On Deadly Ground (1994) Warner Bros./Action RT: 101 minutes Rated R (language, strong brutal violence, brief nudity) Director: Steven Seagal Screenplay: Ed Horowitz and Robin U. Russin Music: Basil Poledouris Cinematography: Ric Waite Release date: February 18, 1994 (US) Cast: Steven Seagal, Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey, Shari Shattuck, Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Hamilton, Chief Irvin Brink, Apanguluk Charlie Kairaiuak, Elsie Pistolhead, John Trudell, Mike Starr, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Jules Desjarlais. Box Office: $38.5M (US)
Rating: *
If you think Steven Seagal is a bad actor, wait until you get a load of him as a director. On Deadly Ground, his sole effort behind the camera, is easily the most ludicrous action movie of the 90s. It’s an environmental sermon disguised as a violent action flick. Scratch that, it’s a vanity project for Seagal who’s into environmental causes big time. Maybe he thought the best way to spread his message of environmental responsibility was through a kick-ass actioner. Whatever he thought (if he was actually thinking), it only succeeds at being one of the most unintentionally hilarious bad movies ever made. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was a parody of the genre. Alas, it is not.
Seagal plays Forrest Taft, an expert in dealing with oil-drilling related fires and ignoring his employer’s unethical business practices. He works for a company called Aegis whose ruthless CEO Michael Jennings (Caine, Get Carter) stands to lose the oil rights to the original owners, the Eskimos, if his new refinery in Alaska isn’t up and running in less than two weeks. That’s when the rights revert back to them. As such, he cuts corners wherever he can without regard for employee safety.
After extinguishing a particularly bad fire on one of the rigs, the foreman Palmer (Hamilton, Pale Rider) blames it on faulty equipment. Jennings blames it on human failure. When it’s discovered Palmer plans to spill his guts to the EPA, Jennings sends his main henchman MacGruder (McGinley, Point Break) to deal with him in a most final manner. When it’s further learned Taft accessed top secret information backing up Palmer’s claims, he’s set up to be killed in an explosion. Naturally, he survives and goes after the bad guys. Realizing Taft is still alive, Jennings brings in a group of mercenaries led by Stone (Ermey, Full Metal Jacket) to find and kill him.
That’s not all. I didn’t tell you everything. A tribe of Eskimos finds the badly-wounded Taft and takes him to their village where the chief uses his magic to heal him. After that, the chief has him undergo a vision quest in which he learns (a) his spirit animal is a polar bear and (b) it’s his destiny to stop people from polluting the world. The newly enlightened activist sets out on his new purpose with the chief’s attractive daughter Masu (Chen, The Last Emperor).
There is a lot that is ridiculous about On Deadly Ground. Let’s look at a few details that rank high on the long, long list. If Seagal’s character is such a friend to nature, why is he wearing alligator-skin boots and a buckskin jacket? Did God’s creatures willingly give up their lives so the star could look good? Caine, looking like a spokesmodel for Grecian Formula with his slicked-back, jet black hair, devours the scenery as the evil, greedy corporate monster who’ll stop at nothing to protect his interests. What is he even doing in such rubbish? Oh yeah, this is the Michael Caine that appeared in Jaws: The Revenge NOT the one who won an Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters.
Moving on, I guess Eskimos have the need for speed too. It’s the only reason I can think of why they have a snowmobile at the ready when Taft and Masu start their journey. There are so many shots of polar bears in this movie (none of whom are holding bottles of Coke, btw), it should be renamed Dances with Polar Bears. The idiotic dialogue runs the gamut from speechifying about the environment to overly macho drivel like “I wouldn’t dirty my bullets.” My favorite line is one that defies explanation or classification. When Taft beats down a big guy in a bar for harassing the locals, he asks him, “What does it take to change the essence of a man?” Seriously, who writes this stuff?
Don’t even get me started on Seagal’s little speech at the end. Addressing a room filled with Native Americans in full NA costume (headdresses and all), he talks about alternate fuel sources the government keeps secret from the public and how they protect the oil companies responsible for destroying the ecosystem by polluting it. Wait a sec, Steve-O! Isn’t the noxious BS pouring from your mouth a form of pollution? What about the smoke you’re blowing up our asses? That can’t be environmentally safe either. The nicest thing I can say about his speech is it’s shorter than it was originally supposed to be (11 minutes!). The studio made Seagal cut it down to four minutes after preview audiences laughed, booed and made obscene gestures during the sequence. WHEW! We dodged that bullet.
Just when you think you’re finally out of the woods, Seagal delivers a final blow to the senses with this awful song entitled “Under the Same Sun” (by The Scorpions) over the end credits. The lyrics are beyond banal. I can all but guarantee that it’s not on the playlist of even the staunchest vegan environmentalist.
Now let’s talk about the contradictory nature of On Deadly Ground. What sense does it make to save the Alaskan environment by blowing up the refinery? Wouldn’t that cause a major oil spill? I don’t know a lot about oil refineries or how they work, but it seems to me blowing one up would do more harm than good environmentally speaking.
The acting in On Deadly Ground is pretty bad, but the most embarrassing performance comes from Ermey as a jarhead type exaggerated to hilarious proportions. His character is more (unintentional) comic relief than a figure to be feared. McGinley overdoes it as well as Jennings’ right-hand man. Chen is given little more to do than follow Seagal as he takes on the bad guys single-handedly. Speaking of our esteemed lead actor, he actually attempts the impossible by trying to give a real performance. His character Taft starts out complicit with Jennings’ criminally negligent actions until he grows a conscience and tries to do good. I didn’t see any difference between bad Taft and good Taft; I can’t be the only one that doesn’t see it. In trying harder, Seagal does worse. This is hands-down his worst performance EVER! As for Chen, she’s as plastic as Seagal is wooden. As such, they’re an ideal couple.
I should have known On Deadly Ground was doomed when the studio cancelled the prelease screenings. I don’t recall their official reason, but it was total BS whatever it was. Still, I went opening night with high hopes. It’s Seagal, how bad could it be? I wish I never learned the answer to that one. The most telling line of dialogue is a warning his character issues to his colleagues: “If you smell anything, get out of here!” Perhaps audiences should have heeded this warning as well. Seagal should never be allowed to direct a movie again. EVER! He’s as bad as William Shatner (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier anybody?). Even the action scenes are clumsily handled. Then again, I’d rather watch it than The Glimmer Man or any of his straight-to-DVD titles. In its defense, On Deadly Ground is a great bad movie. It’s funnier than a lot of intentional comedies. I know it’s a back-handed compliment, but at least it’s a compliment. It’s the best I can muster for this mess of a movie.
