16 BLOCKS
US, 2006, 105 minutes, Colour.
Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse, Jenna Stern.
Directed by Richard Donner.
Richard Donner is a smart producer and director. After a lot of work in television and a few small films, he broke into the big time in 1976 with The Omen. He followed it with Superman: the Movie. In the mid-1980s, he was even more successful with Lethal Weapon (and followed with three sequels). Other films included Maverick and Conspiracy Theory. As he has become older, he has been producing, but has broken out with 16 Blocks.
You would think audiences may be a bit tired of police thriller. They may even be a bit tired of Bruce Willis and police thrillers. Donner cuts his audience off at the pass and casts Willis as a weary policeman himself. And it works. Bruce Willis is not only a die-hard action hero, he is an interesting character actor. His recent assassin in Lucky Number Slevin is a case in point. Now we have him as a burnt-out case, an alcoholic detective who is unreliable and who is asked to accompany a prisoner up town, 16 blocks to the courthouse where he is to testify and expose corruption.
Much easier said than done. He has two hours to get him there – and two hours of film running time. It is not only the traffic which slows things down, as it does. Soon the police are after them, corrupt police who want to silence the witness. That, too, is easier said than done because as played by rapper Mos Def, Eddie is an incessant talker, wid a furnny and grating voice. Even the audience would like him silenced! Bruce has to sober up more than a little and he and we are relieved that his brain is not completely sozzled. In fact, he is ingenious in the ways he uses his wits to out-manouevre the police, especially his former partner (a smooth and sinister, David Morse). They get into all kinds of traps and dead ends which seem impossible to escape from, but along comes a plausible plot twist and they are on their way again. (This includes hijacking a New York City bus and crashing it.)
While we might say we have seen it all before, we have to acknowledge that this time it is done briskly and with some wit and intelligence in the writing – and a nice twist at the end. Although at the very end, there is a literal sweet-tooth finale that anti-sentiment types will find as having too much icing on the cake.
However, as police thrillers and pursuits go, this is not bad at all.
1.A Bruce Willis film? Police thriller? Corrupt police? A variation on the bonding (films?) like The Defiant Ones? Friendship? Redemption and hope?
2.The title, New York City, from the police precincts to the courts? Chinatown and the neighbourhoods? The streets and the traffic? The people in the busy streets? The interiors, dingy corridors, apartments? Restaurants and kitchens? Bars and shops? The musical score?
3.The time span, two hours? The mission to get the witness to the courts within two hours?
4.Bruce Willis, his age, appearance? His limp? How he sounded? The opening and his doing the recording, his last will and testament to his sister? The twist when this scene recurs, the context? And the twist of truth that he was a corrupt cop as well?
5.Arrival at work, his career going downhill, his constant drinking, the audience being given no reason for the drinking – and the later explanation, his conscience? On the job, surly, reactions? His being asked to accompany the witness? A casual request – or not? His hesitation? A later understanding of why he hesitated?
6.Eddie, Mos Def and his rap background, the character, slow-witted, not a petty criminal? His recognising the photo of the policeman, giving evidence at the trial? A witness – and in danger of his life? The two hours to get to court? His tone of voice, whiny, incessant talking? His subjects, the bakery? The money at the Port Authority? His discussion about cakes? His hopes? The background of growing up in orphanages, discovering his sister, going to Seattle to meet her?
7.The ordinary and routine trip, the hold-up in the traffic, Jack and Eddie talking, Jack getting out, getting the drink, the bar? The police at the car? The police and the pursuit, the mystery? Frank Nugent and his being Jack’s partner for twenty years, their dependence on each other? Frank and the discussions with the commander? The plan? The realisation that they wanted to kill Eddie? The policeman at the window, Jack shooting – his moment of making a moral choice?
8.The intricacies of the journey and the pursuit? On the run? Eddie cuffed? Jack going to his sister’s apartment, getting his guns? Eddie looking at the photos, the discussions about friendship, family – and Eddie mistaking his sister as his girlfriend? Jack’s shrewdness, getting Eddie to talk and trapping the intruding officer? Getting out of the building? The discussions with Frank, the issues? Frank trying to persuade Jack to give up Eddie, to kill him? Eddie escaping, Jack’s pursuit, in the underground, the police, getting trapped in the train? Into the building, Jack taking the mobile phone – and the irony that they were able to track where the phone was and pursue Eddie and Jack? So many traps – and Jack continually using his ingenuity?
9.Through the kitchen, the dead ends, going into the building, up the steps, the apartment and the old Chinese man letting them in, Eddie and his chatter to the Chinese man? The phone call to the courts? The irony that they were informed on? The police – and Jack having given them the wrong apartment? The continued escape?
10.Final pursuit, taking the bus, the bus chase through the city? The final crash?
11.The passengers, calling out that there was a gun, the driver keeping his wits? The crash, the siege? The police shooting out the tyres? The mobile phone going in? The discussion with the commander? Jack and his shrewdness, putting the newspapers over the windows, concealing the action? Getting the passengers to stand at the window so that there would be no shooting? Changing Eddie’s clothes? The hostages coming out before Frank could think of what to do? Eddie in the suit and the escape? The information given to the police, Jack altering the numbers in the bus, the driver telling the truth? Eddie and his realisation that Jack had helped him, saved his life? Coming back to the bus and getting in? Their driving through the cars?
12.Eddie, his behaviour during the siege, comforting the little girl, talking about birthdays and cakes? The motivation for his return? The bond with Jack?
13.The shots, Eddie being wounded, being taken to the ambulance, Jack calling his sister, her coming, taking Eddie in, Jack following? The irony of the deceit – and the second ambulance?
14.Jack, telling the truth to Eddie about his corruption? Frank and his confrontation of Jack, in the building, not wanting to go up to witness? Jack and his decision to be the witness? Frank and his anger, talking about the cases, the truth, the motivation, doing the job? Jack taping the confession – and its later being replayed in the corridor?
15.Jack as the witness, in the corridor, with the lawyer? Frank and the orders to kill, the attempted sniping, the shooter being shot? The lawyers, the guards? Frank and the realisation that all was over?
16.Two years passing, Jack serving his sentence? The family gathering? The delivery of the cake? Eddie and the photos – and the shop Eddie’s and Jack’s? The sweet tooth ending with the cake – as a symbol of hope for the future?
