Shooter

Today I'm reviewing one of my favorite movies of 2007--Shooter. A lot of readers may think I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not. I saw it with my dad in the theatre and watched it again the other night on Blu-Ray. Read on if you'd like to know why I like this movie so much (if this picture of Kate Mara hasn't already enticed you to do so).

I remember the first time I met Bob Lee Swagger. I was a freshman in college and was perusing the bookstore, searching for a book to read. The cover of a particular book caught my attention, so I read the summary on the back. It sounded interesting. It said the book was about snipers and shit. The cover depicted a silhouette enclosed by a reticle from a rifle scope. The book was called Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. I remember it being gritty, intense, and fun to read. I don’t remember all the plot elements, but the basic outline includes the main character (Bob Lee Swagger) being used by some subversive government group to scout a possible presidential assassination. It turns out the group was setting him up to be the fall guy for their nefarious plans. That isn’t a good idea, because Bob Lee is a kick-ass, true-American hero. With the help of an FBI agent named Nick Memphis, Swagger enacts his revenge against those who set him up. I read the book in 1993 when it was published. I have since read all of Hunter’s novels. The subsequent books jump back and forth between Bob Lee Swagger’s exploits and those of his father, Earl Swagger. My favorites include Black Light, Hot Springs, and a non-Swagger novel, Dirty White Boys.

The film Shooter is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and is based on the novel Point of Impact. I’m not sure why they changed the title. Maybe Point of Impact sounds too much like a Seagal or Van Damme movie. I still like it better than the title they ultimately chose; Shooter sounds like some kind of stupid nickname or a dog’s name. The character names are retained from the novel, and that’s what’s most important. Bob Lee Swagger is a name that conjures images of some tough dude breaking tables and balls in some southern honky-tonk. He needs to get his swagger back, like the Lakers.

The opening sequence of the film introduces us to Bob Lee (played by Mark Wahlberg) and his spotter (who’s character name is Donnie…no kidding), covered in ghillie suits on a hillside somewhere in Somalia. We get to witness Bob Lee’s sniper skills right off the bat. He takes out a bunch of militiamen, quickly dispatching them as his spotter calls out distances and targets. Soon, the bad guys call in a helicopter that attacks Bob’s position. Donnie is killed and Bob turns his anger toward the helicopter, taking it out with a well-placed shot. You are not a true action movie hero until you have shot down a helicopter. In all the commotion, Bob tried to get help from his unit via radio, but his commander has abandoned him and pulled out of the operation.

A few years later we find Bob Lee living a secluded life in a cabin in the mountains of Wyoming. He has a dog. It’s just him and his beer-fetching dog and some computers and guns and stuff. He also has a pony-tail. He is ex-military. He is cynical about the government. After a couple of minutes, a few obvious government types (sunglasses and Suburbans) invade Bob Lee’s privacy to offer him a job. These guys include Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) and Jack Payne (Elias Koteas). [Permit me to go on a tangent here. Is there something wrong with Danny Glover that I don’t know about? Every line he utters in the film is nearly unbearable to listen to. He has this weird lisp thing going on. It’s like he’s wearing those Invisalign braces or something. He whisper-speaks nearly every bit of dialogue. Any ideas would be helpful. Oh, and Elias Koteas plays the creepy guy again.] They need someone with his skills to help them scout out a possible assassination attempt on the President of the United States. They need Bob to tell them the best place for this attempt to occur so they can prevent it. They try to appeal to his sense of patriotism. They succeed. Bob Lee cuts off his pony-tail (it doesn’t actually show this but you see him rubbing his short hair moments later) and catches a flight to Washington, DC.

Bob Lee scouts out three locations where he thinks the assassin might strike. He ends up settling on Independence Hall in Philadelphia. He gives all this info to Colonel Johnson and is talked into sticking around for the moment of the attack. Because all of this was a set-up, it turns out that Bob Lee is the one getting shot (along with the Archbishop of Somewhere). Swagger takes a bullet to the shoulder, falls out a window, and runs. He ends up stealing a car and a gun from a nearby FBI agent (Nick Memphis played impeccably by Michael Pena) and escapes, but not before telling Memphis that this is all a setup.

There is a pretty cool First Blood type survival scene where Swagger has to give himself an IV so he doesn’t die. He goes into a market to buy all the stuff he needs and administers the IV to himself in the cab of a pickup truck. That’s way more hardcore than just giving yourself stitches. Bob ends up driving to see the only person he thinks he can trust in this situation: the widow (Sarah Fenn, played by the absolutely gorgeous Kate Mara) of his old spotter. He shows up at Sarah’s door begging for help and little do-it-yourself surgery. Later on, Sarah gets kidnapped (of course) by Jack Payne (obviously) and ends up being used as a bargaining chip.

Upon his recovery, Bob Lee is ready to enact his revenge. He ends up getting help from Nick Memphis and a series of amazing action sequences follow. My favorite part of the movie involves a shootout at a farmhouse where the real sniper from the setup lives. Antoine Fuqua directs this sequence perfectly. The action is compelling and highly realistic. This scene alone redeems Fuqua from the atrocity that was Tears of the Sun. The scene that takes place on a glacier is pretty damn cool, too. Knowing they actually shot the scene on location (no green screen) makes it even more impressive. This is no PG-13 action movie…when people get shot (lots of head-shots), there are plenty of squibs exploding and body parts flying (no A-Team violence here).

The climax of the movie is pretty clever. I remembered it from the book and won’t spoil it here (seeing as I spoiled everything else). The movie actually follows the plot of the book pretty closely. Some things have been changed and updated (Bob Lee is from Arkansas in the book and is a veteran of the Vietnam War).

I loved this movie. The action was great, the acting was great, the writing was great, and the direction was great. I wish that more people went to see it when it was in theatres. It has received some comparisons to the Bourne movies, which I think are unfair, for the following reasons: Bob Lee never forgets who he is. He knows his own fucking name. Sure, there is the conspiracy angle, but Swagger could kick Jason Bourne’s ass (Marky Mark Wahlberg could kick Matt Damon’s ass in real life, too). Swagger is a way better sniper than Bourne. He makes a shot that’s over a mile away. I also like the fact that this movie doesn’t rely on the quick-cut editing style that is so overused in the Bourne films. I might change my mind after I see Bourne 3, but I’m not betting on it. I’d like to see more Bob Lee Swagger or Earl Swagger movies. The disappointing thing is that it doesn’t look like this movie even grossed its filming budget. There probably won’t be any sequels. I bought it on Blu-Ray. I hope that helps out a bit.