# Way of the Gun, The (2000)

### reviewed by
Homer Yen

    "The Way of the Gun" – Trigger Happy, Cocksure Smart
    by Homer Yen
    (c) 2000

In many ways, "TWOTG" does for tough-guy movies what LA Confidential did for police stories. There's savviness in its writing and a mature patience in allowing the material to unfold. But, I suppose, we wouldn't expect less from Christopher McQuarrie, who was responsible for giving us "The Usual Suspects". His writing talents are still in tact as he brings to us a bloody yet intellectual tale of two unabashed but dimwitted thugs and a plan gone awry.

The two goons are Parker and Longbaugh (Ryan Phillipe and Benicio del Toro). These two men show the hardened wear of those who have always had it tough. Their troubled youths have forged two nihilistic souls who use their amazing gunplay skills to survive. Given the choice of minimum wage or petty crime, they'll always choose the latter. Yet, they are incredibly foolish planners. Actually, these two never really have a plan. They just improvise along the way, hoping that their bravado and arsenal of guns will take care of anything that they might have overlooked.

Their next scheme, which they cook up about as fast as a McDonald's burger, is to kidnap some surrogate mother named Robin (Juliette Lewis) that was hired by some well-to-do family. If all goes well, they'll receive a nice bit of ransom money and life goes on. What Parker and Longbaugh do not realize is that Robin is carrying a baby for the Chidduck family, whose patriarch is a feared crime boss. Moreover, two bodyguards (Nicky Katt and Taye Diggs) constantly escort her. These two protectors find an eerie sense of pleasure when being confronted and tested in life and death situations. They would rather die than fail; thus their bravado level is equally high. But it seems that the testosterone levels of Parker and Longbaugh are a bit higher, and they employ some unusual but fun-to-watch tactics to pull off the kidnapping and to outrun the pursuers in a sort of slow-motion car chase down a series of alleyways.

The next hour or so, we watch the Chidduck camp regroup and assess their situation. During this time, additional plot lines come into play and more and more details are revealed. Because the Chidduck's can not go to the police and because of the special circumstances involving the kidnapping, we are introduced to more characters that will help to influence the outcome. We discover that not everyone in the Chidduck camp is loyal to the cause. As a result, there are undercurrents of a conspiracy, and elements of betrayal and subterfuge. The sepia-toned atmosphere is made all the more fascinating thanks to a terrific soundtrack which emits velvet forebodings, shrills of intrigue and crescendos that tell us of life and death situations that are about to occur.

The momentum and the coolness of the film, however, begins to fizzle in the last 30 minutes, which featured an overly extended shootout where our two desperados try to make their way off with the ransom money. You can expect lots of bloodletting and an odd denouement. In fact, you may admire this film more than you like it. Yet, for the most part, "The Way of the Gun" stays on target. It feels cool with its elements of conspiracy and gunplay, and smart for its invective dialogue and tough guy poetry.

    Grade: B

    S:        0 out of 3
    L:        3 out of 3
    V:        3 out of 3

    Do You Yahoo!?
    Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere!
    http://mail.yahoo.com/

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews