Broken Arrow, 1996

Broken Arrow, the title of this film, is a code for ‘losing a nuclear weapon’. Talk about understating a problem. A broken arrow? A nuclear weapon? Like calling the ice age a bit of a chill in the air.

As you can probably guess, the film is about exactly that – losing a nuclear weapon or two. No biggie.

With that in mind, you can be sure that the film as whole is pretty much one big chase scene.
The main characters played by John Travolta and Christian Slater are never standing still;  they fly a plane, they parachute, they run from a helicopter, they chase each other under and over a train, car, truck, donkey, you name it, it is chasing or being chased. (OK, I lied about the donkey). So if you are one for a chase scene, welcome to your nirvana.

I was impressed with John Travolta’s look in this film, he fit fairly and squarely into his airforce overalls – not something I would have predicted, with today’s Travolta in mind. I had to remind myself that this was filmed 18 years ago and pre-nuclear strength facelifts. He was also pretty good at playing the villain with his suitably squinty eyes when he had a good old think about how to be eviler than he was a minute ago.
His co-star Slater is also looking pretty clean cut – probably because he too was in the Air Force. I hear they love a buzz cut. Think Val Kilmer in TopGun. Full disclosure, I love Mr Slater in his earlier roles in Heathers and Pump up the Volume. He was as close as a bad boy crush a well behaved girl could have in the 1990s. Sadly for me, he is the NICE GUY in this film.

Sheesh.

I found two elements of this film funny; the acting style of Samantha Mathis and the abandoned copper mine used as a secret hideaway for baddies.
Samantha Mathis is clearly a method actor. Her method is to act out the script EXACTLY as it appears on the page – one direction or line of dialogue at a time, rather than at the same time. You can see her finish her lines and then pause to continue the script in her own mind… “Oh No!..pause…look scared …What has happened…pause…turn head to right… To you?”. It provided the comedic relief otherwise missing from this film.
The abandoned copper mine reminded me of old Looney Tunes cartoons. As the goodies and baddies chased each other through the tunnels I expected Yosemite Sam to come around a corner and yell “Where are yer, ya varmints!!”.

Aussie casting check – yep. Jack Thompson is cast as the big white man in charge of big arse weapons in the big white house. Is it just me or does he do a really bad American accent?

Broken Arrow is directed by John Woo. Imagine having such a positive name. Woo. Woo! Wooooooo!!!! I was going to say something about how he has used slow motion in random places in this film (well I guess I did just mention it) but when I googled him, apparently thats exactly what he’s known for! So no news there, John Woo-hoo fans.

You may be aware how I’m not actually a nuclear physicist so my qualifications in assessing the realism of how this film plays out is shaky at best. But I’ll give it a shot.
So a nuclear weapon is detonated in an abandoned mine tunnel. An explosion bursts out of the tunnel. When the general safety of people in the vicinity is questioned, the answer is: no worries mate, that happened underground she’ll be apples.  (I may have made that an Australian version of what was actually said but you get the drift of radiation sickness).
I just don’t think I’d be Chernobyl with that Fukushima – would you??

I’m sorry to say there is nothing to say about the nondescript soundtrack to this film. It seems a feature sadly lacking in the 1990s in any drama/action films but I’d be pleased to be proved wrong about that.