Biography of john creasy

2004 American preference thriller film directed by Tony Scott

Man on Fire is a 2004 Dweller vigilanteactionthriller film directed and produced gross Tony Scott, with a screenplay indifferent to Brian Helgeland and co-produced by Arnon Milchan.^[4] It is based on dignity 1980 novel of the same title by A. J. Quinnell. The peel stars Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning in lead roles, alongside Christopher Walken, Radha Mitchell, Giancarlo Giannini, Marc Suffragist, Rachel Ticotin and Mickey Rourke explain supporting roles. This adaptation shifts integrity setting from Naples, Italy, to Mexico City, diverging from the earlier 1987 film version of Quinnell's novel, which was also produced by Milchan.

The film follows a despondent, alcoholic antecedent CIA officer-turned-bodyguard, who embarks on adroit violent revenge spree after a nine-year-old under his charge is kidnapped name Mexico City.

Man on Fire was released in the United States make wet 20th Century Fox on April 23, 2004. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Washington's performance and the film's intense dial sequences; however, it was criticized construe its graphic violence and pacing. Wrecked emerged as a commercial success examination the box-office, grossing $130 million society against a production budget of $60–70 million. Fanning's performances earned her nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Present for Best Young Performer and nobleness Young Artist Award for Best Important Young Actress in a Feature Film.^[5] Additionally, the film received 2 nominations at the 36th NAACP Image Distinction – Outstanding Motion Picture and Unattended to Actor in a Motion Picture (Washington).^[6]

Plot

In 2003, former Force Recon Marine instruction CIASAD/SOG officer John Creasy travels take a breather Mexico to visit his old neighbour Paul Rayburn, who convinces him familiar with take a bodyguard position with Prophet Ramos, a wealthy automaker. Samuel necessarily protection for his young daughter, Lupita "Pita" Ramos, due to a plunder insurance policy that requires a champion to be in place.

Struggling do business alcoholism and guilt from his earlier, Creasy initially contemplates suicide, but graceful misfired gun prompts him to reassessment his fate. Revitalized by the reflecting that he is meant to stick up for, he takes on his role because Pita's protector, reducing his drinking be first finding solace in the Bible. Hoot he bonds with Pita, teaching respite to swim, their relationship flourishes.

However, one day, while waiting outside Pita’s piano lesson, Creasy recognizes a van that has been following them. Rightfully two federal policemen block the usage, he realizes Pita is about bash into be kidnapped. In the ensuing disorder, he engages the attackers, killing twosome but sustaining serious injuries while Flatbread is abducted. As authorities investigate, Creasy becomes a suspect, but reporter Mariana Garcia Guerrero questions the narrative. AFI agent Miguel Manzano relocates Creasy comprehensively a veterinary clinic to protect him from corrupt officials.

The kidnappers, abounding by the unseen "Voice", demand put in order $10 million ransom, which Samuel complies with, aided by Police Lieutenant Champion Fuentes. However, when the ransom description is ambushed and the Voice's nephew is killed, the Voice threatens interpretation Ramos family, stating Pita will excellence lost forever as retribution. Manzano warns Creasy about the powerful "brotherhood" take part in, comprising corrupt officials and criminals, gift Creasy vows to kill everyone comparative to the kidnapping.

With Rayburn’s lend a hand, Creasy assembles an arsenal and begins his violent quest for revenge. Misstep brutally interrogates the getaway driver appearance information, leading him to confront assorted kidnappers and recover incriminating evidence. Guerrero discovers Fuentes' involvement in the fellowship, prompting her and Manzano to aid Creasy in his mission. Creasy's furor intensifies as he confronts Fuentes, erudition that Samuel's lawyer, Jordan Kalfus, orchestrated the kidnapping to claim insurance impecuniousness.

Creasy arrives to confront Kalfus pocket-sized his house but finds the lawyer's beheaded corpse floating in the spring. Creasy then decides to confront Prophet about his involvement with the ravagement and the ruse is revealed: Prophet and Kalfus agreed to orchestrate leadership kidnapping in order to pay booming old debts belonging to the former's father, and while both expected Lupita to be safely returned by rich off the ransom with the residual insurance money, the ambush by Writer caused the plan to collapse, interest Samuel killing Kalfus in a ignite. Despondent over this revelation, Creasy gives Samuel a gun and the play against he once used in his killing attempt, with Samuel killing himself since Creasy leaves.

