DESERT SAINTS
US, 2002, 89 minutes, Colour.
Kiefer Sutherland, Melora Walters, Jamey Sheridan, Rachel Ticotin, Leslie Stefanson.
Directed by Rich Greenburg.
Desert Saints is a thriller, set in New Mexico and on the Mexican border, about an assassin, who quotes Greek philosophers, about an FBI pursuit, about an undercover agent and doublecrossings.
The screenplay is complex – in the Quentin Tarantino vein, shuffling times.
This is a vehicle for Kiefer Sutherland as the assassin, Melora Walters as the undercover agent, Jamey Sheridan as the FBI agent who ponders what it is to be born honest, to be tempted to move across to the other side.
1. Thriller? Killer? Assassinations? FBI pursuit? Doublecrossings? Triplecrossings?
2. The desert settings, the highways, the empty spaces, the towns, motels, diners, service stations, restaurants? The Mexican sequences, the lavish hotel, the site for the assassination? The musical score?
3. Introduction, Kiefer Sutherland as Arthur Banks cold killer, intellectual, quoting the classics? His motivations? Good at his job? The commission to assassinate the Mexican politician? Seeing him at the hotel?
4. The influence of Quentin Tarantino-type screenwriting, the jumbling of time, non-linear, the different times providing complexity of characters and motivations?
5. The initial death in the desert, the girl sick, Banks and cleaning his shoes, letting her run, the deliberate shooting, burying her body?
6. The FBI, and knowledge of Banks, the files? The finding of the body? The pursuit of Banks, the agents on the job? Scanlon, the past difficulties, possibilities for resentment, his reflections on honesty, on turning, the discussions with Donna Marbury, the interviews with Bennie, the other agents? The continued pursuit, Bennie going undercover, the meetings and her phone calls? The agent pretending to be her husband, Banks killing him in the toilet? The agents pursuing him, shot, returning, his removing the body?
7. Banks, his need for a partner, going to the diner, his meal, the sexual encounter with Dora, the revelation that they had one night stands over the years? Her giving information to the FBI?
8. Finding Bennie, recruiting her? Her personality, her ignorance, fleeing her husband, gradual revelation of her story? Cantankerous? Diabetes and insulin? Talking, Opening up himself to her? The sexual encounter, a one night stand for him, the effect on her? Her examining his cases in the boot of the car? Her removing the bullets from the gun, her taking the money, her argument with him, getting him to drop her off, getting the lift, his frustration?
9. Audiences wondering whether this really happened or was imagination? And the initial killing of the girl?
10. Going to Mexico, at the hotel, Bennie’s phone calls, the wrong room? The attempted assassination, Bennie shooting Banks, handcuffing him? The local agents, attacking Banks, Scanlon arresting them?
11. Banks getting free, the continued pursuit, Bennie with the money, going to the ladies’ room, the wig, transforming, glamour, going to the airport, meeting up with Donna Maabury, her going over to the other side?
12. The ending, Banks arriving, the gun – and the suggestions of what was to happen?
