SACRIFICE
US, 2000, 90 minutes, Colour.
Michael Madsen, Bokeem Woodbine, Jamie Luner, Diane Farr, Deborah Shelton, Joshua Leonard.
Directed by Mark L. Lester.
Sacrifice is a straight-to-video action film. It stars Michael Madsen, veteran of many Tarantino films including Reservoir Dogs and the Kill Bill films. It was directed by Mark L. Lester, an exploitation director who had some moments of respectability in the 1970s with such films as Stunts and in the 1980s with Class of 1984, the Stephen King adaptation Firestarter and the Schwarzenegger vehicle Commando. After this, he continued for the next twenty years or more to make small-budget action films, with the exploitative touch, most of which went straight to video and DVD release.
This film focuses on the work of a serial killer as well as on a convicted bank robber. When his daughter is one of the victims, he escapes from police custody to investigate, getting the help of the mistress of a local Mafia boss (Jamie Luner). The film echoes The Fugitive as two FBI agents pursue the robber. The boss is played by Bokeem Woodbine.
The resolution of the film is unusual and unexpected. The killer is a woman, insane, caught up in her own satanic cults – by day working in an abortion clinic even though she disapproves of abortion. She feels she has a mission to connect mother and child, by killing the mothers. There is the expected denouement and fight-out between the two.
The film is average entertainment, undemanding, but interesting on its variation on the theme of protest carried on outside abortion clinics.
1.Interesting crime thriller? Serial killings? The abortion twist? The religious emphasis and the title of the film?
2.The South settings, the states, the countryside, homes?
3.Tyler Pierce: Michael Madsen’s screen presence, as a robber, his reputation, his separation from his wife and visits to her? The interrogation by the FBI? Going to jail? The news of his daughter, the engineering of his escape? Character – last robbery, possible reform? Love for his daughter, the news, using his wits? Going to his wife and Carl? Getting the information, the connections, the police records? The gangster, meeting Naomi? Working the case, avoiding the FBI? The abortion information, the confrontation, the final dangers and the rescue of Naomi? His relationship with her – going on his own?
4.The victims, the information, the copycat killing, the abortions? Pierce’s daughter and her boyfriend, suspicions, his character?
5.The clinic, Karen working, the truth about the abortion clinic, her work? Her being the killer, mad, the religious rituals?
6.Naomi, her character, gangster’s moll, attracted to Pierce, helping, hiding him, sharing in the investigation, the final danger and the confrontation by Karen?
7.The FBI, the agents, doing their work, methodical, frustrated?
8.The plausibility of the plot, the characters, the success of the film as an action thriller? The religious overtones? The point being made about abortions, the fanaticism of anti-abortionists?