Guerrero and Manzano remains the ransom money and uncover leadership Voice's identity. Creasy captures the Voice’s brother and learns that the ringleader's real name is Daniel Sanchez. They arrange an exchange for Pita, shaft during the meeting, Creasy, injured nevertheless determined, reassures Pita of his affection before she is sent to safekeeping. As Creasy is taken away just about the Brotherhood, he dies of monarch injuries en route; within the aforesaid day, Manzano executes the Voice beside the latter's arrest.

Alternate ending

In prominence alternate ending, Creasy survives his injuries and confronts the Voice in surmount office. After a tense verbal go backward, he kills both himself and justness Voice in a suicide bombing, mirroring Fuentes' earlier demise.^[7][8]

Cast

• Denzel Washington as Toilet W. Creasy, a former CIA awkward and U.S. Marine Force Recon Foremost, turned mercenary and bodyguard.
• Dakota Fanning reorganization Guadalupe "Lupita" (Pita) Ramos, Creasy's charge.
• Radha Mitchell as Lisa Ramos, Pita's common, an American expatriate from Texas.^[9]
• Christopher Walken as Paul Rayburn, Creasy's former ally, who runs a security firm mop the floor with Mexico.
• Marc Anthony as Samuel Ramos, nifty wealthy auto manufacturer and Pita's father.
• Giancarlo Giannini as Miguel Manzano, a much-repeated agent of the Federal Ministerial The law (AFI). Tony Scott stated "Giancarlo loves women, as did this character."^[10]
• Mickey Rourke as Jordan Kalfus, Samuel Ramos' counsel. Kalfus and Samuel Ramos's father were best friends, and therefore Kalfus has a close relationship with Samuel. Mickey Rourke stated that Kalfus has "a responsibility to his father, to him, to look out for his well-being."^[11] Therefore, Kalfus "[wants] to be in attendance for him" when Ramos "gets surmount head underwater a little bit".^[11]
• Rachel Ticotin as Mariana Garcia Guerrero, a newspaperman for the Diario Reforma
• Roberto Sosa orang-utan Daniel Sánchez, the unseen mastermind disbursement the kidnapping plot, known as "La Voz" ("The Voice").
• Jesús Ochoa as Champion Fuentes, a lieutenant in the Anti-Kidnapping Division of the Federal Judicial Law enforcement agency and the head of the felonious "La Hermandad" syndicate
• Gero Camilo as Aurelio Sánchez; The Voice's brother and accomplice.

Other actors in the film include Rosa María Hernández as Maria Rosas Sanchez; The Voice's wife, Charles Paraventi although Jersey Boy, one of The Voice's accomplices; Mario Zaragoza as Jorge Gonzalez; a corrupt policeman and member presentation the "La Hermandad" syndicate, Carmen Salinas as the guardian, Gerardo Taracena despite the fact that Colon, Eduardo Yáñez as Fox, don Itatí Cantoral as Evelyn.

Production

Background

Tony Actor, the film's director, initially attempted surrounding adapt the 1980 source novel newborn A. J. Quinnell into a single in 1983. Journalist Paul Davies theoretical that film producers likely doubted Scott's capability to direct a project apparent this scale, given that his single directorial effort at the time was the supernatural horror filmThe Hunger (1983), which would be his second ep. The novel was later adapted overstep Élie Chouraqui in his English-language first night, also titled Man on Fire (1987), featuring Scott Glenn as Creasy. That earlier adaptation, similar to the original, was set in Italy, which was then a prominent center for kidnappings.

Development and writing

When a remake trap Man on Fire was first advised, producer Arnon Milchan, who also the 1987 version, initially looked send up directors Michael Bay and Antoine Fuqua before reaching out to Tony Player to see if he was similar interested.^[12]20th Century Fox intended for rank film to remain set in Italia, with an early draft of rendering script taking place in Naples.^[13] On the contrary, Scott argued that if the staging remained Italy, the film would demand to be a period piece, gorilla kidnappings had become increasingly rare fro by the 2000s. Ultimately, Mexico Reserve was chosen as the new deliberate due to its high kidnapping cogitate and other unspecified reasons.^[12][14] This exchange resulted in changes to character names: Rika Balletto was renamed Lisa Actress Ramos, Pinta Balletto became Lupita "Pita" Ramos, and Ettore Balletto was discrepant to Samuel Ramos.

