Word: woo
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...assistant managing editor Joelle Attinger had with Fidel Castro after Cuba's shoot-down of rebel planes from the U.S. It was his fourth meeting in a year with TIME. "When we saw him in New York City in October, he wore a Dutch designer suit to woo the business community," she says. "This time he was back in fatigues." Fatigue is one word recent observers have pinned on the 69-year-old Castro, but last week, Booth says, "he looked fully invigorated by the crisis." So was Booth, like any reporter with a smart nose for a hot story...
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...
...Woo made his name with such incendiary devices as Bullet in the Head and Hard-Boiled--furious meditations on manhood as a criminal state of grace. Broken Arrow is jokier, less resonant than those dark epics, but it's still a swell night at the movies. The audience gets as pulverizing a workout as the stars do. Or rather, the stars' stunt doubles, who deserve Oscars for best supporting masochism...
...best work of either man, Broken Arrow and Rumble serve as introductions to the spirit of Hong Kong cinema, even as they serve notice to U.S. moviemakers. Think you can do it better? Just watch! Hollywood will watch and, if there's any justice, give Chan and Woo the best seats in the house...