Word: woo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...FLASHBULBS WERE POPPING two weeks ago when Hong Kong action hero Jackie Chan showed up at a Hollywood theater for the premiere of Broken Arrow, the new John Travolta film. Make that the new John Woo film, for Hong Kong's No. 1 action auteur directed this $60 million thriller. Chan, whose gonzo melodrama Rumble in the Bronx hits 1,500 screens this week, was at the premiere to wish his home-town colleague well and to personify the friendly invasion of Hollywood by Hong Kong talent. Only one problem: by the time Jackie got inside, all the seats were...
...wonder: Will Hollywood ever make a place for Hong Kong cinema? Woo and Chan and the flock of successful Chinese actors and directors now making deals in Los Angeles may find that the hurdles of race and culture are hard to clear. For example, the seven Oscar nominations Sense and Sensibility received last week did not include one for its Taiwanese director...
Broken Arrow, a bomb-ticking chase movie about a daredevil pilot (Travolta) who steals two nuclear weapons, shows how easily the two cinemas can coexist. It flies at the speed of Macho 2 while allowing Woo to unpack his full cinematic arsenal: overhead shots, plenty of steamy atmosphere (Travolta smokes a lot), Cuisinart editing of the action scenes, slow motion to prolong the jitters and, for dialogue scenes that other directors would stand flatfooted and watch, lithe little tracking shots. If film school were fun, Woo would be the nutty professor...
...Graham Yost script, Travolta is a bad guy for the same reason Woo makes films the way he does: it's so darn much fun. Travolta and his rival, Christian Slater, are so steely that when they salute their arms make metallic whooshing sounds. And as Slater's only partner in saving the world, Samantha Mathis is just as tough. In an early face-off, he holds a gun to her head; she holds a knife to his neck. It's Woo's version of meeting cute...
...filling up the time. Increasingly fed up with the sordid people he encounters in his midnight runs--prostitutes, pimps, pushers and various basket cases--he begins a strict physical and mental regimen in pursuit of some goal at which we can only guess. After an innocent attempt to woo a senator's aide (Cybill Shepherd) and to rescue a teenage prostitute (Jodie Foster) from the streets, Travis resorts to drastic means to make something happen. First stalking the senator, then turning his attention back to the "scum of the streets," Travis moves inexorably towards a destructive climax...