SNIPER

US, 1993, 98 minutes, Colour.
Tom Berenger, Billy Zane, J.T. Walsh, Aden Young, Ken Radley.
Directed by Luis Llosa.

Sniper was a popular action film of the early 1990s, a star vehicle for Tom Berenger. He was supported by Billy Zane. The film was set in the Panama jungles (though filmed in north Queensland around Cairns). The film proved popular and eight years later there was a sequel. The first film was directed by Peruvian Luis Lossa (also director of Anaconda) and the second film was directed by Craig R. Baxley, an action director for many years including Action Jackson as well as the apocalyptic Left Behind 3. The sequel is set in Serbia, echoes of the Balkan war. The plot is virtually the same as the first film. Berenger is enticed out of retirement aged fifty, is given a partner, this time Bokeem Woodbine.

As in the first film, there is the search for drug lords in Panama and their elimination, so there is a search for a Serbian who is conducting ethnic cleansing. However, there is also a twist with a subplot, the assistant trying to get someone out of a Serbian prison.

The film was popular enough – especially on DVD and for television – that there was a third Sniper film with Berenger reprising his character. This time the film was directed by P.J. Pesce. The setting was more contemporary in Vietnam and Indochina.

The film is generally slam-bang action, skills for snipers, making audiences worry about American military authorities and the CIA and their covert operations in eliminating enemies. The films generally climax in a slam-bang shootout.

1. The popularity of this kind of action film? Its target audience? For video and DVD?

2. The Panama settings? The jungle? Remoteness? The contrast with Washington and American official offices? The musical score?

3. The plausibility of the plot, covert action? The role of the sniper? Obeying orders? The assistant, skills, needing protection? Precipitating crises? Rescue operations?

4. The situation in Panama: the delineation of the drug lords, their families, connections, lifestyle? The American mercenaries who helped them? The meetings, the set-ups? The decision to eliminate the drug lords? The carrying out of the mission? Beckett and his abilities? Richard Miller, The dangers, Beckett using him as bait?

5. The officials, Chester van Damme, the commission for the mission? The authorities behind the scenes? Their control?

6. Doug Papich, the lookout, his work with Beckett? His being killed? Beckett and his revenge?

7. The action sequences, the intricacy of the stalking, the sniping?

8. The build-up in reaction, the drug troops coming in? The battle and shootout sequences?

9. The realism in this kind of story? Or heightened for the purpose of entertainment?