Dir. William Friedkin
The Hunted is about Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro) who is an assassin for the government. He seems to be killing people who need to be killed, and is incredibly good at his job. The only problem is he is a human being who has been repeatedly asked to go to places that resemble hell, witness atrocities, and then murder people. Admittedly, the people he is ordered to kill are usually the cause of the atrocities, but hes been doing it too long. All he can hear anymore are the screams of the dying. He sees targets everywhere. His country, which thanks him every time he comes back, doesnt help him. He starts killing Americans in national parks, because he thinks they are "sweepers" sent to kill him. Were never actually told conclusively that the victims are or are not sweepers, but they do seem to be regular hunters, and Aaron cant tell the difference. To stop Aaron the FBI brings in the man who trained him to kill, L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones.) The story is about the relationship between these two men, the hunter and the hunted. They know each other, they understand each other, and they even love each other. Between the hunter and hunted is also the bond between mentor and student, and (in a spiritual way) between father and son.
I love it. The characters seem to be more real than your typical movie fare. No one is really a bad guy: everybody is shown as shades of grey (and anyone who knows me knows Im a sucker for grey characters.) Even the man whos going around killing lots and lots of people isnt a bad guy. That actually leads to some stress -- in the scenes where Aaron and L.T. are fighting each other, you dont know who to root for. The fight scenes are awesome and intense. I have never seen two people trying to kill each other; I suspect in real life if two highly trained men are intent on the others death its not pretty and graceful, although I enjoy that in other films. If I watched it happening in real life, it would look like this movie. It was brutal and bloody, and seemed very, very real. FYI - The style of knife fighting is from the Philippines, called Kali. Another neat thing about this story is the animal symbolism. One of the first scenes is a white wolf with its leg caught in a trap (dont worry, the wolf is fine.) You can see this in Aaron, who is trying to survive the horrors hes seen and survive in a world thats trying to kill him. When L.T. is in the city, hes jittery in an animalistic way. At another time you see him crawl on all fours. One of the characters is hit with a tranquilizer dart, and looks very much like an animal the way he goes down. At one point Aaron is naming missions hes been on, and they all are animals. Animals kill for food and to survive. Aaron is killing because its the only way he sees to survive. Its part of what makes the movie heartbreaking.
I rate it: Full Price
Tommy Lee Jones as L.T. (Tracker, father figure, and bad-ass)
Benicio Del Toro as Aaron (Assassin, the hunted, and bad-ass)