10/6/06: Ransom (1996)We’ve postponed this one a few times, and always due to depressing developments in the news. Now that NBC has
cancelled Kidnapped, we might as well clear
Ransom off our schedule. Besides, it’s not like we have to worry about Mel Gibson’s personal problems. He’s smart enough to have assured the media that he’s the kind of good anti-Semite willing to speak out against a Republican administration. All is forgiven.
Ransom’s really smart, too. The film initially seemed like a strange follow-up to director Ron Howard’s
Apollo 13. Instead,
Ransom completes his trilogy about men at work. Airline mogul Tom Mullen (Gibson) initially responds like any rich guy when his son is kidnapped. He’s anxious to make the payment and get his kid back. Mullen’s also wise enough not to trust the Feds.
As it turns out, FBI agent Hawkins (Delroy Lindo, also in
Kidnapped) does Mullen a favor when his men screw up the first attempt to drop off the cash. Mullen discovers that the kidnappers haven’t made arrangements for the return of his son. The kid’s meant to end up in a shallow grave.
The desperate father gets a big idea while attempting a second payment. He drives to a TV studio and announces that he’s turning the $2 million ransom into a bounty. “No ransom will ever be paid for my son,” he explains to the camera. “Not one dime, not one penny. Instead, I’m offering this money as a reward on your head. Dead or alive—it doesn't matter. So, congratulations. You’ve just become a $2 million lottery ticket.”
It’s like Ayn Rand has written an episode of
Kojak. Mullen’s speech in the TV studio may be cinema’s greatest tribute to the power of cold hard cash. The film goes on to stress Mullen’s thankless role as a bold individual. Check out where all the guns are pointed at the end of the movie.
In another inspired touch, Howard cast the kidnappers—except for the lead villain—from what was then the hipster world of indie cinema. Lili Taylor is especially effective as a heartless dame who probably takes pride in recycling. Mullen represent the corporate mainstream. That means one token subplot about his past sins, but that's no distraction.
Yes, Kurosawa did it better. Yes, we’ll get to that one.
Ransom is still Howard’s best film of the ’90s. The only real flaw is that
brother Clint didn’t get a role. The resultant outrage convinced the director to then prominently feature Clint in
Edtv. No real favor there.
Make it your own: Used copies litter the landscape. Now we have to get more righteously obscure next week.
