Broken Arrow Review by Beth Ann Griese

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Starring	John Travolta, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis
Director	John Woo
Year	1996
What it's worth		Matinee (Good way to spend a couple of hours.)

A broken arrow, according to the movie, is a nuclear missile that has been lost. In this case, there's two of them, and they've been stolen by Vic Deakins (John Travolta), a stealth bomber pilot, and a slick psychopath who's looking to ransom the missiles for a whole lotta dough. Between him and his money stands his copilot, Riley Hale (Christian Slater), and a Utah park ranger (Samantha Mathis) who found where he crash-landed. Deakins is most definitely crazy enough to detonate one or both of these weapons, so Hale, for honor and country, must track down Deakins, outthink his sick brilliance, and outfight his heavy weaponry and fast fists.

The director of this film is John Woo, an Asian action director who has started to make a name for himself in America with his last few films. This one will definitely put him on the action A-list. There's a couple of tell-tale signs of any Woo films. First, expect lots of focus on the guns. You can practically read the serial numbers on the weapons in some of these shots. Second, expect at least one shot of someone flying through the air with two pistols, both blazing away, in the midst of a gun battle. Woo can turn battle into poetry, and gets wonderful sets like the Utah landscape and abandoned mines to work with during this picture. None of the scenes are subtle, but they are pleasant to look at.

Plot, unfortunately, is frequently one of the first casualties in an action movie. In this case, it becomes one of the walking wounded. The story works; nuclear terrorism is a threat that can make almost anyone shudder. But there are a lot of large holes left uncovered. How on earth did a nut case like Deakins make it through the extensive psych testing anyone allowed near a nuke has to pass? Once the hijack of the missiles is known for what it is, why is Hale left to continue fighting Deakins alone? Where's the cavalry? The answers, of course, are that in the first case, the movie would be over before it started, and in the second, it would be finished a lot quicker and with less excitement.

There's one scene in particular, when Hale must convince his commanding officer to let him return to the hunt for Deakins, that is painfully bad. The dialogue is so stilted it sounds ridiculous. But thankfully, the scene is passed over as quickly as it started, and we're back to bumping along dirt roads to chase down madmen.

There's also a side character, Giles Prentice, played by Frank Whaley, who unfortunately gets dropped in the middle of the movie. He is a chief advisor for the military, and unlike some films that might portray this character as a blustering buffoon, Prentice is smart, savvy, and scared witless at the thought of what is happening. His character had great potential as a support for Hale, helping him to outthink Deakins and provide backup from the sidelines. But instead he gets lost in the shuffle and forgotten.

Which brings up another potential sore spot for films that star bullets; human characters usually suffer by comparison. With the exception of some of the supporting characters like Prentice, though, Woo manages to pull through, mostly via the strength of his stars. Personally, I like Travolta a lot better when he's playing a nice guy, but it's a credit to his acting ability that he can also play a chilling villian. Slater, as the earnest Hale, is likable and a good success in his first true action role, although we never doubt that he can pull through in the tough times, unlike Deakins.

Samantha Mathis' character, who goes unnamed for most of the movie, is also an excellent role. The trailers portray her as the typical female along for the ride, but actually, she's a fairly strong character who doesn't do the brightest things, but she holds her own and meets the situation with bravery, guts, and a few flying fists of her own. There's the obligatory sexual tension between her and Hale, of course, but the movie does not indulge the cliche of allowing the hero and heroine a convenient time out for heavy petting. In fact, the movie exercises a lot of restraint when it comes to avoiding cliches and heavy blood and gore. These sidesteps help make the movie appeal to a much broader audience than it may have without them.

There's one other complaint I must bring up: the music. Deakins has a theme tune, a twangy guitar that sounds like Chris Isaak meets Pulp Fiction, probably quite deliberately. The music works well in the main part of the movie, where his menacing presence can be heralded with an eerie guitar tune. But by the end of the movie, the tune has been well overplayed, and a soulful guitar in the midst of explosions, shootouts, and screaming was horribly out of place. It even had people giggling in the theater when I saw the movie.

Broken Arrow breaks no new ground in the action genre. It provides few, if any, surprises. But it has a good basis for a story, memorable characters, and some amazing stunts, effects, and photography. When the flavor you're in the mood for is action, Broken Arrow will hit the spot nicely.

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