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The Dominator reviews
Fox Video
- Cert: 15
- Running time: 104 minutes
- Year: 1995
- Cat.no: 8963W
- Released: 12th May 1997
- Sound: Dolby Surround
- Widescreen : 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- Price: £15.99
- Extras : None
Director:
- John Woo (Hard Target, City on Fire, The Killer)
Producers:
- Mark Gordon, Bill Badalato, Terence Chang
Screenplay:
- Graham Yost (Speed)
Music:
- Hans Zimmer
Cast:
- Vic Deakins : John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, Phenomenon)
Riley Hale : Christian Slater (Kuffs, Pump up the Volume, Heathers)
Terry Carmichael : Samantha Mathis (Jack And Sarah, The Thing Called Love, Pump up the Volume)
Colonel Max Wilkins : Delroy Lindo (The Hard Way, Clockers, Malcolm X)
Giles Prentice : Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction, The Doors, Swimming With Sharks)
Pritchett : Bob Gunton (The Shawshank Redemption, Ace Ventura 2)
Kelly : Howie Long
Lt. Colonel Sam Rhodes : Vondie Curtis-Hall (Die Hard 2, Chicago Hope (TV))
Secretary of Defence, Baird : Kurtwood Smith (Robocop, Fortress)
Broken Arrow is a high-octane action film from John Woo, best knownas the director of many Hong Kong classics such as The Killer and Cityon Fire, and Graham Yost, the writer of 1994’s smash-hit Speed.
The plot is simple. Co-pilots Vic Deakins (John Travolta) and RileyHale (Christian Slater) are on a top-secret mission to deliver nuclearwarheads from A to B. However, after years of flying together, Deakins hastaken a turn for the worse and wants them for himself as he can sell them tothe highest bidder, holding America to ransom in the meantime.
After overpowering Hale, ejecting said co-pilot from the Stealth Bomber, dumpingthe nukes, and then bailing out himself, blaming Hale in a message to base,the chase is on as Hale, accompanied by park ranger, Terry Carmichael (playedby the babelicious Samantha Mathis) go after Deakins in a cat-and-mousehunt to the death.
After years in the wilderness, John Travolta came back to the fore in QuentinTaranino’s Pulp Fiction, and since then his halo has been allowed toshine with leading roles in Get Shorty and Phenomenon. He comesacross superbly in this bad-guy role, taking no crap from Slater, and afterany number of set-backs in winning the race, he always comes back for more.
Christian Slater is one of my favourite comedy actors, serving well in thelikes of Heathers (co-starring with Winona Ryder), the little-knownbut excellent comedy Kuffs, and 1990’s Pump Up The Volume inwhich he dated Samantha Mathis, hence Broken Arrow reunitesthem.
Support comes from the likes of Delroy Lindo, a black actor who tendsto play the embittered boss, this time for Travolta and Slater, and previouslyin 1991’s The Hard Way when he kicked James Woods into touch. FrankWhaley is a government agent who, on discovering that a Broken Arrow is aterm relating to stolen nuclear missiles, has one of the best lines in the film,“I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that nuclear missiles have been stolen…or that it happens so often there’s a term for it(!)”. Last but not least,Bob Gunton is the man who has paid Travolta to bring him the nukes,and was last seen in 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption as the embitteredprison warden trying to kick Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman into touch.
Picture quality is very good indeed. Sharp and colourful. The quality of thesurround sound is a knockout from start to finish as one explosion followsanother, also being effective for directional sound effects, and just make sureyou duck when that Stealth Bomber crash lands…
This video comes highly recommended if you like a top-notch blend of action,comedy, and a little ham-acting…
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1997.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.