TAKEN
France, 2008, 93 minutes, Colour.
Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Jansson, Xander Berkeley, Katie Cassidy.
Directed by Pierre Morell.
It is nothing new to see an action film where someone takes the law into their own hands to effect justice. There is always a worrying dimension to this kind of story. Our emotions are caught up in the issue of the crime and the brutality of the perpetrators: we feel vengeful. On the other hand, our heads tell us that there are procedures and processes, a right and legal way of doing things and to go outside the law runs the danger of collateral damage (at least) as well as turning the avenger into an instrument of violence.
Not that Taken gives its audience all that much time to think these thoughts. It is 93 minutes in motion, especially when the 17 year old daughter of a former government espionage agent (who describes his work and his skills as 'a Preventer') is abducted from a Paris apartment. Once her father arrives in Paris to rescue her, it is fairly non-stop mayhem despite his French colleague's plea with him not to make a mess. Our hero has surveillance resources to identify those responsible very quickly and the energy (without any evidence of time for sleep,meals or even rest room stops) to confront his enemies, gather more information by torture and bring the whole exercise to a satisfactory conclusion.
The film was written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen (who wrote The Karate Kid but who in recent years has been writing Besson-produced action shows like The Transporter series). The director is Pierre Morel who made one of these shows, District 13.
The team have gone quite upmarket this time with the opening sequences in an affluent California but most of the action taking place in Paris. And they have Liam Neeson as the former agent. He is big enough, strong enough and able to create a powerful character to make the story and his actions credible while on screen. Famke Janssen plays his wife and Maggie Grace his daughter.
However, as you watch, you realise that to apply criteria of natural realism would be to misunderstand the search and rescue genre. Yes, there is a chase and chaos outside the airport. Yes, Neeson destroys a building site that is used for drugging girls abducted for prostitution. But, this is a genre picture where you have to suspend realistic belief and go for the ride, so to speak, and enter into the action.
The themes are topical: trafficking for prostitution and police payoffs and corruption. The villains are those who have emerged on screens in recent times, thugs and gangsters from Eastern Europe, in this case, Albanians. And some of the customers at auctions in expensive hotels are Arab sheikhs.
And, yet, all the time there is this nagging feeling about American gung-ho, going everywhere in the world where they feel they have been wronged and take the higher moral position, using every means at hand, including torture, to get the information they need in the name of righting the wrongs.
Neeson is good, the action is fast-paced, the brutality quotient is quite high. And there is a warning for teenagers who think they know everything and are naively secure: Father knows best!
1.A satisfying action film? Vengeance film? Violence and the law? Issues of justice?
2.The Californian families and their lifestyle, homes and wealth? The contrast with Paris, the airport, streets, apartments, police precincts, the squalid areas of prostitution, the warehouse and the building site, the chases and the special effects, explosions? The musical score? The editing for fast pace?
3.The title, a clear title, the consequences?
4.Establishing Brian as a person: as a father, the film of his daughter, the photo album, his love for her, looking over the gift, buying it, going to the party, Kim at seventeen, his relationship with Lenore? Her husband? His gift and the gift of the horse? His disappointment? Playing cards with his friends, their reminiscences about their work, the Middle East, espionage, his seeing his work as a Preventer? Working for the government, giving his life for the government? His absences during his marriage, Kim feeling his absences? His retiring, wanting to be near Kim? The security job, his success? The lunch, Lenore’s arriving, pleading for permission to go to France, his being protective, Lenore challenging him, his change of heart, going to the house and giving the document?
5.The music star, the security job, the four men, their skills, after the concert, saving the girl? Brian talking to her, explaining about his daughter? The star and her warning against the career? Her gratitude, giving her card? His bringing Kim to her at the end?
6.The drive to the airport, his warnings, seeing Kim off? Discovering the plan for following U2? Kim’s lies? The phone, his waiting for her call, ringing Lenore during the night?
7.Kim and Amanda, their age, excitement, arrival in Paris, the meeting with Peter, his charm, the photos, sharing the cab, the apartment, the cousins being in Spain, Amanda and her attitude towards sex, the loud music? Missing the phone call? Talking with her father, seeing Amanda abducted while she was on the phone, Brian’s advice, recording everything, telling her to go under the bed, her being taken? Brian and the record, Marco and his saying good luck? Brian’s threats? Checking with his friends, getting the information about the Albanians, their accent, town of origin? His going to Stuart? Getting the plane, ninety-six hours to recover Kim?
8.The apartment, his visit, the clues, the photos, seeing the reflection of Peter, going to the airport, the work of the spotters, the black spotter, Peter and his talking with the Scandinavian girl? Brian’s intervention, his chase, the fight, the cars, Brian’s recklessness in the traffic, Peter jumping, being hit by the car?
9.Going to the French police, Jean-Claude? and the past friendship? Information about the Albanians? His being tailed by the police? Told not to make a mess? The Albanian translator, his work in the car, Brian accosting the girl, getting her pimp to come to save her, planting the microphone, following him, the building site, the stalls with the various girls, their being drugged? The traffic in prostitution? Seeing the jacket, rescuing the girl? The shootings, the explosions, the car chase? The hotel and his helping the girl with the intravenous fluid? Her clue about the red door? His visit, pretending to be an inspector, information about the crooked police? Asking the group to say good luck? The confrontation, the shootout, his torturing of Marco and his relentlessness, his past methods? Getting the information? The discussion with Jean-Claude?, arranging the phones to be misleading?
10.Going to Jean-Claude’s?, the meal, the information about the crooked police, the welcome from Jean-Claude’s? wife, shooting her in the arm, going to the computer, getting the name?
11.Going to the prostitution auction, infiltrating the party, going upstairs, getting the Arab buyer to buy his daughter, the violence, the methods, rescuing his daughter? On the boat, the confrontation with the guards, the sheikh, the attack and the rescue?
12.American agents, their methods, violence, gung-ho? The attitude of Americans around the world?
13.The finale, the reunion of the family?
14.Difficult situations and it being easy to criticise from an armchair? Trafficking, eastern Europe, France? The violence, the perspective of somebody involved immediately in the crisis requiring action?
