Review of Mission Impossible (1971) by Jacob M — 28 Mar 2017

One of the more interesting film franchises to come out of Hollywood in recent years is definitely the Mission: Impossible franchise, a franchise that's had a mixed reputation in the film industry, with diehard fans of the 60's TV series hating it for not staying true to the show and adored by obsessed fans of Tom Cruise. To be honest, I've not watched the show, so judging a movie that supposedly does not stay true to the show I cannot do. The first Mission film, while it's certainly not a perfect essential in any way, is a fun summer blockbuster that sets its intentions straight.

Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, a field agent of the IMF (Impossible Missions Force) who is a part of a team to do impossible missions for the CIA. While being involved in a mission in Kiev under team leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), the mission goes horribly wrong to where everyone in the team is killed off (with the exception of Cruise, of course), and Hunt is framed for the murders. On the run from the CIA, especially officer Kittridge (Henry Czerny), Hunt teams up with other disavowed IMF agents, such as Kreiger (Jean Reno) and Luther (Ving Rhames), to figure out the truth of the failed mission and solve the puzzles.

The film also features Emmanuelle Beart as Claire, wife of the Jon Voight character and Vanessa Redgrave as an arms dealer named Max.

The interesting thing about the Mission: Impossible franchise is that each film is directed by a different person. The first Mission film is directed by Brian DePalma, best known for directing films like Carrie and Scarface. As the future films went into the regular action territory, DePalma puts the regular Hollywood action expected in a modern action film but also adds touches of an old-fashioned spy thriller. A common complaint on this film is how convoluted and confusing the plot can be. With the idea of this film acting like an old-school spy thriller, a confusing plot seems common for this kind of film. When I first watched this film, there were some moments that were kind of confusing when it comes to characters making deals with suspicious characters. It seems that every time I watch it, it's still a little convoluted, but it's also not the most complex movie out there; there are far more confusing movies I've watched in my lifetime of watching movies (I still don't get how a man could die by falling on his knife in Carousel). But when the action does show up, it doesn't disappoint. There's three big action pieces in this film, and DePalma creates the mood very well, from the botched mission that kills off the IMF team, featuring outstanding eerie atmosphere throughout, a break in at CIA with the most famous sequence with Tom Cruise dangling for his life trying to retrieve a missing computer disc, and the big finale involving Cruise on top of a bullet train being chased by a helicopter. While that last part sounds utterly ridiculous, and the CGI effects are slowly starting to show their age in this scene, but the scene is still pretty fun to watch, especially Cruise's famous line, "Red light! Green light!". De Palma also does well in creating suspense, with some really awesome camera techniques throughout, such as tilted camera angels in tense situations, and others where the camera places the audience in Tom Cruise's footsteps. It's quite brilliant.

Tom Cruise is certainly one of the best action stars in recent years, though some of his films can get really ridiculous sometimes, and in Mission: Impossible, Cruise does excellent in these sequences, particularly the CIA break in. Cruise can also really act well in this movie, particularly his reactions when his team is killed off in the opening 25 minutes of the film. Other acting performances are enjoyable as well, particularly Ving Rhames and Jean Reno as the other renegade officers who help Cruise in his impossible mission. Jon Voight probably has the best performance here as Jim Phelps the team leader. Some of the character's plot twists don't really make sense in areas, but Voight manages to convince either way. I wasn't too convinced though with Emmanuelle Beart as the wife Claire. She seemed way too young to play a character that's supposed to be married to Jon Voight, and the implied romance between her and Tom Cruise comes rather flat. There's a moment in the film where Voight says, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife," and to me, the film fails at bringing that adulterous romance into the picture; though I understand it couldn't go that extreme in a film intended to maintain the boundaries of the PG-13 rating, I'm just saying it could have been handled a little better than what we ended up getting in the end.

Mission: Impossible is also known for it's extremely awesome theme, especially used in the TV series. This same theme, originally composed by Lalo Schifrin, is used also in the movie, and its used really well. I also like the remix that U2 created in the closing credits, despite it losing it's jazzy instrumentations that makes the theme awesome. The rest of the score, provided by Danny Elfman, does its job done by having good instrumentations and sounds in the right places, though Elfman's greatest work is in the many films ge's done with Tim Burton.

No it's not a perfect film, as the story is a little complicated to follow in places and Emmanuelle Beart's performance is cringe inducing bad, plus the implied romance between her and Cruise fails miserably, but as a whole, Brian DePalma's Mission: Impossible film is fun to watch, with a memorable performance from Tom Cruse, good suspense where it's needed, awesome uses of that awesome theme song, and some pretty fun action sequences scattered throughout the picture. My opinion of this film might change if I decide to watch the TV series, which will be unlikely as I take things for what they are, but even if this film doesn't stay entirely true to the TV series, it's still a really fun film to watch.