FASTER

US, 2010, 98 minutes, Colour
Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Guggino, Xander Berkeley, Tom Berenger, Maggie Grace.
Directed by George Tillman Jr.

Faster is an action film, focusing on Dwayne Johnson as a prisoner released and bent on getting revenge on those who conspired in a botched robbery to murder his brother. He has a list – but does not know the main man behind the plan.

The film traces his finding where the intended victims lived, setting them up, killing them. These include an old man, somebody working in an office, a black man who knows that Johnson is coming for him and who fights him with a knife, resigned to his death, as well as a man who had had a life conversion and was conducting a ministry. The part requires Dwayne Johnson merely to look intense and to fight.

Billy Bob Thornton portrays the policeman who decides to take up the case, trying to track down Johnson. There is a supporting cast including Tom Berenger as the warden, Carla Guggino as Billy Bob Thornton’s police partner, Xander Berkeley as the police chief.

Billy Bob Thornton has a wife and child, is caring for the child who is rather obese and not good at sport. He wants a reconciliation. He goes off on his own, trying to track down the killer. He also encounters a young man who has been hired by the brains behind the robbery to eliminate the killer.

There is a twist at the end when it emerges that Billy Bob Thornton is the one who engineered the robbery, used informers that he had contact with, engineered the robbery, was responsible for the death of the brother. Eventually there is a confrontation between Johnson and Thornton – and the irony that Johnson has a plate in his head which prevents the bullet going through to his brain so that he can then confront Thornton and kill him.

The film was directed by George Tillman Jr who directed films like Soul Food, Men of Honour, the biography of Biggie Smalls, Notorious.

1. How effective a revenge chase thriller? The characters, the situations? The violence?

2. The settings, prison, police precincts, the open roads, homes, clubs, revival churches? The musical score?

3. The title, the editing and pace echoing the title?

4. The focus on Driver, the introduction, prison, his surliness, what he had suffered in prison, the ten-year sentence? His being released? The interview with the warden? Out in the world? His list? His weapons? His single-minded relentlessness? Going to the police precinct, the shooting? Tracking down the old man and shooting him? Going to the club, the man he was after realising what was going to happen, his talking with Driver, his fight with the knife, his death? The trip to the revival church? The confrontation with the reverend? Listening to his story, his change of heart, Driver sparing him? The build-up to the confrontation with Cop? The shooting? The irony of the metal plate in the head – and Driver killing Cop? His encounter with the ambitious young hit man? Letting him go?

5. Cop, his work, his partnership with Cicero? His wanting to be on the case? His pursuit of Driver, finding the victims? Going home to his wife, trying to play baseball with his obese son? Wanting a future with them? His tracking down Driver to the church? His encounter with the young hit man? The irony that Cop was behind everything? A dirty cop, using his informants for the heist? The double-cross? The killing of Driver’s brother? Cop and his wanting to eliminate all his accomplices? Hiring the hit man? The final revelation, the shooting of Driver, the irony of the metal plate and Driver killing him? The chief and his puzzle about Cop putting himself on the case?

6. Cicero, her partnership with Cop? Her having the case, let Cop go out in pursuit? The contact, her puzzle? The finale, her realisation of what had happened?

7. The range of victims, their participation in the robbery, taking the money, the death of Driver’s brother? Their sense of justice being wrought on them?

8. The focus on the action rather than the characterisations? The insights into Driver and Cop? In a fast-paced thriller?