Spartan Review
by Ryan Ellis (flickershows AT hotmail DOT com)March 19th, 2004
Spartan
by Ryan Ellis
March 16, 2004
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet has been cranking out screenplays for over 20 years and he's been directing for more than 15 years. His scripts have generally been outstanding. 'Glengarry Glen Ross', 'Wag The Dog', and 'The Verdict' are just three I could name that deserve every hip-hip-hooray imaginable. As a director, I'm not quite as impressed, although the politically charged 'State And Main' was a funny movie about making movies with trademark Mamet dialogue. What he's done with the politically charged 'Spartan' is merge his skill as a world-class writer with his solid ability as a director to put together a dynamite thriller. Okay, "thriller" is not the best word, since your heart rate isn't going to fluctuate very much. This isn't 'Psycho', after all. It's a fairly straightforward abduction & rescue story, but I felt more captivated by the passing second. After feeling confused in the early going, I was submerged in the film once the foggy details cleared up. Granted, a second viewing might help some things fall properly into place and sort out the specifics. No problem. I'd be happy to see this one again.
Val Kilmer, a committed actor for whom I've felt equal doses of admiration and loathing, is the star here and he carries the entire picture. We never go more than a few minutes without him being on screen. As Scott, a top-flight member of the Special Ops who's working with the Secret Service to rescue the abducted First Daughter, Kilmer puts his Method acting to good use for once. He's just as believable in this role as Sean Penn or Bill Murray were in their celebrated Oscar-nominated performances in '03. Hey, I'll come clean here and stop hinting at it---I don't really like Val Kilmer. Sure, his performances have been better than some of the movies he's been in, but he's got this aloof quality that makes me wince like I just swallowed a rotten grape. As much talent as he has, it's gone to waste so often that it's no wonder he seems to idolize Marlon Brando...Kilmer's tried too hard to emulate the pointless Brando of the last 25 years. Not in 'Spartan', however. Working with Mamet for the first time has proven just how strong Kilmer can be. He says a lot by saying little, acts without over-indulging, and makes you believe he's just as brainy and as ruthless as his character. This is his best role in a decade.
Back to the plot. We meet Scott while he's in the midst of training young recruits named Curtis (Derek Luke) and Jackie Black (Tia Texada). Then we witness an unclear scene in which Curtis survives a do-or-die moment lifted from 'Spartacus'. We're forced to figure out what Curtis must have done without being told, which was an introduction to the grown-up approach Mamet takes to his script. Curtis joins Scott on the mission to recover the President's daughter from the clutches of black marketeers who sell blonde teenage girls to overseas buyers. This is explained carefully---again, without being obvious---and it's a gut-hollowing feeling the members of the task force have when they realize that the captors don't even know who they have kidnapped. Once they DO figure it out, they'll kill her for fear of retribution. Kilmer and the others continue tracking down leads, taking zigs and zags, until their mission abruptly ends. Or does it? What will cause this self-proclaimed "worker bee" to question his orders, to go outside the boundaries, to blow the lid off a deplorable cover-up? Go see the movie. The second half has some mysteries that shouldn't be revealed in a review. Unlike so many thriller/mystery films, this one gathers steam and power as it hums along.
The supporting cast truly play secondary roles here, but they're given interesting things to do and say. Mamet vets William H. Macy and Ed O'Neill play top members of the Secret Service who might not have the best interests of the main characters at heart. O'Neill shows once again that he's much more than Al Bundy by playing it straight in an early scene, then not re-appearing until the end of the movie and delivering an emotional speech that we know is hogwash. Macy has a look that tells you he can't be trusted, but it's not until much later that he says more than 3 words. Luke (who was so likable in 'Antwone Fisher' and 'Pieces Of April') plays a young man who might be green, but he's more diligent than it first appears. Then again, his survival in that 'Spartacus' scene proves that already, doesn't it? This is my first time seeing young Kristin Bell, who plays the aforementioned president's daughter (the bedragged and emotionally damaged Laura Newton). When we finally meet her in the late going, she's not very innocent or very thankful for the rescue attempt, which I found to be a rather believable development.
As for that screenplay, where does it rank with Mamet's other work? That's the thing...it doesn't really compare to most of his other movies (at least the ones I've seen). While the vastly underrated 'Glengarry Glen Ross' relies almost entirely on words and its theatrical staging, 'Spartan' is confident enough to show us rather than tell us. There are rat-a-tat cadences in some scenes, sure, but there's not much opportunity for actorly grandstanding. It's great to see a man who usually writes such dialogue-intensive material tell a story with pictures, which should be the point of a film in the first place. I liked how the direction of the plot kept changing, even while the stakes stayed the same. The girl is missing and Kilmer's job is to find her. We find out he'll do ANYTHING to complete his mission, even if that ends up being a dead end. It's a crackling screenplay with so much left unsaid. Mamet shows remarkable restraint to work this way. He must have trimmed pages of dialogue and let us understand what's happening, to let the meaningful action and violence sort itself out.
Viewers who pay attention shouldn't have trouble following the story. And lest I make it sound like a grim movie, there's humour too. It's not a comedy, although some of the ferocious tactics that Scott uses are funny. There are some nice touches in this movie. Even though the abducte is the U.S. President's daughter, I don't recall ever hearing him referred to as the president. There are shades of both Bush and Clinton in the unseen POTUS, with Clinton's infidelity and Bush's troublemaking kids as apparent inspirations. And I like the way the film's tagline is almost a dare. "She's missing." You could add, "and what are they gonna do about it?" Turns out, somebody has to pull a "smash and grab" and they might not have much back-up. At least that's a plausible circumstance in this film and many white hats pay the price along the way.
As for the film's title, "spartan" is explained by one of the characters and it's best she explain it to you too. There are shades of the ronin here or even of Stallone's Rambo character. I don't recall admiring any of those characters in past films the way I admired Kilmer in this one. 'Spartan' is one of the first excellent movies of 2004 and it's the best of the 5 Mamet-directed movies I've seen. I suppose that's enough superlatives thrown his way for one review. Oh, one more. Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay to David Mamet is that I walked out of this movie and was going over my own ideas in the same way in which he writes. In fact, I wanted to jot down a few thoughts for this review and could hear my inner voice writing them the way he would. This amateur writer salutes that professional one.
To contact me with kind words or a kick in the pants, write to [email protected]. And check out my website at
http://groups.msn.com/TheMovieFiend.
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