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Killer Elite
Review by Michael Tancredi
Killer Elite brings together Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert Di Nero and
fulfills ones expectations of action, fast pace, explosions, gun exchanges, fight
scenes (which, by the way, are excellently choreographed) and car chases wrapped
in a envelope of enigma, espionage and conspiracy.
Killer Elite
There is more to this than meets the eye. Although a relatively straight
forward story line the question of morality and right and wrong is never far
from the surface.
In a nutshell, in the early 1980's a middle-eastern Sheikh hires a clandestine
group to assassinate three elite ex SAS militia in revenge (or honour killing as
the Sheikh puts it) for the killing of his sons in a little known undercover
operation by British Forces (the SAS) that took place in his country, Oman,
years earlier.
The group is lead by Danny (Jason Statham) as they embark on an operation to
carry out the assassinations which must carried out to look like accidents after
obtaining confessions from the intended victims.
A clandestine group made up of senior retired SAS operatives called The
Feather Men become suspicious of these mysterious "accidental" deaths and task
Spike (Clive Owen) to seek out the assassins and stop them.
The story line is based on the controversial book The Featherman by Sir
Ranulph Fienness, published in 1991. Although early hard copies of the book were
published replete with pictures, data, bibliography and index to substantiate
the claims made later paperback versions lacked this corroborating
information. In the final wash, although the deaths did occur as the book and
movie portray, whether they were by assignation or accident has never been
ultimately confirmed.
Director, Gary McKendry, who is making his feature length movie debut,
indicated that, "we don't know that this happened or not but I do know it's a
fantastic story", and further when asked about the book compared to the movie he
said "it's a movie and it's fiction ... don't know whether the book is fact or
fiction".
Regardless of the authenticity of the story it does make one hell of a good
yarn.
This is a movie where it's hard to differentiate between the good guys
and the bad guys. Although we can clearly identify who has what role
and who is doing what to whom, there is clearly a sense of moral ambiguity about
why they do what they do: is it for money, honour, revenge or some higher or
more base reason.
Although the movie has scenes depicting Paris, London, Wales, the deserts of
Oman and Australia the movie was mostly shot in Australia (around Melbourne) and
South Wales. There were great supporting roles played by Australian actors,
Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) as Davies, Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight) as
Martin, Aden Young (The Tree) as Meier, Firars Dirani (Underbelly) as Bakhalt
and Yvonne Strahouski (Dexter) as Anne.
Bonus Feature: The Making Of Killer Elite (excellent for back fill and giving a
sense of perspective (if you can put aside all the obligatory "back-slapping"). Bonus Feature: 13 Deleted Scenes. Rating: MA Running Time: 112 minutes
Conclusion: Movie 75% Extras: 60%
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