‘Ronin’ or — De Niro’s Best 90s Thriller?

You know what — I think I might prefer it to ‘Heat’ and I wasn’t expecting that!

I’m going to say it — Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ is a great film but, for me, it can feel a little overly self-aware, a little ponderous, has a love story I never feel particularly invested in and, dare I say it (“Dare! Dare!”), can be slightly pretentious with its sense of cool detachment always keeping me somewhat at arms-length.

None of that can be said about John Frankenheimer’s ‘Ronin’ which jettisons all redundancy, strips everything back, straps you into the passenger seat and blasts along in a singular mission to immerse and entertain. Sure, comparing the two films is like comparing apples to oranges but revisiting ‘Ronin’ last night after many years I found it contains that element that so many thrillers aspire to but very few achieve — to be excessively entertaining. If I had to watch a De Niro led 90s thriller it might be this one.

I’m not going to explain the plot because one of the joys of ‘Ronin’ is how Frankenheimer, and script writer David Mamet, tease out and gradually reveal what’s going on as well as just exactly who is who. The first half of the movie, which revolves around preparing for the heist of a briefcase (contents unknown) is an incredible example of pacing and story-telling, a lot of it being revealed through some wonderful character interaction ( we are never told who these characters are but we know who these characters are). The entire effect is to completely draw you in.

And when the heist does happen all the tension that Frankenheimer has been allowing to simmer, albeit at quite a high temperature, bursts out in an explosion of gunfire, rocket-fire and high-speed getaways. It’s a fantastic sequence directed with clarity, energy and purpose. This is an incredibly well made movie.

My only slight issue with ‘Ronin’ is that once the heist has happened the film cools off just a tad but I guess it had to for two reasons — one: to allow us to catch our breath and, 2: to allow the story to proceed. It’s just that this is the first time we are taken away from the characters of De Niro and Jean Reno and I found I missed them. But we’re only away from them to find out what else is going and what the stakes are. This had to happen at some point in the story. Oh, and there’s also the issue of Jonathan Pryce and Natascha McElhone’s Irish accents but I can let those slide as much as they let their pronunciations.

But Frankenheimer keeps it all moving along with brio, including a great sequence at an amphitheatre. There’s also a pretty icky scene involving De Niro guiding some surgery on a bullet wound that also features a welcome cameo by Michael Lonsdale, emphasising the Euro-thriller feel of this film. And, again, it gives us a little down time before kicking off into one of the greatest car-chases ever put to film.

Now when someone tells me that a movie has one of the greatest car chases ever made it’s always hard knowing whether to believe them or not, mainly because there have been so many. Is it as good as ‘The French Connection’ or ‘The Bourne Supremacy’? Or what about the many Bond chases? ‘Ronin’s easily holds its own against all of these and, in a sense, exceeds them. This is one spectacular piece of action as we are rocketed through packed streets at breakneck speed. And Frankenheimer sticks to the number one rule of directing an exciting car-chase: keep the camera low. For almost the entire 7 minutes the point of view is as low to the ground as can be and the effect is exhilarating and fast as hell.

And it’s not just that this was one of the last great car chases made before the excessive use of CGI but it’s also because the film knows that this is what it has all been about and leading up to. Frankenheimer being Frankenheimer loves his cars and it’s amazing just how much car action — whether it is a chase or just men waiting in them in anticipation — there is, and when it comes to the final chase it’s almost like the movie is saying to us — “Oh, you thought what came earlier was exciting? Well get a load of this!” and then pins us to the back of our seats. It is, indeed, one of the greatest chases ever.

‘Ronin’ isn’t perfect or “deep” (it wisely never tries to be) but it seems to be more than the sum of its parts and if its mission is to entertain then it easily clears that bar with energy and style. I also love that after having given us one of the best war films of the 60s (‘The Train’) and one of the best cold-war films ever (’The Manchurian Candidate’) that at the very end of the 1990s Frankenheimer came out with one last blinder. It’s a movie that shows other filmmakers exactly “how it’s done” and continues to do so.