FALCON RISING
US, 2014, 103 minutes, Colour.
Michael Jai White, Neal Mc Donough, Jimmy Navarro, Millie Ruperto, Lateef Crowder, Lila Ali.
Directed by Ernie Barbarash.
Falcon Rising is one of the many popular action films from the United States, featuring martial arts champions in the central role – in the tradition of Stephen Segal, Jean- Claude van Damme…
Michael Jai White is a strong screen presence. He plays a Marine who has memories of shootings in Afghanistan, toys with Russian roulette and suicide. However, he receives news from his former colleague in Vietnam now working at the Rio Consulate, Neal Mc Donough. His sister has been severely bashed but is surviving in hospital.
There is often a presumption in American films that a tough agent can go to a foreign country and solve all the problems by himself. There is something of that in this film, especially since White is a martial arts champion and there are many opportunities for quite elaborate gymnastics and fights in the action of this film.
What initially seems to be the murder of an American aid worker in a favela, in the drug dealing culture, leads to a far more elaborate criminal system and the exploitation of young girls to be sent to Japan. The point is made about the many Japanese in Brazil and the presence of the yakuza exploiting the local drug dealers.
The screenplay is very earnest in its look at the social difficulties in Brazil, interspersing them with some brutal moments and some elaborate fights.
1. The title? John Chapman as Falcon? A story of an ex-Marine, PTSD, rising to challenge?
2. The American background? The Afghan background? The story in Rio? The favelas, fashionable society, poverty, child exploitation, violence, drug dealing? The American Consulate? The musical score?
3. Michael J.White as actor, as martial arts expert? His screen presence, desperation, the Russian roulette? Meeting his sister? His future and uncertainty? The call from Brazil? His immediate flight? Meeting with Manny, old comrades? His dramatic sequences? Earnest searching for his sister, sadness? And the insertion of the many fights and martial arts combat?
4. The situation in the favela, the dead woman on the rocks, the children, the bystanders, the young men, the arrival of the police, the role of Thiago and Carlo? Everybody pulling guns? Truce?
5. The removal of the body? In hospital, the severe wounds? The Asian nurse and the attempted killing? John and his vigil? The care of the doctors? Her convulsions and near death? Her recovery – and Manny’s hold over John, the American government paying the expenses if John becomes an agent?
6. John as the big tough American, coming into a foreign country, wanting to solve everything himself? The site for the body, his confrontation with the young man with his sister’s medal, the fight, the truth? The police officer and her explanation about the government, lack of financial support for the favelas, the drug money financing clinics and aid to the poor?
7. Following leads, his sister’s diary and the pages torn out, discovering the address of the club? His visit? The confrontation with the accountant in the toilet, his brutal treatment? The information about the resort, his visit? The confrontations, the fights, elaborate? The body count?
8. The information about the Japanese in Brazil? The influence of the yakuza, capitalising on the drug trade? The white slavery of the young girls?
9. The documents, faked, for the transport of the girls to Japan? The young man with the medal and his sister’s disappearance, friendship with John’s sister?
10. The climax, the fight at the resort, the Japanese with his sword? At the wharves? Shootouts?
11. Thiago and Carlo, the prayers the soldiers on mission, Thiago killing the young policeman, the betrayal? The final fights, Thiago and his confession, John and the gun, Thiago shooting himself?
12. The children saved? Manny and his hold over John to become an agent?
