Ronin: Bit of Raspberry Jam back there!

Spoilers throughout!

Hey guys, thanks for joining me again for the third film on Pound Shop Flix! Congrats to anyone who successfully identified from wednesday’s teaser that the film was to be Ronin: a competant action/ crime thriller starring Robert De Niro, Jean Reno and a number of other recognisable stars.

As I hinted at on Wednesday, when I bought this film hoping for guff, I was mistaken! This film, while by no means a masterpiece, is pretty good! It starts off feeling like a fairly by-the-numbers crime flick carried largely by De Niro’s star power, but develops into a more complex beast as motivations are revealed, backs are stabbed, and twists abound. Nonetheless I decided to go ahead and write about this film. It may be significantly better ’90s action film than Hard Rain, and be lightyears ahead of Dark Crimes, but I still got it for a quid, and there’s still plenty of stuff I think interesting to talk about.

So the film centres around a mysterious case, which both Russian and Irish criminal interests both want to secure. Initially the stories focus is on the Irish side: a woman named Deirdre (which is pronounced ‘Deer-Drah’, not ‘Deer-Dree’)* and the gang of men she has hired for the task of stealing the case. These men are the ‘ronin’ which give the film its title; though they are never explicitly called by this name, their similarities to the figures of Japanese history from which the word originally comes are pointed to deliberately in the film. Where actual ronin were disgraced Samurai who had failed to protect their master and were forced to become mercenaries or bandits, these men are all ex-military, or ex-intelligence officers who sell their skills for a high price. Pretty early on, tension mounts as the group begin to plan and execute their operation. They do not trust one another, and some appear more capable than others.The actual heists begins well, but as the case appears secure one of the men ‘Gregor’ (Stellan Skarsgård) betrays the others and escapes with the case. As Gregor remains on the run, De Niro’s character Sam and the others track him down and capture him, only to be betrayed again, this time by the Irishman pulling the strings Seamus (Jonathan Pryce). Leaving only Sam and Vincent (Jean Reno) alive, the Seamus escapes with Deirdre, Gregor and the case. The film climaxes in a scramble for the case through the crowds of an Ice Rink, where the Russains, the Irish, Gregor, and the pairing of Sam and Vincent all fight for the case- until the finale, where it is revealed that Sam never cared about the case, only Seamus, who he’s been tasked with arresting because he never left the CIA.

All told the film is a good watch! The set pieces are all exciting, the shoot-out tense and the car chases exciting. There’s a sort-of romance between Sam and Deirdre but it never really gets off the ground; though it does provide one or two emotional moments in a film where no-one is otherwise willing to give anything away. I liked the fact that Sam turns out to be a ‘good guy’ rather than just a mercenary. It is hinted at and later confirmed and while it is a twist, it doesn’t feel out of place- every character in this film has hidden motivations, distrusts one another (except Sam and Vincent who pretty much become best mates), and keeps secrets; Sam’s fall into place in a logical manner.

The film does require some suspension of disbelief and makes some jumps between set-piece to set-piece via some improbable problem solving- Vincent’s friend Jean Pierre appears to have access to any secret the plot requires, with no explanation of how. This however, is pretty much fine- it’s not a documentary after all. The budding friendship between Sam and Vincent feels real and both actors inhabit their protagonist roles well, and De Niro does his thing enjoyably; he’s given pithy dialogue peppered with metaphors and wise-cracks (see here for examples: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122690/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu ) which is enjoyable to watch, though occasionally tiptoes to the line of being a Bit Much.

Another interesting thing about this film that I think is worth exploring here is that it exists in a very specific place and time which, watching in 2019, you can’t help but notice. Sean Bean is in the first third of this film, and looks remarkably young- the fact that he bows out early shows the films age, given his modern day star power.** It also hails from a time when Robet De Niro was still making good films and not Dirty Grandpa or Bread adverts! (I’m kidding Bob, please don’t hurt me!) More seriously, it was released in 1998 and builds into its plot not only ex-KGB members (though this is fairly common in action flicks from the late 20th Century) but also the flippin’ Northern Irish Peace Process, which was reaching its conclusion at roughly around the time the film was finished!*** Indeed it is essentially suggested that Sam’s capturing of Seamus results in the completion of the peace process. I like that this gives the film a sense of context- though it’s a touch heavy handed on that last point.

So yeah, I dug this film, basically! The performances were all good, at no point did I feel like I was watching an actor go through the motions. The script and plot were entertaining too!

The last thing I want to do is to talk about why I thought this film would be bad at the time of purchase. Now obviously I found it in the shelves of a Pound Shop, which is a good start. But it was two key factors that made me think it probably wasn’t up to much. One, it was a De Niro film I hadn’t heard of- and I like De Niro, I would have said I known about all his Big Films. Second of all, the DVD box design from the edition I picked up was bad. Not laughably bad, just generic and uninspired, essentially just the film’s poster (see above) with the tagline ‘Loyalty Is Bought, Betrayal Is A Way Of Life’ (instead of the Good Morning America quote that appears on the above version.)

Furthermore it featured no reviews or commendations, so I figured it wan’t up to much. Just goes to show- you can’t judge a film by its substandard marketing!

And that’s about that gang! Next week we’ve got a fluffy goof-about of a flick with two of Hollywood’s top female leads. I look forward to sharing it with you.

-Tom

*Who is played by Natascha McElhone, whom I couldn’t immediately place. So I looked her up- turns out I recognise her from The Truman Show, which I mentioned my love of last week!

**Also, in Ronin we have a film in which Sean Bean appears, but DOESN’T DIE. The curse is (was?) broken!!! His character does however refer to a gunfight as ‘a bit of raspberry jam’. I don’t know why.

***The film released in the U.K on the 20th November 1998. The Good Friday Agreement was signed in April of that year.

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