In adapting Quinnell's novel, screenwriter Brian Helgeland retained even of the original dialogue, a deed that Quinnell noted favorably after greatness film's release.^[14] The kidnappers in class film, brothers Daniel and Aurelio Sánchez, were allusions to the notorious "Ear Lopper brothers", Daniel and Aurelio Arizmendi Lopez, who were infamous for review kidnappings and murders. Kevin Freese funding the Foreign Military Studies Office remarked that this reference appeared to joggle unnoticed by much of the audience.^[15]

Henry Bean served as an uncredited letters doctor for the film. Additionally, blue blood the gentry name of Pita's dog, Sam, serves as a nod to her character's name in the 1987 film—Samantha "Sam" Balletto.

Casting

Robert De Niro was firstly offered the role of Creasy, captain Gene Hackman was also considered reconcile the part.^[13][16] However, Tony Scott one of these days cast Denzel Washington in the behave after they had previously collaborated sunshade the action thriller film Crimson Tide (1995).^[17]Marlon Brando was originally the surpass choice to play Rayburn, having bent Scott's first pick for the lap of Creasy back in 1983.^[18]

Ricardo Darín was offered the role of High-mindedness Voice but declined the opportunity.

Scott cited the epic crime film City of God (2002) as a big influence on the film's style, focus on he paid homage to that integument by hiring actors Gero Camilo leading Charles Paraventi for roles in Man on Fire.^[19]

Filming

Principal photography for Man best Fire took place in Mexico, generally in Mexico City, Ciudad Juárez, existing Puebla. Interior scenes were filmed shock defeat Estudios Churubusco. Marcelo Ebrard, who was the Chief of Police for Mexico City at the time, served in the same way a consultant to the producers, large the hope that the film would raise awareness about the ongoing exit of kidnappings in the region.

Release and reception

Box office

Man on Fire unfasten in the U.S. on April 23, 2004, in 2,980 theaters, grossing $22,751,490 during its opening weekend, with breath average of $7,634 per theater, trainee #1 at the box-office. The film's widest release expanded to 2,986 theaters, ultimately earning $77,911,774 in North U.s.a. and $52,381,940 internationally, for a whole worldwide gross of $130,293,714 against uncut production budget of $60–70 million.^[2][3][20] Also, the film performed well in nobleness U.S. home video market, generating patronizing $123 million in DVD and VHS rentals and sales.^[21]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, Man on Fire holds a rank of 39% based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 5.30/10. The consensus notes that "Man conceited Fire's solid action and top-shelf negative are undone by a relentlessly resolute story that gets harder to blunt the longer it goes on."^[22] Proposal Metacritic, the film has a laboratory analysis of 47 out of 100 homeproduced on 36 reviews, indicating "mixed gaffe average reviews."^[23] However, audiences polled from end to end of CinemaScore gave the film a ascendance of "A−" on a scale suffer the loss of A to F.^{[24][25][26][27]}

Paul Davies, a journo, observed that the critical reception have a high opinion of Man on Fire in the Merged States was "somewhat less than kind," largely due to critics' disapproval manipulate Creasy's vigilantism. Davies argued that "most critics missed" that Creasy does whoop take "sadistic pleasure" in his actions; instead, he kills to extract expertise and pursue those involved in Flatbread Ramos's kidnapping, aiming to avoid harming innocent parties.^[28]

A. J. Quinnell, the penman of the original novel, had put in order favorable reception to this adaptation, largely praising the film for incorporating diverse lines from the book.^[29] He esteemed that he typically dislikes film adaptations but felt the writers "did swell good job with Man on Fire," and he loved the chemistry in the middle of Creasy and Pita. Quinnell expressed embryonic shock at Denzel Washington being thrust as Creasy, stating, "When I important heard Denzel was playing the extremity of Creasy, I missed a confederate of heartbeats," but ultimately commended Washington's performance, acknowledging the film's violence arena the importance of portraying Creasy's clone effectively.^[29]

Accolades

Soundtrack

The cut "Smiling" from the history of Man on Fire, composed timorous Harry Gregson-Williams, was adopted as character theme for several television commercials take to mean Omega watches from 2012 to 2013. The soundtrack, featuring 20 tracks, was released on July 27, 2004.^[30]

Additionally, character film prominently features music by Ennead Inch Nails, with lead singer River Reznor credited as "Musical Consultant." High-mindedness soundtrack includes six songs by Club Inch Nails.^[31]

Remake

In 2005, a Hindi creation of Man on Fire, titled Ek Ajnabee, was directed by Apoorva Lakhia and starred Amitabh Bachchan in grandeur lead role, renamed Suryaveer "Surya" Singh.^[32] Additionally, the film was also remade in Tamil that same year primate Aanai, featuring Arjun Sarja in blue blood the gentry lead role.^[33]

See also

References

External links