CAST AND CREDITS:

STARRING:
Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Connie Nielsen,
Ron Canada, Leslie Stefanson, Jenna Boyd

DIRECTED BY:
William Friedkin

WRITTEN BY:
David Griffiths, Peter Griffiths,
Art Monterastelli

PRODUCED BY:
James Jacks, Ricardo Mestres

DISTRIBUTED BY:
Paramount Picturees

RATING USA...
Rated R for strong bloody violence and some language.
RATING CANADA...
Rated AA for violence.


Action Drama
He was trained to kill...the difficult part was turning him off.

"How many of the filth are left?"
Director William Friedkin is back with a fast paced action/drama that will leave you breathless. Friedkin has directed such great films as SORCERER, RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, THE EXORCIST, THE FRENCH CONNECTION. This one is not as great as the ones listed above but it still adds to his incredible collection of films Friedkin has directed. THE HUNTED is a simple story of survival on the surface but, in fact, is story of the perils man faces when we attempt to protect our borders with the removal of morality. When soldiers are taught to kill efficiently and without mercy for the sake of their countries, we have to ask ourselves what is the cost. In this movie the cost is too dear to comprehend. When you train a man to kill without conscience then how do you stop him when he does what he does best.

"1-2-3-4-5-6."
Friedkin rushes us quickly, head long into the chaos that is our story. He does not even slow the pace down for credits or even the title of the film. The title and actors only appear at the end of the movie. He uses this device to place us suddenly into the chaos that is Kosovo on March 12, 1999. We are violently thrown into this world of death and slaughter. All around we bear witness to the destructive capabilities of man. The sheer lack of respect we have for our fellow man and for ourselves. The savagery we see on the screen will turn more than one stomach, not just for the violence but for the unbelievable waste of life by the most callous of men with absolutely no iota of conscience.

"I trained him to survive. I trained him to kill."
While we watch the ethnic cleansing amid all the explosions in the city we see a squad of American soldiers who silently and with intent of purpose approach the city, unseen. One soldier in particular slithers through the rubble like an unseen snake, silently and deadly winding his way towards his prey. While this is going on we see soldiers rounding up men, women and children and throwing them to the ground. They then proceed to pour ammo clips into the bodies well after they are dead. These scenes are brutal to watch and are very upsetting. One scene has a little girl coming out of hiding and walks up to a pile of bodies that were just killed, She has no real emotions on her face as she searches for and finds her teddy bear. She hugs it and walks away seemingly unaffected. The director has obviously shown us these scenes so that when the one soldier reaches his target, the commander, and quickly dispatches him to whatever hell he belongs in, we in no way feel even a smidgeon of sympathy for him as he lies with his throat cut, bleeding into the ground. What is disturbing is how efficiently his life was taken.

"Your rifles against my knife."
The scene changes to a military base where Sargeant Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro) is awarded a silver cross for his bravery in action. He is being awarded for being a silent and efficient killer for his government. Hallam unfortunately suffers from battle stress and has constant, terrible nightmares of what he has seen and done. His nightmarees are filled with the screams and crying of the helpless and dying. Things are not good for Aaron Hallam, and soon it will get worse.

"I thought you were on the wagon?" "Wheels fell off."
In a beautiful snow covered forest we are introduced to L.T. Bonham played by Tommy Lee Jones. He is following a trailer of blood staining the white carpet of pristine snow. The trail leads to a magnificent white wolf which is bleeding from a leg and now he is trapped in a rope snare. The tracker calms the animal down and frees it and then patches the leg. He watches as the animal walks back into the forest. L.T. is there working for an animal protection group. L.T. is a tracker who was trained by his father to be a tracker. He is one of the best. L.T. was also a freelance trainer for the military who not only taught soldiers to track but also to kill. His six steps to cutting a man to death with a knife is really nasty. Here is a man who is a contradication because he taught men to kill, efficient and mercilessly and yet he himself has never taken a life.

"You need all that equipment to kill a deer?"
"That's how we make sure they're dead."
Silver Falls, Oregon is where we catch up to deerhunters, two of them, hunting in a fall forest. They armed with expensive rifles with high powered scopes. Weapons that are two powerful for the deer hunt as they are rememinded by a disembodied voice echoing through the woods. The voice questions their need for these weapons. Why not hunt with knives and show the prey the proper reverence they deserve. To show them he throws a a knive that pierces a small tree. The hunters become angry and begin to hunt their stalker.

"If I'm not back in two days, it'll mean I'm dead."
The stalker moves through the forest like a phantom all dressed in black camoflague. The hunters begin to panic as he taunts them. The first hunter is caught in one of his snares and is quickly and efficiently disposed of. The second one soon becomes a victim of Aaron Hallam.

