Men Without A Master

What happens to the men whose craft is war when they have no more wars to fight? What do they do? They wanted to live their lives by a warrior’s code; to delight in the battle. They understood that there is something outside of themselves that need to be served. 

When that need is gone and belief has died, they suddenly find themselves in no-man’s land and they are left wondering; who and what are they now? In feudal Japan, warriors or samurai like these became wanderers and often ‘muscle for hire’. Once they were loyal to a liege; now they were men without a master, known as ‘Ronin’.  

John Frankenheimer

In the 1998 crime-thriller ‘Ronin’, Director John Frankenheimer sketches a very surreal post cold-war picture of a group of secret operatives who is now working for the highest bidder.  There was a time they were treated as their countries' most valuable assets and expected to operate at the sharp end of the stick. Now they have no more missions and have to take mercenary jobs  - the only career where their skills are still required and of use.

Old habits however die hard and with a bunch of ex-spies and military men now all working together for a man none of them know, the stage is set for every clandestine trick in the book.

Sam (Robert De Niro) is a former CIA agent and his job is to uncover who the group’s employer is, a man known to everyone only as, ‘The man in the wheelchair’. Of course, being employed by some guy in a wheelchair seems hardly fitting for this highly skilled group of individuals, and it’s safe to say they only use the term as a kind of code.

Vincent (Jean Reno) is a French Intelligence agent and along with Sam forms a really good partnership at trying to uncover who their actual employers are. While they are secretly busy trying to find their mysterious contractor, they also have to retrieve a case from some men. Who these men are, nobody knows. What the contents of the case is, no one will say, except that it must be something very important since there are both Russian Mafia and IRA members trying their utmost to get hold of it.

The opening scenes of ‘Ronin’ are brilliantly shot. There is hardly any dialogue and as viewer, you really sense the intensity that underpins covert affairs such as these.The car-chase scene in the movie is one of the longest and best ones ever captured on film and will have you on the edge of your seat.

John Frankenheimer was in complete control over all the elements of production, a style he made uniquely his own and were known for in Hollywood. When it comes to watching this movie, the cinematic flow of the story is so smooth that you get to appreciate the result of a story well told because there is only one strong leader on set. He clearly had a vision of how things should be done, and he did so seemingly effortlessly. 

The Only Way Out Is Down

To most of us a river represents a source of life. Ask any survival specialist and he’ll tell you, when you find a river stick to it, it will either lead you back to civilisation or hopefully you’ll encounter some form of it along the way. Usually that’s the case – when you are above the ground. When you are 2 kilometers below the Earth’s surface in a cave of which the exit has been flooded, following a river becomes a whole a new ball game and you better be ready for whatever comes your way. 

In ‘Sanctum’, a group of explorers are faced with exactly such a dilemma. What started out as the greatest expedition in years, suddenly becomes their worst nightmare.

To the leader of the party, Frank McQuire (Richard Roxburgh), a veteran explorer, ‘giving up’ is a foreign term and something that is simply not part of his make-up. So when he decides to push on through a very sketchy part of the cave and leave the bailout cylinder for him and his buddy-diver behind, a series of life-threatening situations is set in motion. 

Esa-ala: The Mother of All Caves

A bailout cylinder serves as  back-up air supply, should a diver experience any problems with the system he is using while busy with a dive.
Leaving their bailout behind to fit through a narrow underwater squeeze, proves to be a costly mistake when his buddy-diver suddenly bursts a hose of her re-breather and they have to buddy-breathe with a full-face mask something, any diver will tell you is extremely dangerous. 

  
The expedition team was already anxious before the dive; a big storm was busy developing and the chances of being stuck underground was a real threat. Fortunately, they have radio 'comms' with some crew above ground, and strictly speaking, they should get warned in time and have no problem making it safely to the top. Mother Nature however waits on no one. When things take a sudden turn for the worst and the storm turns into a cyclone, the entrance to the cave gets sealed off from all the rain and Frank and the rest of his team is put to the ultimate test to survive and find another way out.

The underwater scenes of ‘Sanctum’ is spellbinding and the plot of the movie carries you as viewer steadily along. There are some very tense moments where you actually hold your breath with the characters when they are underwater, hoping they can make it to the next safe place. 

If you are unfamiliar with, or completely in the dark about extreme sports such as cave-diving, abseiling/rock-climbing and base-jumping, the sheer magnitude of the risk factor involved when attempting such high-adrenalin sports by these actors is enough to keep you glued to the screen throughout this movie. The technical jargon, equipment and techniques used in ‘Sanctum’ by the cast during their expedition, are spot-on and affirms the credibility of the film, especially to those viewers practicing such sports. 

Besides for the suspenseful drama of the story, there is also lots of tension between Frank and his son Josh (Rhys Wakefield). Josh doesn't really know his father and what little he thinks he does, is hardly anything good. Inside the cave the two of them are forced together into some emotionally confined spaces too and navigating their way through those also becomes just as important to their survival as finding a way out of the cave itself.
 

The message ‘Sanctum’ leaves you with is profound and clear: ‘Surviving depends on taking responsibility for your actions and no matter what happens – you never, ever give up!’

'Sanctum' - Produced by James Cameron.

  

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction

People in power live in a world of their own one, where they often become a law unto themselves. They move in special circles, fraternising with the upper echelons of society and pretty soon, they think of themselves as being so very special, too. So special in fact, that the rules that ordinarily apply to you and me, don’t apply to them and if it does, it shouldn’t. But this is where they are especially wrong. 

George Clooney - Governor Mike Morris

Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) is half-way through his presidential campaign and is about to become the next President of the United States of America, if he is that special. Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) believes that he is, but then again, so is Stephen. He is the media manager of the Governor’s campaign and he is brilliant. Unfortunately for Stephen, it’s not just the people in his camp that think this highly of him - the opposing party does too.

When he gets a call to meet the Republican’s campaign manager, Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), he lets his ego get in the way of his future as a possible White House staff member. He forgets that in politics, especially in politics, the only currency you can count on is loyalty. Without it you are nothing and you have no one. It’s a cutthroat game where trust is valued far more than skill. 

Marisa Tomei as reporter 'Ida Horowisz'.

As a result, he not only gets fired for his unfaithfulness, but also has to face the fact that his meeting with Duffy has been leaked to an eager newspaper reporter, thanks to his former Campaign Manager, Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Ida certainly doesn't mind, she's been waiting for that next sensational scoop and this is it.  

Evan Rachel Wood - 'Molly'.

Luckily, Stephen’s not the only one who’s been unfaithful. The governor, the man who has been preaching to the people that, ‘Dignity matters, loyalty matters’, has been unfaithful too, and got an intern, 'Molly', pregnant. Now if you want to be president, ‘you can lie, you can cheat, you can start a war, you can bankrupt the country, but you cannot f*** the interns, they get you for that.’ 

Ryan Gosling as 'Stephen Meyers'.

Stephen took a lesson or two from the very best while working his way up the ranks, and nothing or no one is going to stand in his way from making it to the top, even if it means he has to bend the rules a bit himself. When he confronts Governor Morris about his illicit affair, the tables are turned for good in his favour, so good that one has to wonder which one of these two men should actually be the next president? 

  

‘The Ides of March’ is a must-see movie. Gosling has come a long way since ‘The Notebook’ days and Clooney impresses with his shot selection and overall guidance as director. The movie has a steady pace and as audience we are shown some true insights into the less glamorous side of politics.