Review of The Way of the Gun (2000) by Harry W — 08 Aug 2015

Led by Benecio Del Toro and supported by James Caan, The Way of the Gun boasted a strong cast to boot.

The Way of the Gun is one of those films which attempts to capitalize on the success of Quentin Tarantino, surrounding a crime story built upon the perspective of the criminals who attempt to keep us entertained through long periods of discussion providing insight into their minds. Problem is that since the characters are so thinly sketched, there is no reason we should be interested in what they have to say. And when this proves the case with The Way of the Gun, it unfortunately does not come as a surprise. I fully expected The Way of the Gun to be some kind of generic crime film, but instead it proved to be a frustrating one because even though it had some strong scenery and a mostly talented cast, this was not capitalized on.

The Way of the Gun is built on a story which is supposed to be unconventional, packed with different twists and turns as the crime intensifies. Unfortunately, I couldn't make sense of what it was honestly trying to do because despite the dedication from the actors I did not find myself coming across one character who I could have cared about in the film. The entire film is basically just a bunch of unlikable characters pointing guns at each other and talking about things which they genuinely think are insightful. While this is going on, there is story in the film which actually has nowhere to go and barely even tries to pretend otherwise, attempting to distract viewers with these aforementioned elements which do not carry the film far. The film is ultimately very shallow, and so it is reliant on the idea that it can sustain itself with a good sense of style. Admittedly, director Christopher McQuarrie does have an ability to make things look good with what limited resources and funding he has forwarded to him which pays him some credibility.

The production values in The Way of the Gun are good. Even though The Way of the Gun condemns itself to using few locations and a small cast, the scenery for the film is beautiful as it effectively adds a legitimately gritty feel to the story as it progressively becomes more western. And at the same time, the action in the film is structured very competently with the cinematography making use of several well placed long shots with western-style angles and smooth movements. And as well as that, the use of blood and gore adds an effective dramatic effect to it all. It's just such a shame that action of this caliber is wasted on a film which has no idea what to do with it all. If The Way of the Gun spent more time focused on the action instead of flipping between it and meaningless attempts at plot building then perhaps The Way of the Gun could have been a guilty pleasure. Unfortunately, it wants to pretend that it is actually something more than that, and considering that Christopher McQuarrie is the winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Usual Suspects I can see how everybody would come to this conclusion. Yet though he has an Oscar for writing a great screenplay, the writing in The Way of the Gun is insufficient and his role as director is more effective than anything even though it is purely for surface value as he is unable to breathe any competence into the scattered story. And ultimately, the cast cannot do it either because they get no support.

Benecio Del Toro doesn't have anything to boast about in The Way of the Gun. Coming from the year that he would win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, it's a powerful contrast to see such an empty effort in The Way of the Gun. Dedicating himself to saying every single line with the same repetitive nature and lack of genuine spirit, Benecio Del Toro brings in a performance with less depth than grit and no entertainment value to boot. He fails to build any strong chemistry with the rest of the cast and rather proves that he is not up to the challenge of transcending a sub-par screenplay. Benecio Del Toro fails to do anything in The Way of the Gun that he did properly in Traffic.

Ryan Phillipe lays his fake accent on way too thick. I don't know what he's doing to his voice or who he might be trying to mimic but it pays him no credibility as an actor. It's almost like he's trying to imitate a Jersey boy whose lungs have been damaged by years of smoking, and trying to understand precisely why is one of the great challenges of The Way of the Gun. Perhaps I'm overthinking, but considering the distinctive lack of thought he put into his performance when it came to line delivery it is sensible that one of us would have to. Ryan Phillipe is little more than an attractive shell who knows how to carry a gun but not a performance in The Way of the Gun and though his dedication to the stunts and the action scenes may prove mildly effective, he is an actor first. It's just a shame that of the two of us, I had to be the one to come to this realization. Ryan Phillipe doesn't get trapped in a generic role, he just makes it worse with a poor performance.

Juliette Lewis is annoying as well, simply because her role forces her to do little more than complain and scream the entire film to the point that her entire notion of playing the victim actually leaves viewers wanting her dead so that she can just shut up. Even James Caan's naturally likable charm is diminutive, although it is interesting to see him in a role of such vulnerability.

So The Way of the Gun has some good action scenes, but with nothing more than poorly written dialogue woven into the scenes between them, it ultimately ends up being a pretentiously slow and poorly structured crime thriller with no real purpose.