A Working Man: review of the film by David Ayer
An old-fashioned action film by the unusual duo Stallone/Ayer, with Jason Statham in top form and a good mix of violence and self-irony. In theaters from April 10
Unlike The Beekeeper, the previous feature film by David Ayer, also starring Jason Statham, the same actor who starred in A Working Man, the element of interest here no longer has to do with the staging of hard and pure action, but rather with the rhythm and tone of a feature film that, although the child of a new cinema, looks to the times of a cinema that has been. How is this possible?
A Working Man: review of the film by David Ayer
Sylvester Stallone and David Ayer for a glorious old-fashioned action
Co-writing and producing A Working Man is none other than Sylvester Stallone, interested in both the cinematic transposition of Chuck Dixon's novel Levon's Trade and the re-proposal of a filmic model that we know well, especially through his evocative and recognizable body and face.
A proposal that has certainly been missing from the latest cinema belonging to the linguistics of action, whether we are talking about the American or global panorama. This is why, although distant from what Statham actually conveys, the imagery of John Rambo, D-Tox and Bullet to the Head lives fiercely and gloriously among the dynamic and then static sequences of A Working Man, the twelfth feature film directed by David Ayer.
While it is true that Statham has been embodying the impeccable and painstakingly constructed ideology and mythology of the Last Action Hero for some time now, it is also true that much of his filmography deals with spotless and fearless heroes, united by a common element that recurs tirelessly: no one ever really has anything to lose, except loneliness, or life itself.
Yet time has passed even for Statham and for a few years now, we could say, since Guy Ritchie's Wrath of Man, his implacable and extremely ferocious heroes have been associated with the element of loss, beyond the usual risk and adrenaline. Why?
The public must be able to perceive that an action actor who is no longer young, wants to test himself not only as an experience of fun and obvious demonstration of: "I can do it again" - an example among many, Tom Cruise and his tireless relationship with Mission Impossible Saga - but as an experience of risk. The no longer young hero must necessarily have something to lose, something to give up, even considering the possibility of sacrifice.
David Ayer, who collaborates with Jason Statham for the second time after the aforementioned The Beekeeper, seems to have fully grasped the profound meaning of this reflection, as well as a real request, both from the general public of action cinema and from fans of the star in question.
A Working Man: evaluation and conclusion
This is why Statham fought in The Beekeeper, and this is why he fights again in A Working Man. He is no longer simply a lone avenger without blemish and without fear, but rather a former soldier, or rather a former war machine, who, to desire a quiet life - Or to put it in different and immediately recognizable terms, a regulated life, returning to the cult dialogue between De Niro and Pacino in Heat - finds himself having to take up arms once again, resorting to those dangerous skills initially buried and ultimately dusted off.
The heroes of Ayer's cinema, however, are not only incorruptible and unstoppable but also melancholic and marked by the weight of guilt. In fact, Levon Cade (Jason Statham) was unable to save his wife from depression, which resulted in a tragic suicide, and then lost custody of their daughter Merry (Isla Gie).
Hence, the fury needed to awaken the monster hidden in the depths of any man and the anger that arises from the possibility of losing that painstakingly built and achieved tranquility. Statham's heroes, on the other hand, keep their promises, whatever the cost. Death after death, bullet after bullet. After The Beekeeper, an excellent model of old-style action cinema, with Jason Statham in top form and an unprecedented David Harbour.
Blood, blows and gunfights galore, in the middle self-irony, grotesque and observation of an evil that is actually real, which involves both the USA and the rest of the world, namely human trafficking. Ayer puts himself at the service of dynamism and spectacularity and the objective is achieved once again.