is a combination of sweetness, innocence and unbridled love for Danny but it always comes across as a sister for a long lost brother. The idea of sexual tension between the two of them almost never raises its head, and that is one of the best things about this movie to me.
It shows a type of ‘love interest’ that Hollywood has lost over the years. That a man and woman can be forced together and a relationship formed and strengthened without the two of them jumping into bed at the first chance.
Victoria is a wonderful piano player, and Danny relates to her because of repressed memories he has from his childhood before Bart.
The back-story is nothing short of heartbreaking and horrible. Seeing what happened to Danny’s mother, watching the torture of Danny and his suppression of human thought and emotion by Bart makes one wonder how any human being can be this evil. It also makes the viewer wonder if the writer and director might not have gone overboard on purpose, trying to create a totally unbelievable story that can never happen.
I don’t think so; in fact I think something like this storyline has occurred at some time. Humanity seeks the worst in its surrounding interaction with others. Look at the way people watch a car race hoping for a wreck, or how popular violent sports are, or how someone will shout, “Jump” at a person on a ledge.
Creatures like “Uncle Bart” exist in our world. They are child molesters, drug dealers, and cold-blooded killers. They are the ones who blame their own evil on their victims, always trying to appear that they care for the people they hurt or torture.
As Bart repeatedly says, he is ‘loving’ Danny; caring for him, that he took him in and treated him like his own flesh and blood after his mother died. That no one else wanted him or cared about him.
Which is just what a child molester will say to a victim most of the time. That they love them, they care for them, they are teaching them. Uncle Bart exists in every town and city in the world, and Danny is there as well. He may not always wear a collar or be trained to fight and kill without emotion but he is still there.
“Unleashed” is an amazing film, not just for the stunts but for the story as well. It is the best action film of the year so far, and with this as a standard I hope the rest of the year is as good.
Don’t misunderstand; this is not a family film. It is one of the most violent, intense films I have seen in a long time. It is hard to watch in several ways, but it is also a film I think a lot of victims of child abuse should see.
It shows that most of what we were taught as victims is a lie. Most of the things they tried to convince them were false and someone will always be there for them.
Seeing Danny become a human is worth the price of the ticket.
The language is pretty rough in a lot of places, but that is almost to be expected. However, that is balanced by Sam and Victoria’s faith in both God and mankind. The violence is over the top in some cases, but still pretty intense.
I would not suggest this film for anyone under 14.