S.W.A.T.

US, 2003, 117 minutes, Colour.
Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, L.L. Cool J., Josh Charles, Jeremy Renner, Brian Van Holt, Olivier Martinez.
Directed by Clark Johnson.

A watchable action show. At first it looks like a promotion film for recruiting members to the S.W.A.T. (Special Weapons and Tactics) unit of the LA police. In fact, most of the film seems like a promotion movie. We see them in action in the opening sequences, foiling a bank robbery but with one of the experts playing the cowboy, not following orders and justifying what he did by saying that he saved a life (no matter that the saved life was wounded and is now suing the LA Police Department for huge damages). You know he is going to turn out badly.

However, his partner, Colin Farrell, does the right thing, accepts a demotion and is grateful when S.W.A.T. hotshot, Samuel L. Jackson, picks him for the new squad (along with LL Cool J, now to be known as James Thomas Smith) and (although the press kit tells us that there is still no woman in a S.W.A.T. team) Michelle Rodriguez. They train, they do an exercise in overcoming plane hijackers, they bond.

Meanwhile, given easy access by immigration, one of Europe's most wanted, Olivier Martinez, commits a murder but is held on a technicality. The team have to guard him in transit to prison. Since the criminal yells at the TV cameras that he will give a hundred million dollars to anyone who frees him, this fires the ambitions of LA gangland and beyond. This means chases, explosions and a shootout when a plane lands on an LA bridge.

You know what you're going to get and you get it.

1.The title? Indicating the scope of the film? Fulfilled?

2.The city settings, the action of the SWAT squad, the training, criminal action? The editing and pace of the film for the action? The musical score?

3.Familiar material, buddies, partners falling out, criminals, the tough sergeant, training, crime, the build-up to the climax with the criminals?

4.The focus on Jim Street and Brian Gamble. At work? The bank robbery? The excitement and pace? Hostages? Gamble and his going against orders, shooting, wounding the hostage? Her suing the city? Street standing by him? Captain Fuller and the investigation? His suspending the two? Street and his staying and doing the menial work? Gamble and his anger? Leaving? The build-up for Street as hero? Gamble as villain?

5.Street, his personality, skills? Meeting Hondo? With the gun, his skills? Driving Hondo around? The shooting gallery, beating T.J? The offer to go into the SWAT team again? Accepting? His personal life, Boxer’s sister, her leaving? His working with the team? His skills?

6.Hondo, Samuel L. Jackson type, tough, the old school? Return to work? The clashes with Fuller? The support of Velasquez? His choosing his team, Street, Boxer, T.J? Deacon? Meeting Chris Sanchez, the surprise that she was a woman? His morale for the team, working together, the tough training? The simulated flight and the terrorists? The team’s success? The build-up to the final confrontation with Montel? Leading the team, in the subway tunnel? The landing of the plane, the capturing of the criminals? The all-American tough sergeant?

7.The members of the team: T.J., pride, sniper? With the group? Deke, black background, the neighbourhoods? His skills? Chris Sanchez, tough, skilled? Her role in the simulation, getting into the space where a man could not? Needing a babysitter? Boxer, his contribution, his sister? His being shot?

8.Alex Montel, getting through American Passport Control? Meeting up with the gangsters? The dinner, his killing the chief? His murdering his father? The takeover, the lawyers? The irony of his being arrested because of a faulty tail light? The unmasking of his reputation? The plan for his being sprung, the attack on the bus, the fight-out? His being pursued? His paying the money, T.J. and Gamble agreeing? Their rescuing him, taking him in the subway, in the tunnel? Getting him to the plane? His ruthlessness? His finally being captured and imprisoned?

9.Fuller, the SWAT authorities, the man with the desk job? Unsympathetic? His team being beaten in the simulation? His not handling the final crisis well? Velasquez, the contrast, his support of the SWAT team?

10.The set pieces: the bank robbery, the attack on the bus, the training sequences, the simulation in the plane, the escape of Montel, the pursuit, the landing of the plane on the bridge, the attack on the plane?

11.Action adventure? With the gung-ho American spirit?