'Spartan' (2004) is written and directed by David Mamet. If you've seen any of his films (Wag the Dog, Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games, Heist, Glengarry Glen Ross) then you've probably seen this one as well, but for those who haven't had the pleasure, Like John Sayles (see following review), David Mamet is an independent film-maker in the truest sense, in that he funds his own films with his own money, typically from the pay he gets from credited (and uncredited) rewrites of big-budget films.
(Mamet did a rewrite on Ronin under the pseudonym Richard Weisz, and did script work on Malcolm - ultimately rejected by director Spike Lee). Mamet's films are often con games within con games - when you think you've figured it out, you haven't - or watching his movies is like watching the best magicians at work: you see the left hand doing its thing but you're no dummy and you know that's just to distract you and you focus on what the right hand is doing, but there's nothing going on there either, and yet, at the end of the trick, somehow, the rabbit still pops out of the hat.
The title Spartan has several possible meanings, including an allusion to the Battle of Thermopylae (as seen in Zack Snyder's 300), but the one I like best is the reference to Spartan lawmaker Lycurgus, who said, "Those who are trained and disciplined in the proper discipline can determine what will best serve the occasion." With Spartan, Mamet marries a con-in-a-con game to a three-card trick and delivers an action-adventure thriller.
The magician's code demands that my plot description be brief. The daughter of the President of the United States is kidnapped - but for reasons that may not be obvious and by people who may not know who she is. Special Ops agent Scott (Val Kilmer) is called in to do whatever it takes to get her back. Spartan runs at 106 minutes and is rated Restricted because of violence and so-called bad words.
'Lone Star'
Murder-mystery at its best
Unlike David Mamet, you're never quite sure what you're going to get with a John Sayles' movie. From Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980), which is about a group of old college friends who get together for a reunion (the inspiration for The Big Chill); to The Brother from Another Planet (1984), which is about a mute alien being chased through the streets of Harlem by outer-space bounty hunters; to Matewan (1987), which is about coal miners trying to form a union against the wishes of their brutal company bosses
(based on an actual incident in 1920s West Virginia); to Eight Men Out (1988), which is a dramatisation of the infamous Black Sox scandal in 1919 when the Chicago White Sox took bribes to throw the World Series; to The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), which is a fable set in a small fishing village in Ireland that deals with the legend of Selkies (seals that can turn into humans); to Silver City (2004), which is a satire on politicians, big business, big media, lobbyists, environmentalists and illegal immigrants; to, well, you get the point (and in the interest of space I've left out several of his movies). With Sayles you never know what topic-issue-theme-genre he's going to do next, except you can rest assured that the movie will have an impact on you.
Like Mamet, Sayles uses his own money and thus makes whatever strikes his fancy. I can't pick a favourite - any of the above is worth viewing - but for no particular reason (other than, perhaps, it fits better with the Mamet film) I've chosen to do Lone Star (1996).
A 50-year-old skeleton is discovered in the desert outside the fictional town of Rio County, Texas, which lies on the border with Mexico. The remains turn out to be that of the sadistic and racist former sheriff Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson); and current sheriff Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) must unravel the mystery. During the investigation Sam must face up to the possibility that his father, Buddy Deeds (Matthew McConaughey), who was Wade's deputy, and who took over when Wade 'disappeared', may be the murderer.
There's also an interracial romance subplot (or plot two or part of the main plot or, it doesn't matter) as Sam falls again in love with Pilar (Elizabeth Pena), the woman he loved when they were teenagers, who is of Mexican heritage. Lone Star is ostensibly a murder-mystery, but in this movie (and many of Sayles' films) the genre title that can fully encapsulate all that Sayles accomplishes doesn't exist. 136 amazing minutes; R for language, sex and violence.
- By Bruce Alexander & Omar Francis
