The Hunted: Review By carl

This film has somehow managed to sneak into theatre's without the public noticing. I was aware of it's existence but never actually heard too much about it other than in a few banners found on internet sites. I don't know exactly what the situation was like in other countries but over here the film never even had a trailer shown in theatre's, or anything so simple as a TV spot. In fact the only way I ever actually found out when it was being released was because I happened to be walking past a cinema the day before it got released. It's a shame that so little was spent on advertising this film because it is a good film, yet most will never even hear of the film, and those that will, will just be assuming it is a shameless Rambo rip off.It's not just the shameless Rambo rip off that you might be expecting though. There are certainly similarities to that particular film in the basic structure of the story, but it was only on a very basic level. Hunted is a much edgier film, with a character who was willing to kill. That was actually one of the problems with the original First Blood movie, it was supposed to be the story of a traumatized Vietnam Vet who goes mad in a small American town. Yet the character went out of his way not to kill people, which seriously lessened the films overall message. For the most part though, Hunted does manage to portray a character who has been driven insane by the ravages of war, while still including a small section to show the characters humanity.

This is done most effectively in the relationship the character has with his daughter. He teaches her all about hunting, and how to follow the tracks of the local animals, and in this scene you are able to totally forget the monstrosities that the character had inflicted at the start of the film. Unfortunately the film doesn't fully develop itself in this area. The ways he bonds with his daughter are the clechaed ways that we've seen before and we are never once treated to any of his humanity with the other characters.Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem because at least it is slightly more advanced than the traditional Hollywood blockbusters, but we are dealing with a film by William Friedkin here. He is responsible for the character of Poppeye Doyle from the French connection films, and Poppeye Doyle is a perfect example of a layered character. A good guy who was racist, planted evidence and beat suspects. This isn't exactly new nowadays but back in the 70's it was rare to see a hero portrayed in such an edgy light and I would have loved if he could have handled a layered villain just as well.

Still lately Friedkin has also been responsible for the war drama Rules of Engagement, so it's obvious that you can't go expecting perfection from the director, and like I said the film is still a good film in it's own right. The woodland scenes with Del Toro stalking his prey are amazing. Wonderful camera work, a great soundtrack and Friedkin's undeniable style make for some very tense moments. Del Toro just manages to play these parts incredibly well, and to be honest they do benefit from the characters lack of humanity. It makes him scarier to think that he can't be reasoned with, especially when you combine it with the fact that he's been trained to be virtually unstoppable. Del Toro was amazing but unfortunately he can't hold the film together for the middle section.

The middle of the film takes place, not in the woodlands like the start and finish, but in the city. I can see a lot of good idea's used in this section as Friedkin makes comparisons between the 2, building on the idea of the urban jungle. However despite the fact that he never takes this section over the top I still didn't really like it. It lost a lot of the tension and claustrophobia found in the woodlands, and I couldn't see the characters training working in a city setting. They certainly write it authentic enough as the characters start to make use of anything they can in order to hide, yet I couldn't help shake the feeling that it wouldn't work. The very fact that there are thousands of people around would make trying to just disappear virtually impossible to someone with woodland training, and after a while this section began to feel like another variation on The Fugitive. It's not a bad variation by any means, and is certainly better than Double Jeopardy, but personally I would have preferred to have seen more of the amazing woodland chase.

You do have to know what to expect from Hunted though. As a tense action thriller it is very good, but as a strong character study on the effects of war, it's good but nothing special. If the film had focused on it's strengths then it could have been great. As it stands it's better than most good films and comes highly recommended, as long as you don't expect it to change your world.