Details
Movie Description
David Mamet wrote this screenplay under the name Richard Weisz, as a gun for hire, much like the masterless samurai of the film's title, who roamed Japan in the 19th Century, loyal only to themselves. A group of men with highly developed skills are called to a meeting in a deserted warehouse in Paris. Sam (Robert De Niro), an American, may be ex-CIA. Vincent (Jean Reno), the terminally cool Frenchman, is a mystery. Russian computer whiz Gregor (Stellan Skarsgaard) is presumably ex-KGB, and Spence (Sean Bean), a British demolitions man, and Larry (Skipp Suddith), another Yank, round out the team. They've been hired by the IRA, through liaison Deirdre (Natascha McElhone), to steal a briefcase of unknown contents somewhere in Europe. As the unit races from one spectacular location on the French Riviera to another, the body count mounts, some Russian gangsters get into the act, and the betrayals come fast and furious. In a rare comic moment, Sam stitches up his own bullet wound, and asks a friend to finish before he passes out. RONIN features an exceptional cast, sumptuous locations, and the kind of realistic car chases and action scenes that one expects from a director of John Frankenheimer's skills.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen - 2.35
Pan & Scan - 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Dolby Digital 5.1 - French
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. John Frankenheimer - Director
Alternate Ending
Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Additional Products:
Booklet
Theatrical release: September 23, 1998.
Shooting locations: Nice, Arles, Villefranche-sur-mer, and Paris, France.
Frankenheimer spent years living in France, some of them studying at the fame Cordon Bleu culinary academy.
Industry Reviews
"...RONIN represents an exhilarating return to form for Frankenheimer....The real deal in action fireworks..."
Rolling Stone - p.133-4 - Peter Travers (10/15/1998)
"...Bracing sequences....A welcome throwback....[De Niro] makes most recent action-movie figures look like callow jocks..." -- Rating: B+
Entertainment Weekly - p.70 - Michael Sauter (03/05/1999)
"...This throwback to director John Frankenheimer's vintage international thrillers has an attractively old-fashioned feel..."
USA Today - p.6E - Mike Clark (10/23/1998)
"...An extraordinary cast of actors, all on the same formidable wavelength, match wits most impressively....Mr. De Niro shows off a brooding, hard-guy panache with its own brand of international appeal..."
New York Times - p.E15 - Janet Maslin (09/25/1998)
"[R]uthlessly constructed, hugely entertaining..."
Uncut - Kevin Maher (11/01/2004)
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