Review of On Deadly Ground (1994) by Greg S — 03 Sep 2007

Forrest Taft (Seagal) is an oil company employee who, after a violent near-death experience and a shamanistic reawakening, decides to kick ass and blow crap up for the rights of Alaskan Eskimos and the purity of Mother Nature.

"On Deadly Ground" is where Steven Seagal's career started to go astray. It was a vanity project from beginning to end, and it shows. There's an interesting story buried somewhere underneath the badly written dialogue, illogical plot developments, and schizophrenic attempt at delivering an environmental message while fighting an evil oil company through blowing stuff to pieces, but it's buried so deep that no one really cares. It's also a movie that MIGHT have gotten a revival (what with the environmentalism craze that's swept through the mass media and Hollyweird in the past couple of years, but, unfortunately, the film is simply too laughable to appeal to the entirely too serious-minded treehuggers of the Cult of Al Gore. (It's also sure to offend them, because, while Steven Seagal uses the indiginlous population of Alasak as a jumping off point for his movie, he couldn't be bothered to cast one in the role of sexy nature girl Masu, going instead with Chinese actress Joan Chen in the role. Personally, I don't have a problem with such casting, but I'm sure it will drive some bleeding heart film-viewers to distraction.).

The film not only manages to work at cross-purposes with its environmental message through some of its key action scenes, but Seagal is so hamfisted in the delivery of his message that he manages to simulatneously come across as both a spoof of an action hero and a spoof of an environmentalist--and that painfully long speech at the end of the movie only helps to drive the joke home (not to mention driving home the illogic of the script... how can a guy who killed 30-40 fairly innocent people in the course of the film be addressing anyone but a jury of his peers, let along a state legislature?). Worse, the treament of Native American culture in this film also manages to do exactly the opposite of what I'm certain Seagal was hoping to acheive... and I am likewise certain that the various "vision quests" of Homer Simpson over the years have their origins with this film.

The only thing to recommend this movie, and the only thing that is noteworthy about Seagal's directorial skills, are the fact the film takes full advantage of the majestic natural setting it attempts to be an advocate for. While I think much of "Alaska" is actually Washington State, there's no denying some gorgeous scenery was recorded for this film. Not even the decent performances by Michael Caine, John C. McGinley, and Joan Chen can make up for the awful script they're dealing with... or for the fact that the charm Seagal displayed in "Hard to Kill" and "Under Seige" seems to have completely evaporated here.

In the end, the lofty objectives Steven Seagal had for this movie are weighed down in a morass of ego and directorial incompetence, as well as being diluted by a shoddy script. It's a movie that is an ideal candidate for screening on a Bad Movie Night, but it's not good for much else.

On Deadly Ground.

Starring: Steven Seagal, Michael Caine, Joan Chen, and John C. McGinley.

Director: Steven Seagal.