SWEEPERS

US, 1998, 95 minutes, Colour.
Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Payne.
Directed by Darby Black.

Sweepers is a Dolph Lundgren action show. However, the writers and director are concerned about landmines and the devastation they have caused in countries like Cambodia and, here especially, Angola. There is a prologue about landmines and the various campaigns, for example by that of Princess Diana, to eradicate them. The film has some caustic comments on the American government at the end and its failure to sign documents for the removal of landmines.

Having said that, the film is a conventional action show. It is designed for the wide video and television audience targeting a group that might not watch a documentary but would be concerned about mines by watching a show like this.

The plot is familiar: Dolph Lundgren is an expert in removing landmines. One day there is an attack. His young son is killed by accident. He lets himself go to pieces and stays in Angola, drinking and fighting. In the meantime there is concern in the United States about proliferation of much less detectable landmines. There is a terrorist attack on a senator's house. He sends a group to Angola who are mostly killed in mine explosions. The heroine, Michelle, an expert, enlists the help of Lundgren. There are various criminals in Angola (most of them white) who have gained a lot of money by the manufacture of mines and experimentations with the local people. The doctor, played by Bruce Payne, is the arch villain. Unfortunately for devotees of these films, Bruce Payne is always the villain, so it is fairly predictable that he will ultimately be unmasked.

1. Popular action show? Dolph Lundgren as an action hero?

2. The African settings, Angola, the civil war, mines and their devastation? The contrast with the United States and the siege at the senator's house?

3. The serious background of concern about mines: the information in the prologue, seeing the sweepers in action, Christian losing his son and the emotional effect? The terrorist attacks? The expatriates exploiting the locals and experimenting with developing landmines? The aftermath and final comments?

4. Christian as hero, clearing the mines, fighting, concern for his son? His grief at his death? Drinking, fighting? Michelle urging him to become involved again? Detecting who was manufacturing the mines, the experiments, the criminals, the doctor unmasked? The confrontation between Christian and the doctor? Michelle and her help? The romantic touch?

5. Michelle, the American background, her involvement in designing the mines, her change of heart, the group going to Africa, their deaths, her concern, getting in touch with Christian, urging him on, collaboration, her imprisonment, escape? The finale?

6. The doctor and his seeming to do good, the irony of his using the locals for experiments on the mines? His callous attitudes, making money? The range of henchmen and their brutality especially cold blooded shootings as well as using the mines?

7. The background of civil wars, the civilian population injured? The use of a popular action show to communicate a message to the wide audience about the devastation of landmines?