I've watched a lot of movies in my life. So many, in fact, that there are a ton that I swear I've watched before, but when I "rewatch" them it turns out that I never saw them in the first place. Now, I could have sworn that I've seen Hard Boiled before, even though I didn't remember anything about it's plot. It could have been that I just saw a bunch of clips from it, and during one of my massive movie marathons I thought I saw it around the same time that I saw The Killer. As it turns out I was grossly mistaken. I would have remembered this movie, since it's probably the best action film I've ever seen.
George Miller's Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is the standard that all action films are typically held to, but as much as I adore that film, Hard Boiled beats it by a hair. This film just keeps pounding you with the most gorgeous destruction you'll ever see, bloodshed that actually qualifies as a work of art, and multiple great performances, especially by the always-brilliant Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. As John Woo's Hong Kong swan song before moving on to a much less interesting Hollywood career, this films like a director throwing every single trick he has at you, and it works as the culmination of a master at the top of his craft. I can imagine the excitement at the time this came out, with people wondering what Woo would be capable of with a Hollywood budget and the best resources in the business at his disposal. Turns out he didn't need it, since with a $4 1/2 million dollar budget Woo was able to kick the living shit out of anything Hollywood was putting out at the time, aside from the random Spielberg and Cameron joints.
A lot of critics apparently prefer The Killer over Hard Boiled due to Yun-fat's character in that film, and I can understand that. As a character study, The Killer is a better story, while Hard Boiled splits the story between the two leads, and Yun-fat's character isn't much more than "bad ass who's a great shot." What pushes Hard Boiled way further ahead of The Killer for me is that the character deficiencies are more than made up for with the best action set pieces committed to film. I've already seen a bunch of films about killers with a heart of gold. I've rarely seen anything as majestic as Hard Boiled's hospital climax.
Clearly I'm going to put this one above The Killer. Hell, I'll even put it above The 400 Blows. Do I dare put it above Grand Illusion? That's the problem with the immediate response to a film like this...I'm tempted to just pit it against Seven Samurai, even though that feels preposterous to me. As much as I'm still riding a high from this film, I can't quite put it above Grand Illusion. Renoir's classic is just too funny, too deep, and all around just too great to put this film above it. Plus, and this is a biggie, I'll probably watch Grand Illusion again sooner than Hard Boiled, mainly because at this point in my life I don't need to keep snorting up the action. The quieter, subtler works are the ones I'll want to revisit more often as I get older.
1. Beauty and the Beast (1946)
2. Seven Samurai (1954)
3. Grand Illusion (1937)
4. Hard Boiled (1992)
5. The 400 Blows (1959)
6. The Killer (1989)
7. A Night to Remember (1958)
8. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
9. Amarcord (1973)
Next time: Before she was dating American Werewolves Jenny Agutter was going for a Walkabout with Nicolas Roeg. How will the first ten films of the Criterion Collection be ranked? Come back to find out!
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