Basic

Basic

Mystery thrillers go all the way back to the era of Hitchcock and beyond while the art of having plot twists and turns that throw the audience for a loop is something which we see in everything from The Usual Suspects to the collected works of M. Night Shyamalan, but one thing that usually doesn’t factor into these kind of films is the dynamic of a military setting with American soldiers caught up in the intrigue. What sets this 2003 release apart on its own unique sort of pedestal is that (without completely spoiling the movie) it depicts such a labyrinthine storyline (complete with a shock ending) under the pretense (which is easy to accept after completion of a viewing) that what we have actually witnessed here is a certified, first class Special Forces / Military Intelligence sting operation, complete with purposeful misdirection, disinformation, and other expertly placed psychological ploys enacted by the investigating characters in order to disorient the viewer and also to eventually get the guilty parties for whom the operation is directed against cornered and forced to confess so that they can be brought to justice. As directed by legendary Die Hard helmer John McTiernan (just prior to his wiretapping scandal and conviction that all but knocked him out of Hollywood for good), the film is also notable for borrowing from the Akira Kurosawa classic Rashomon, depicting a retelling of the same events from different points of view without the viewer being sure just what is true and what is being made up by the narrator of that moment in order to cover their own asses from a possible military tribunal for treason. All that being said, the film’s initial premise involves a U.S. Army Ranger training exercise in Panama going bad and resulting in the disappearances and possible deaths of several soldiers in the unit. As led by Samuel L. Jackson’s Sgt. West, it’s made to appear that disaster was inevitable since Jackson apparently was a more cruel and relentless commanding officer than most, having seemingly developed dangerously antagonistic relationships with just about every member of his squad to the point where nearly every one of them would have a motive to kill him and write it off as just being a mere accident. The only two Rangers to make it back are a wounded man (Giovanni Ribisi in easily one of his best and most unnerving performances) and a stalwart member of the squad (Brian Van Holt) who is refusing to say a word but has put it in writing that he’ll only speak to a fellow Ranger provided that the Ranger is brought in from off the base itself. Naturally, the commanding officer (Tim Daly) is finding himself in quite a bind, having to make a report on the unaccounted whereabouts of 4 of his men and seeing his own on base investigator (Connie Nielsen, a long way removed from her Bitch Goddess roles at that time and sporting a cute Southern accent to boot) getting absolutely nowhere with her attempts at interrogation. So he calls in an old friend of his (John Travolta), ostensibly an ex military man who now works for the DEA, but who did serve as an Army Ranger during his time complete with the designated tattoo which qualifies him in fulfilling the young soldier’s request and whose reputation as an interrogator is said to be second to none. Unfortunately, Travolta also has a reputation of a different kind during his run with the DEA, having been accused of taking bribes which he is currently under investigation for. Regardless, he takes the assignment and in doing so takes Nielsen under his wing so that she can sit underneath the learning tree and watch him work, along with getting the younger Ranger to talk almost immediately in telling his story before heading over to the hospital in order to get the wounded Ribisi’s side of the story. The consensus of both men’s differing accounts is that Jackson was certainly killed during the exercise, but the question of who was the guilty party remains up in the air and then when the implication comes out that drugs (both being used and trafficked) were involved, things start to get quite convoluted in what the two soldiers (and others) are willing to give up in terms of information and intel on a certainly illegal enterprise going on right under the base commander’s nose. Travolta expertly dives down the rabbit hole with the utmost confidence in his own abilities while Nielsen just tries to register everything she learns as things move along. The movie does suffer from one major plot hole as it relates to possibly its best plot twist (out of many) when it comes to a case of mistaken identity and how two of the soldiers could have had their names purposely mixed up (ultimately as part of the sting) without the base commander, Nielsen, or anybody else stationed there realizing that not only are they talking to the wrong person, but that person is using a completely different name than the one that they’ve always gone under. It’s a small quibble, but in a situation such as this where the plot twists must all add up in the end for it to work (and where everything else does in this case), this one slip up sticks out like a sore thumb. Travolta is full on here with his patented classic charisma, cockily making overtures at Nielsen while at several moments during the investigation metaphorically telling her to hold my beer and watch me work. Nielsen (actually the most key character since her babe in the woods stature makes her the representative for every single viewer of the film) swims in Travolta’s wake but still gets in her own strong bits including a confrontation with a possible suspect played by Harry Connick Jr. Jackson plays his Ranger Sergeant as the potential worse nightmare for any grunt, a possible loose cannon in his own right who gleefully promises his own men that if they piss him off in the wrong way, then he’ll personally see to it that they meet with an “accident”. And as we rocketslide towards that ending and the full reveal of the operation that we have just seen getting played out, it makes one realize and appreciate that the psychological aspects of bringing down the most reprehensible amongst us is something which only the military can successfully tread the waters in, since civilian law enforcement relies much more on concrete smoking gun evidence and not acting on their own instincts in such a way that a foolproof affirmation of guilt can be brought forth and presented merely by pushing the buttons of and deliberately manipulating bad people into making that one fatal mistake, essentially the art of already knowing who is guilty to begin with and then working the situation in such a way so that they can be more readily brought down for their crimes…

8/10

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