Harry reviews the screenplay for John McTiernan's upcoming film BASIC starring Travolta and Sam 'the man' Jackson!!!

Hey folks, Harry here. I loathe the position that I’ve recently been put into of being the bad guy in John McTiernan’s life.

The man redefined the action film in the prime years of my high school and college days. Watching his PREDATOR was a text book case of how to shoot a cool action movie. Surrounding Arnold with cooler, bigger and meaner characters. Stripping of that protection, making a villain that you knew Arnold could not defeat… and ultimately that look in his face at the end. Had he really won, or was he merely a survivor?

Going to see DIE HARD was the last film experience I had with my best friend in High School before he died that next week in a tragic automobile accident… Literally giving me the last great memories I had with Robert. Not only that, but creating the prototype for cool action filmmaking.

His HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER gave birth to the whole big screen adaptation of the Jack Ryan series and the modern high concept action event film. This was the last great Sean Connery film that we’ve seen. The best Alec Baldwin film (yes, I prefer it to GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS)

He’s been the victim of some astoundingly problematic films that were mismanaged by studio development and interference from outside forces. All of which converged into what we wound up with in LAST ACTION HERO and THE 13TH WARRIOR.

Overall, McTiernan is one of those filmmakers that I always root for. That I was put into the situation with ROLLERBALL that I was put in… I loathed it. This was not some evil filmmaker that has turned out nothing but the worst in film, this was a master filmmaker that was a part of a ill-conceived production that went wrong at the screenplay stage, the casting stage, the conceptual stage and when you’re on that sort of sinking ship… It is amazing that he came out of it sane at all.

John McTiernan has his name on a film that will compete for Golden Raspberries come February 2003. He’s taking a beating from critics all over the place, who have gleefully dug his grave and tossed him in.

Me? I have been interviewed and I have answered the questions I was asked, but I have not delighted in this at all. Instead, I have been trying to find out more about McTiernan’s next project in the hopes that I could tell you folks that the master has something great up his sleeves. That the rain has broke and sunshine lights his future.

Yesterday, on my front porch a package was delivered with no postmarks and no return addresses. Inside was the production draft of John McTiernan’s next film… BASIC. Some sort of military flick starring John Travolta and Sam "the man" Jackson! Through the ‘publicity’ on ROLLERBALL, McTiernan has been notably busy working upon this film in Florida. Taking care of his future and putting his immediate past behind him.

My first thoughts when I looked at this package and realized what was inside… A stomach rumble. I didn’t want this to suck. Just as I didn’t want ROLLERBALL to suck. I wanted this script to be great, but I hadn’t heard much if anything about it.

I searched around the web real quick to see what I could find out about the project. I read a couple of loglines that everyone was being fed that told the story of a down and dirty DEA ex-Army Ranger, played by John Travolta, that investigates the death of a legendary Ranger Sergeant, played by "Jules Shaft Windu" Jackson, and three of his men whilst in the midst of a Panamanian mission that goes wrong in the midst of a hurricane.

The movie will have Travolta’s Agent Hardy teaming up with Connie Nielsen investigating and getting the testimonies of Taye Diggs and Giovanni Ribisi, the two surviving Rangers from the detail that went out into the jungles of Panama for a ‘training mission’. Taye Diggs refuses to talk to anyone but a Ranger from off-base… Someone he’s never known. Cristian de la Fuente and Brian Van Holt play two of the missing Rangers. Andy Garcia is a Colonel and long time friend of Travolta’s character. Tim Daly plays a Chief Warrant Officer Pete Vilmer, who has a history with Connie Nielsen’s Lt. Julia Osborne.

Sam Jackson plays the tough as rusty railroad spikes Ranger Sgt. Nathan West. A role which Sam will chew and chew and chew on-screen. The type of hard-nosed screen chewer that usually goes to R. Lee Ermy, but Jackson will shine in this role.

There is quite a bit of a RASHOMON style to the story. There are multiple versions of testimony and confessions about what happened on that training exercise. Was it a revenge killing that went wrong? Were drugs some how involved? Was it a hit ordered by government officials worried that Sam Jackson was going to Kurtz out on the American Military and begin putting heads on pikes and eating peyote in a sweat lodge? Well, I’m sure as hell not telling. Confusion is par for the course. And frankly watching this one unfold will be a pure joy. I can’t recommend enough that you not read any spoilers for the film. Just go into this one knowing that there is a mystery. That there is a story about how, why and when Sam Jackson’s Sgt. Nathan West died. Was it suicide? An accident? A murder? An assassination? OR… was it Alien Mutilation?

This is the absolute best script I’ve seen in McTiernan’s hands bar none. Nothing in his career will prepare you for this story. There is action, but it is dealt with through perceptions of action. Calculated tall tales of action. It will be fascinating to see the visual style that McTiernan will use to tell this story. As it is described, it sounds absolutely brutal. This is a tough story to tell. McTiernan won’t win many friends telling a story with Rangers allegedly being connected to Drug Trade, murder, racism, sexism and just about every other dirty rotten stinking loathsome act you can imagine. Of course this is all totally fictional. This movie could be about construction workers, diamond miners, truck drivers… any organization of men that work with a machismo shared bond that binds them. I feel that the Rangers and the Black Op mystery that surrounds them adds a flair that makes this script just that much more cool.

This isn’t a flag waving propaganda piece here. Warm-fuzzies only come in some scenes between Connie Nielsen and Travolta, but they get their share of blood and bruises too. This is film noir with your femme fatale, the requisite twists and turns and entendres (both double and triple) and flat out lies. It doesn’t take place totally at night, but we’re kept in the dark throughout… at least as regards to what is going on. Reading it came off as a mixture of RASHOMON’s skewed perspectives, KEY LARGO’s wild intrusion of mother nature, A FEW GOOD MEN’s investigative dissection of a military situation that delves into the honor/duty mindset of that world and PLATOON’s dark heart about what goes on in the field when there’s no eyes to see the evil that men do.

This is the exact project that McTiernan needed to do to come back from his ROLLERBALL experience. This is a project of the highest quality and frankly it will be great to see McTiernan making a film that is not safe, but daring. A film worthy of a director of with McTiernan’s capabilities. A movie cast with the right people for the right roles. Characters written not as stereotypes, but as intensely deceptive and smart characters. This is a film that will require your brain to work, that might offend some sensibilities and will step on some toes. When this sucker comes out either late this year or next, I will be rooting for it. McTiernan is gonna shut us all up and make us clap.

P.S. This is not a WAR MOVIE! There is no war, it is a film centered around a 'black ops' squad in a training exercise. You can have military themed films that have nothing to do with war... ya know...

P.S.S. Folks, I don't want to spoil where this film goes, but trust me when I say that COURAGE UNDER FIRE and THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER have absolutely "jack" & "shit" to do with the film. This movie goes in directions that neither of those films ever even came close to approaching. These characters are absolutely fantastic. All I've given you is the set up in the first 30 pages or so, where the film goes after that.... whew.... If McTiernan handles this right, we'll have his best film. He has the script and the cast to pull it off.