Hard Target (1993) Universal/Action RT: 97 minutes Rated R (language, strong violence) Director: John Woo Screenplay: Chuck Palmer Music: Graeme Revell Cinematography: Russell Carpenter Release date: August 20, 1993 (US) Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lance Henriksen, Yancy Butler, Arnold Vosloo, Wilford Brimley, Kasi Lemmons, Willie Carpenter, Eliott Keener, Marco St. John, Chuck Pfarrer. Box Office: $32.5M (US)/$74.1M (World)
Rating: *** ½
For his American debut, Hong Kong director John Woo (The Killer, Hard Boiled) sifted through several scripts, most of them martial arts movies, before deciding on Hard Target, an update of 1932’s The Most Dangerous Game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme (Universal Soldier). You might think I’m crazy for giving such a high rating to a Van Damme action flick, and maybe I am, but this movie kicks ass!
The Muscles from Brussels plays Chance Boudreaux, an unemployed New Orleans merchant seaman who goes up against Emil Fouchon (Henriksen, Aliens), a rich sociopath who organizes special hunts for anybody willing to put up half a million bucks. Why so expensive? The hunts involve human prey. It works like this. Emil and his right-hand man Van Cleaf (Vosloo, The Mummy) have an arrangement with this scumbag named Randal (Keener, Angel Heart) who recruits homeless people to hand out fliers. They pay Randal to supply them with men, preferably war vets, with no family ties. The chosen ones are told that they can win $10,000 simply by making it across town to the river. If they make it without being killed, they get the money. Needless to say, nobody ever wins the money.
The trouble begins with a huge screw-up on Randal’s part, one for which he literally pays in blood (Van Cleaf cuts off part of his ear). The last guy he sent them, a fellow named Douglas Binder (screenwriter Pfarrer, Darkman), has a daughter Natasha (Butler, Witchblade) who comes looking for him after not hearing from him for several weeks. She goes to the police who are conveniently on strike at the moment. The only detective in the station, Mitchell (Lemmons, Eve’s Bayou), tells her there’s little she can do since he has no fixed address. She hires Chance as her guide and bodyguard after he rescues her from four thugs trying to rob and assault her. He agrees to take the job but only because he needs the money to pay some overdue union fees.
Eventually, Binder’s body is discovered in the charred remains of an abandoned warehouse. His death is ruled as accidental until Chance finds one of the man’s dog tags in the ashes. It’s obviously been pierced by a weapon (a crossbow arrow to be exact); Mitchell orders the medical examiner (St. John, Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning) to reexamine the body. Emil gets wind of the investigation and decides to relocate, but first there’s the matter of tying up all loose ends. HA! Good luck with that, dude!
If the notion of humans hunting humans rings a bell, then you must be a fan of The Hunger Games movies. Let me tell you, Hard Target makes those movies look like child’s play (which, technically, they are). People die violently in this movie, by way of bullets, arrows, explosions and hand grenades. One chap falls victim to a rattlesnake, a trap set by Chance. And since it’s a Van Damme movie, many people get the crap beaten and kicked out of them. The scene where JCVD takes down the four creeps attacking Natasha is awesome. Watching that scene, my thoughts turned to Crazy Johnny (as I call him), the 10YO kid who told his horrified mother “I like Batman because he hurts people” after a showing of The Dark Knight Returns. He’d LOVE Hard Target; that is, if he’s not already in court-mandated therapy. Anyway, it’s one the best fight scenes in the movie. There’s also a classic “YEAH, RIGHT!” moment when Van Damme shoots at an oncoming truck while standing on a motorcycle. THEN, he crashes into the truck head-on, does a tuck-and-roll over its roof, lands on his feet (almost) and continues firing. SWEET! The climactic shoot-out is cool, but show me a New Orleans-set action movie that doesn’t contain at least one scene in a warehouse filled with Mardi Gras floats.
There’s not much to be said of the acting in Hard Target. Van Damme employs his usual blank-faced style of non-acting. He can’t read lines to save his life, but that probably has more to do with English being his second language. What’s important is he fights well (he was a martial artist before he was an actor). Since he displays that in all his movies, what makes Hard Target different? That would be Woo who utilizes the distinctive style his fans know and love. This means lots of slo-mo and freeze-frame shots, a few of them involving doves. Doves are a recurring motif in Woo’s films; he uses them to symbolize peace. Notice how they fly away just before the action begins.
Also typical of Woo, the action in Hard Target has a ballet-like quality to it, especially in relation to movement. Look at the way JCVD maneuvers around on the motorcycle during the chase scene. Look at the way he delivers roundhouse kicks to the skulls of bad guys. Some might find his style pretentious or derivative of Sam Peckinpah, I think it’s cool! That is, as long as it fits with the material. It didn’t work so well for the second Mission Impossible movie.
Getting back to the cast, Wilford Brimley (The Thing) shows up as Chance’s Uncle Douvee, a Cajun moonshiner who lives deep in the Bayou. Let me tell you, this old dude wields a mean bow and arrow. He’s also funny. He’s the kind of guy who’d rather bleed than spill one drop of booze. Henriksen makes a good despicable villain. Vosloo glowers and glares as the psychotic right-hand man. Their performances are perfect for a silly, violent action movie like Hard Target. Butler, on the other hand, simply can’t act. She’s stiff and wears pretty much the same facial expression throughout the entire movie. This explains why a romantic scene between her and Chance was cut from the film prior to its release. In addition, the MPAA insisted that Woo make several cuts in order to avoid the box office deadly NC-17 rating. Hell, I’d love to see that version!
Hard Target stretches the limits of belief the entire time. It’s a wild ride. It tells a good story though. It has plenty of action and violence. It’s a lot of fun. I think it’s one of Van Damme’s best movies, if not the best. It’s also a solid American debut for John Woo. To paraphrase two of the 90s greatest thinkers, Hard Target is cool (uh huh huh!).
