BEFORE: When I planned this chain, I guess I thought there would be more secret agents and anti-terrorist actions in it - I didn't realize I'd see mostly internal conflicts between different U.S. government agencies. But just as cops led to criminals, FBI and CIA guys led me here, to a film about a terrorist plot. And this will be the bridge to the next topic, sports. Linking from "Mercury Rising", Bruce Willis was also in "The Astronaut Farmer" with Bruce Dern. Also in "Last Man Standing", which was a crime film that looks like it might have gone with "Miller's Crossing" - oh, well.
THE PLOT: An Israeli anti-terrorist agent must stop a disgruntled Vietnam vet cooperating in a plot to commit a terrorist act at the Super Bowl.
AFTER: I found the first half-hour of this film to be quite confusing - it opens with an Israeli raid on a Palestinian stronghold in Beirut. The raid is successful, as valuable information is obtained, but the lead terrorists survives, to continue with the plot. It made me wonder why the head Israeli agent let her live, which made me wonder if he was a conspirator. He wasn't - but it was enough of a suggestion to throw me.
The film is unfortunately very prophetic - not about the result of the Super Bowl (since it features footage from the Steelers/Cowboys Super Bowl in 1976) but because it's about a terrorist act on U.S. soil. It's got future-echoes of 9/11, plus since a disgruntled veteran is in on the plot, it also sort of predicts the Oklahoma City bombings.
I wish the movie had gotten a little more inside the head of this individual - other than to suggest that he's crazy or unbalanced. Back in the mid-1970's, it seems like it was understood that a Vietnam vet would be angry, if not completely off his rocker - at least, that's the movie shorthand. Years later, it's a little harder to make the connection. I get that he was held captive by the enemy for years, and the film falls short of suggesting any kind of "Manchurian Candidate"-style programming, so we're left to assume that he's angry about losing his commission, his wife, his dignity. Still, it's a long leap from there to "I want to kill 80,000 people in a public place."
I suppose filmmakers today are guilty of the same sort of shorthand, whenever they portray a Muslim suicide bomber, or a backwoods militia-man - it's assumed that they're some kind of lunatic, but really, that's a storytelling crutch. No shades of grey in those characters, and there are none here, either. In this film Israeli = good, Palestinian = bad, but I know the decades-old conflict can't possibly be that simple.
Especially when the Israeli agent is willing to go to such lengths to track down the Palestinians in the U.S. and figure out the plot before it goes down. He threatens, tortures, and kills to get what he wants, which made it harder for me to separate the good guys from the bad guys. Where do we draw the line on acceptable behavior? What sins or crimes are acceptable in the process of saving lives and preventing a terrorist attack? I can't say as I have the answers - especially since I was distracted by the only Israeli agent with a thick Irish accent.
The Palestinians also seemed a little off - one had a German accent (the story claimed she was raised in Belgium), and this led me to feel there was something German about the whole plot - she kept saying "All is in order", as my German grandmother used to say, and the Vietnam vet also seemed like he had OCD, which is a concept that works along the same lines.
NITPICK POINT: An international agent doesn't know what what the Super Bowl is? Is there seriously anyone on the planet who doesn't know what the Super Bowl is? It's a cute line, but a cheap joke.
Also starring Robert Shaw (last seen in "Robin and Marian"), Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, with cameos from William Daniels, and Asian character actors Robert Ito and Clyde Kusatsu.
RATING: 3 out of 10 customs documents
And, with that, I'm halfway through the year. Assuming I watch 300 films this year, that is - which I think is a good cap. I still haven't been able to shorten the list to where it was when I went on break last October, I'm close. The list is hovering just above 250 films right now, and it was 270 on Jan. 1.
After the sports chain I'll be back on war films, then comes road films, a few Westerns, and a tour through classic literature. Then films about heaven, hell and space aliens, then I can begin the real location-based trip around the world. That should get me very close to the 1,300-film mark to end the 2012 chain.
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