Marked For Death
Steven Seagal action films have always been renown for their utter simplicity perhaps because Seagal himself (while having always possessed tremendous screen presence) was so perceived as being limited in his acting abilities that many of his movies serve little purpose than to establish the bad guys and what makes them so evil before unleashing Seagal onto them so that the bacchanalia of beatings, shootings, bone breakings and assorted other forms of painful justice that he would inflict can now seem justified and righteous. The funny thing about Seagal is how when dealing with bad guys (and sometimes his own allies) in these movies is in the way that he almost comes across as being somewhat of a bully, a guy who canât stand for the lowest forms of criminal scum to come into his sandbox (especially if theyâre smaller and weaker than he is which is usually the case) and thus takes the opportunity to completely overwhelm him physically so that they donât victimize anybody else and thus justice is served. This 1990 release (the third in Seagalâs initial blaze of glory that had followed up his undisputed revenge classic Hard To Kill) stands apart in many ways solely for the aspects of psychology and intimidation that the villains attempt to put across to both Seagal and the other characters that are meant to make them so scared and frightened to even fall asleep at night that they then become easy prey. The film opens with Seagal (playing a burnt out DEA agent here) chasing down the legendary Danny Trejo (in one of his early bit part villain roles) and after catching up with him winds up beating the shit out of him in order to find out some information (and 20 years later the roles would be reversed with Trejo being the hero and Seagal playing the main villain in Machete). Eventually things go bad and his partner is killed so Seagal decides to quit, deciding that fighting the âwar on drugsâ is pointless since thereâs always going to be drugs on the streets and by definition drug dealers as well. So he heads home to the small town that he grew up in and reconnects with his family as well as an old childhood friend (and possible former colleague in law enforcement although that is never made quite clear) played by Keith David (another legend alert!) who is now a head coach for the local high school football team. But it only takes a few minutes of hanging around this high school environment before Seagal starts noticing a number of (grown adult) Jamaican males milling around and worse, selling drugs out in the open on the campus to various students. David confirms it to him, talking about how his star quarterback the year before had overdosed on cocaine and how even his own 13 year old nephew had wound up dying in a crack house. Seagal writes it all off to him as just being something that is a part of society now and that thereâs nothing realistic that can be done about it. Then he and David suddenly find themselves in the middle of a public shootout between The Jamaicans and another criminal (played by Al Israel, best remembered as the chainsaw wielding Hector The Toad in Scarface) and then mostly in self defense and to protect the other citizens, Seagal takes down one of The Jamaicans and knocks him out for the police to take away on a silver platter. Turns out that these Jamaican gangs (called âpossesâ) derive their power not only from their ruthless (and reckless) tendencies to brazenly kill out in the open in public places and even be willing to commit home invasions in order to carry out their murderous deeds, but also from the perception that they delight in giving off when it comes to having some sort of mystical / magical powers (possibly voodoo) that makes even their own henchmen fear them as being some sort of dark, godlike figure. In the initial run of Steven Seagal movies, many of them were distinguished by their villains, ranging from such names as prestigious as Michael Caine (On Deadly Ground) and the arresting double act of Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey (Under Siege) to Henry Silvaâs quiet menace (Above The Law) and of course William Sadlerâs shady Senator (âYou can take that to the bank!â) in the aforementioned classic Hard To Kill. Against that stiff competition, what we get here is real life Jamaican actor Basil Wallace as Screwface, a full fledged Jamaican criminal complete with dreadlocks but also with unnaturally piercing blue eyes. Screwface is the type that not only tries to spook his enemies with the threat of magic, but he also makes it a point to keep himself in the shadows even around his own people so as to enhance their own fear of him which in turn amplifies their obedience and loyalty. The truth is that there doesnât seem to be anything in the way of legitimate powers of darkness pertaining to the character (unlike the villains of voodoo horror flicks like The Believers and The Serpent And The Rainbow) and so much of his âpowerâ is built by the perception of him which he instills in superstitious people as well as his absolutely no holds barred approach in going after his enemies (and the one thing that does make him seem magical should be familiar to anyone who has seen The Prestige). Seagal could care less, fully declaring war after a drive by shooting at his motherâs house and an attempted attack on his sister that sees Screwface run away when he sees Seagal coming his way. Seagal joins forces with David and eventually with a third wheel undercover Jamaican cop (Tom Wright) to track Screwface and his crew while what would appear to be major (although obligatory) supporting roles for such big name actors as Kevin Dunn and Joanna Pacula seem to have been drastically trimmed down in the editing room (Pacula as a police detective specializing in Jamaican gang culture would appear to be the obvious romantic interest for Seagal but she doesnât even get shown getting so much as a kiss in) so that the story can focus on Seagal and David as brothers in arms hunting Screwface all the way down to Jamaica and back. This actually turns out to be a good decision on the part of the filmmakers as it keeps the pacing tight and allows for the story to focus better on the central conflict without cluttering it up with any sidetracking (Dunn appears to be playing an old commanding officer of Seagalâs who is threatening to give him problems for working outside of the law but with his screen time kept to a minimum it thankfully cuts out what would surely have been a slew of clichĂ©s). This also means that the action and fight scenes get more of a spotlight even if much of it is Seagal just beating the ever loving shit out of one dreadlocked would be Jamaican gangster after another, citing many to complain that the movie promoted negative racial stereotypes (despite the Jamaican cop sidekick character) and even saw Jamaican rapper Eek A Mouse turn down the role of Screwface after reading the script and thinking that it portrayed Jamaicans in a bad light (even as reggae legend Jimmy Cliff cameos as himself singing in a Jamaican nightclub). The real dynamic at play here was in the various forms of psychological intimidation on display with the idea being that the only real way to break The Jamaican Cartelâs back was to not only kill Screwface but to do so in such a way that it would prove that your âmagicâ is stronger than his since so many of his followers believed him to be some sort of an actual deity (a favorite practice of theirs is to leave graffiti symbols that meant that you were now âmarkedâ and thus up the fear and intimidation factors) so much so that certain henchmen when cornered rather than give up Screwface would instead choose to jump to their deaths out of a window. But when these psych tactics are attempted against Seagal (himself one of the most intimidating of golden era action stars), it simply becomes a matter of him just fighting through all the hocus pocus bullshit and breaking down all the necessary doors so that you can finally get your hands on the (very human) main villain and then just break him in half en route to a very painful death (which Seagal out of all people specialized in greatly). The film doesnât feature the deep rooted themes of pure revenge that Hard To Kill did nor does it quite go as over the top as Under Siege, but it is a very lean and mean action film with an original villain who uses altered perception and fearful psychology as his main weapons vs Seagalâs more blunt approach plus it teams Seagal up just this one time with Keith David, a beloved cult actor who doesnât have to take a back seat to anybodyâŠ
8/10