The Way of the Gun

Screenwriter of The Usual Suspects Christopher McQuarrie directed The Way of the Gun, a 2000 film that is an exercise in style over substance. In the DVD production notes McQuarrie said that he wanted to make a crime film that recalled Westerns and film noir, and had lead characters who weren't sympathetic, but cool. Jesus. I can't imagine a worse way to make a movie.

The "cool" leads are Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro) (those are the real names of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), petty criminals. They are at a sperm bank hoping to get paid for a donation when they overhear that a surrogate mother is getting paid one million dollars. They decide to kidnap her.

She's played by Juliette Lewis, who spends most of the movie carrying around a huge pregnancy pad and walking barefoot. It turns out that the baby she's carrying is for a rich guy who has his fingers in some unsavory pies. He has a permanent team of bodyguards (including Taye Diggs and Nicky Katt) protecting her, but somehow Phillippe and Del Toro manage to kidnap her. The rich guy's henchman (James Caan) gets involved--it turns out he has a conflict of interest--and Lewis' obstetrician is another factor (he's the rich guy's son).

All of this gave me a headache, as I had trouble figuring out who was against who. Throughout the film the motives of Phillippe and Del Toro are unfathomable. I suppose they were after the ransom money, but they do things that make you scratch your head.

I think the plot is really less important than the shootouts, which are fairly well handled. The climactic one has Phillipe and Del Toro versus Caan and some similarly-aged guys in windbreakers--they look like the cast of a Flomaxx commercial.

It appears that McQuarrie has not directed another movie, and after The Way of the Gun it's not surprising. There is little about this film that feels authentic. Instead it's the result of a guy who has seen a lot of movies and regurgitated them. A lot of directors do that--Quentin Tarantino among them--but unlike Tarantino, McQuarrie shows no sense of freshness and originality.