"He's one of yours, isn't he?."
The FBI investigate the murders as other murders were committed in other states. They bring in their contract tracker, L.T. to check out the crime scene in Oregon and hunt down the killer. L.T. works with FBI agent Abby Durrell (Connie Nielsen) and Agent Harry Van Zandt (Ron Canada). L.T. tracks down Aaron and realizes that Hallam was one of his former students. We discover that Aaron has a greater reverence and respect for animals than he does for people. His sole reason for killing all these hunters was because they disrespected the lives of their prey hunting them with ludicrous weaponery.

"Remember me? You taught me to kill."
"I taught a lot of people."
The fight sequences between L.T. and Aaron are realistic and not composed of the usual impossible Hollywood fights. They fight with sticks and knives, rolling around the ground tussling and tackling each other. Aaron is finally subdued with a tranquillizer dart and transported back to the city for questioning.

"He's one of them. They'll handle it."
Aaron is an enigma. He anwers questions with more questions but when he mentions Operation Black Eagle, L.T. quickly warns him to stop talking. Van Zandt is approached by two special government agents who have papers to release Aaron. Aaron Hallam is officially missing in action and can not be charged for murder or any other crime. Aaron hallam does not exist. The government has created a killer to use for their purposes and must therefore protect him. The agents remove him by truck where they inist that since Aaron is losing his mind, he must take a special poison. Now of course we know that somehow he has to escape or we wouldn't have a very long movie, right.

"Once you able to kill mentally, the physical part will be easy. The difficult part will be turning it off."
Besides the obvious similiarities to RAMBO this movie reminds me of a nouvella I once read about a future where mankind fought wars with only one soldier representing each country. The sole surviving winner would not only earn his country the power to rule over the others for a period of years but it would also grant the last surviving soldier unlimited rights. Since the soldiers were trained with no morality and brutal killing skills they could not be treated like other men. This winning soldier could do anything he wanted until the next combat, years later. He could kill anyone or do what ever else he wanted. He could steal from you or even take your spouse for his pleasure and there was nothing that could be done against them. They had carte blanche as payment for service to their country. A scary proposition isn't it. Yet here in this movie we see the same situation. Do any of you doubt that there exists the possibility for this situation being possible today; I doubt it.

"I'm so happy to see you."
Throughout the film we watch Aaron do what he does best, elude and kill the enemy. He has no feelings about what he does, it is just as normal to him as a bodily function. The only time we see any real spark of humanity towards people is after he escapes from the special government agents who are out to terminate him. Aaron goes to the home of his ex-girlfriend to help her and her daughter. The girlfriend, Irene Kravitz (Leslie Stefanson) does not want him to be there anymore. She feels he abandoned them, not knowing anything about who Aaron really is or why he disappears at various times. The daughter played by Jenna Boyd loves Aaron and wants him there. Loretta loves to listen to Aaron, especially when he teaches her about tracking and how animals hunt. During these times we see that underneath the killers surface is still a man who can love children. The death of children that he witnessed in Kosovo affected him deeply and we can see that children would never be his victims. I get the impression that the director wants us to see that Aaron visualizes animals as children and that they need to be protected. Friedkin, I feel injected this scene in the middle of the mayhem so that we can sympathize to the plight of Aaron Hallam. Underneath the surface he is a caring man who was turned into a killing machine; I'm sure he thought he could lead a normal life, unfortunately his environment rules his conscience. The other sign that Aaron really cares for Irene and Loretta is that had returned to give them an envelope full of money to get away before government agents arrive to expunge their existence so that his existence can be denied. He warns them that they will be coming to hurt them.

"I have to live with what I've done."
The film takes us through flashbacks to Aarons training by L.T. in the military. We witness the deadly arts all these special soldiers were taught. This is how he was made into the killing machine he is now. L.T. remembers all this with no sense of pride only regret what he has done to Aaron. This is the motivation that drives L.T. to track Aaron down in some spectacular sequences. The sequence that is particularily memoriable is the elevated subway train scene on the bridge. I think you will be impressed by this and many of the other sequences between these two men.

"L.T., I don;t think I can do this anymore."
I highly recommend this film to those who like action films. To those who do not I recommend THE HUNTED because of the more socially conscience layers under the action and besides William Friedkin films should always be seen by everyone. Yeah, I'm being bossy, but heck I like this director's films and so should you.

"He will kill as many as he can."
I know most people disappear in droves from the auditorium as soon as the credits role, but this time you should stick around not because the actors names and title appears at the end but because of the end song. Johnny Cash sings a very appropriate song called "The Man Came Around". Stay in your seats and listen to the words. Besides you won't have to fight your way through the crowd leaving the auditorium. Now go away and go see a movie.

"God said to Abraham, kill me a son."

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