Ronin
by Robbo
Posted on 2 August 2021
Rating -
Ronin is a 1998 American action thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and written by John David Zeik and David Mamet, under the pseudonym Richard Weisz. It stars Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård, Sean Bean, Skipp Sudduth and Jonathan Pryce.
At a bistro in Montmartre, Irish operative Deirdre (McElhone) meets with two Americans, Sam (De Niro) and Larry (Sudduth), and a Frenchman, Vincent (Reno). She takes them to a warehouse where the Englishman Spence (Bean) and the German Gregor (Skarsgård) are waiting. Conversations between the men show that they are all ex-government agents or ex-military-turned-mercenary. Deirdre briefs them on their mission: to attack a heavily armed convoy and steal a large, metallic briefcase.
Their first task before the main mission is to acquire weapons; this turns into a setup. Although the team survives and they get the weapons, Spence is exposed as a fraud by Sam. He is dismissed by Deirdre and the others continue the mission. As the team prepares, Deirdre meets with her handler, Seamus O’Rourke (Pryce), who tells her that the Russian mafia is bidding for the case and that the team must intervene before they get it.
Deirdre’s team successfully ambushes the convoy at La Turbie and pursues the survivors to Nice. During the gunfight, Gregor steals the case and disappears. He negotiates selling it to the Russians, but his contact attempts to betray him so Gregor kills the contact.
The team tracks Gregor through one of Sam’s old CIA contacts and corners him in the Arles Amphitheatre during his meeting with two of Mikhi’s men. Sam chases Gregor; he flees but is caught by Seamus. Deirdre and Vincent confront the two Russian thugs, causing a shootout. Sam arrives to help, killing one, but catches a ricochet from the other when Vincent knocks away the thug’s gun in order to kill him so Vincent takes Sam to a villa owned by his friend, Jean-Pierre. After removing the bullet and letting Sam recuperate, Vincent asks Jean-Pierre to help them find Gregor and the Irishmen.
In Paris, Gregor is persuaded through violent interrogation to give the case back to Seamus and Deirdre. After retrieving it from a post office, they are pursued by Sam and Vincent in a high-speed chase. Vincent shoots out their tire, sending their car off an unfinished overpass. Gregor escapes with the case while road workers rescue Deirdre and Seamus from the burning vehicle. Unsure where to go next, Sam and Vincent decide to track down the Russians; one of Jean-Pierre’s contacts tells them they are involved with figure-skater (and Mikhi’s girlfriend) Natacha Kirilova, who is appearing at Le Zénith.
During Natacha’s performance, Mikhi meets with Gregor, who says a sniper in the arena will shoot Natacha if Mikhi betrays him. Mikhi surprises Gregor by letting Natacha be killed before killing Gregor and taking the case. Amid the ensuing chaos from Natacha’s shooting, Sam and Vincent leave the arena just in time to see Seamus kill Mikhi and steal the case. Sam and Vincent split up; Vincent pursues Seamus, but is wounded in a gunfight. Sam finds Deirdre waiting in a getaway car; he convinces her to leave after explaining that he is still an active government agent working undercover to get Seamus, not the case. As she drives away, Seamus is forced to return to the arena as Sam gives chase. Seamus ambushes Sam, but is shot dead by Vincent before Seamus can kill Sam.
Although Ronin is an ensemble film both De Niro and Reno give stand-out performances.
As an action thriller it really does deliver, cranking up the tension and really immersing you into the story. Although you don’t fully know the characters back stories, you get just enough to make them fully formed. For example, you know that De Niro is ex-CIA as it’s implied through several conversations and comments but not explicitly stated. This in no way detracts from the script or the film, and it keeps you guessing as to each individuals motivation to take part in the operation.
Like I said before, Frankenheimer manages a perfect balance between action and thrills, the car chase scenes being the stand-out.
I agree that Ronin has a convoluted plot, using the briefcase as a MacGuffin, but it works well and in no place does the story stall or become boring.
This film is one that I would urge anybody to watch.
Leave a Reply