Starring: John Travolta,
Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo
I remember, back in 1996, some
people telling me that they had attended a premiere for the film Broken Arrow. They stated that the
highlight of the evening was that Chris Barrie from Red Dwarf and The Brittas
Empire was present. The film they really did not rate. I therefore had
understandably low expectations when I placed Broken Arrow on my list of films set in Utah.
And, y’know, it was passable if
not particularly great. It belongs to that mid-90s school of action movies
which so inspired Michael Bay – spend the budget on special effects and
explosions and hope the rest of the film looks after itself. Examples from our cinematic
odyssey so far would include Twister and
Hard Rain (in fact Broken Arrow and Hard Rain share the same writer – Graham Yost – and one of the
stars – Christian Slater). And there are plenty of things that explode in this
film, including (but not limited to) a stealth bomber, four helicopters, and a
train. Oh yeah – and half of Utah when a nuclear warhead detonates. That’s how
extreme the movie is. In any other film the hero would be racing to stop a
nuclear warhead going off; in Broken
Arrow one goes off and the hero has to race to stop a second going the same
way.
Slater stars as USAF pilot
Captain Riley Hale. Alongside Major Vic Deakins (John Travolta) he flies the B3
Stealth Bomber. Sent off on a training exercise over Utah he is suddenly
attacked by his commanding officer: Deakins intends to steal the warheads and
hold the U.S. for ransom. There then follows a game of cat and mouse as Deak’s
mercenaries try to make off with the missiles and Hale – helped by park ranger
Terry (Samantha Mathis) – attempt to stop them.
As I say, there are plenty of
things blowing up all over the shop (particularly helicopters; if you’ve ever
had a deep-seated hatred of helicopters this is the film for you). There are
firefights in canyons, in trucks, in mine passages and on trains. There are
expendable heavies to get walloped (even if some of them do get snarled
henchman lines: “You probably thought I
was a computer nerd, didn’t you? Wrong! I was a Navy SEAL lady!” or “This is where you get off…”). Shit
explodes. And slap bang in the middle we have Travolta hamming his way up a
sliding scale of madness. We know he’s a bad guy – he smokes! – for heavens sake, but he really ratchets through the
gears here. When we get to the part – which you can see coming well in advance –
when someone exclaims “You’re out of your
mind!” Deak’s only response is “Yeah –
ain’t it cool?” Slater, as in Hard
Rain, does a competent job. Mathis runs around handily.
 |
| He had warned her to take more care while shaving |
It’s just not particularly well
written. People seem to produce guns from nowhere. The characters are never fleshed out. Two major characters – Delroy Lindo’s Colonel Wilkins
and Frank Whaley’s adviser Giles – just sort of vanish from the plot. There is
a line about “endangered dirt” which
I immediately registered as being a Very Important Plot Point – why else would
it be in there? But then nothing is ever mentioned of it again. And there is a
persistent aura of misogyny. Terry calls Hale “Captain”; he calls her “lady”.
Even when she jumps a goon by surprise the goon is able to turn the tables,
requiring Hale to rescue her. Sure, she’s brave and she has a good verbal spar
with Deakins, but she is still background to the big hard male hero.
Broken Arrow has a couple of good lines (Hale on their training
mission: “When the day comes that we have
to go to war against Utah we’re really gonna kick ass.” Later, after
improvising an explosive petrol can Terry asks “Where die you learn that? The air force?” He replies “New Jersey.”). There were two moments
when I actually felt the adrenaline pump that comes from a good action movie.
But two moments in an entire film isn’t really good enough. If you are going to
sacrifice writing for action at least make it good action. Make it real
edge-of-your seat dizzying furious action which leaves you thinking that the
characters (whom you should, ideally, care about) could lose. That just doesn’t
happen here – despite all the beeping, flashing count-downs that pepper the
film. It is a waste of director John Woo’s talents. Broken Arrow is watchable; but you wouldn’t particularly want to
watch it twice. It doesn’t even have Chris Barrie in it…
What have I learnt about Utah?
In Broken Arrow we see the same parched landscape and the same red
rock canyons as in 127 Hours. The
land featured is national park – hence the presence of a feisty park ranger.
Who knew park rangers were armed? Rangers have to know the land. Even outside
the park – one assumes that if there was copper mining going on until fairly
recently that would not be on National Park land.
Can we go there?
Broken Arrow was set in, over and under Utah (with side trips to
Missouri, Colorado and Washington, D.C.). Utah locations include it’s own ‘Little Hollywood’, Kanab, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
and Lake Powell. I think the action was actually meant to be set in Canyonlands as reference is being made to "suspicious trucks" entering via the Needles gate.
Filming took place outside Utah
too. The scenes on the train were shot on the Central Montana Railroad near Lewiston, right in the middle of the state. From
the photos it looks as though the tunnel is located between Danvers and Denton.
The trestle bridge seen in the film (the one, I think, from which Howie Long’s
Kelly falls) runs over the Judith River, but was badly damaged by floods last year).
Overall Rating: 2/5
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