Testosterone-powered action fuels Bay's 'The Rock'

By Parvathi Nayar Narayan

JAKARTA (JP): The assorted mass of concrete and rock in San Francisco Bay still exerts a strange, compelling pull on people's imaginations. Once again Hollywood has cashed in on its enduring appeal though the result isn't really just another Alcatraz movie.

The Rock has nothing to do with grisly tales of cruelty and injustice, but rather with modern warriors -- and weapons.

The versatile Ed Harris plays General Hummel. He is a rather dangerous combination of idealism, bitterness and bravery; in the opening frames of the movie it is revealed that his wife -- a restraining influence? -- is no more. Hummel, together with a band of renegade marines, steals some of the newest, deadliest and most virulent gas around. It is time, I suppose, for the villain of the piece to be culled from the stockpile of chemical weaponry, seeing as all the others -- from big guns to nuclear warheads -- have had their day in the sun.

The rebels hole up at Alcatraz along with the requisite hostages, whose presence makes a frontal attack on them an impossibility. Apart from which there is The Threat -- the rebels will gas the Bay area unless the government meets their demands. It's only money that they want, for heaven's sake, and that too for a good cause -- as compensation to the families of the soldiers who've died in operations so covert that their existence is denied.

The pace doesn't allow you too much time to protest the implausibility of the plot. And anyway you are offered up Sean Connery very quickly, whose screen presence just seems to get more potent with the years. He plays John Mason, the only man ever to have escaped from Alcatraz. Like the deadly gas, the aforementioned soldiers who died in covert operations, Mason's existence is also a dark secret, and he's been illegally incarcerated for the past 30 years. Did someone say 'paranoia'...?

Mason is offered his freedom and a new hairstyle in exchange for using his knowledge of Alcatraz to smuggle onto the island a lethal SEAL team and Dr. Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage). Cage moves from chemical addict, the man with the plan to drink himself to death in Leaving Las Vegas) to FBI chemical weapons expert in The Rock. He is rather amusing as the near nerd on whose intrinsically honest self the FBI persona sits with some awkwardness. He's more in his element when defusing chemical bombs rather than toting a gun.

But Dr. Goodspeed's personality acquires a whole new dimension when handed a yellow -- the currently trendy color for one's wheels -- Ferrari. The movie is set in San Francisco after all, with those marvelous roller-coaster roads which practically scream "Car Chase!". Director Michael Bay, formerly a maker of music videos, obliges with an all systems go, tires screaming, non-stop action sequences. The kind that would leave even MTV- proof audiences, used to 50 images a second, gasping in its wake.

And so on to Alcatraz itself. When I visited Alcatraz years ago, it consisted of nothing more eventful than headphones with sound effects and an ex-inmate signing copies of his books on the island. Of course Connery's Alcatraz is a lot more exciting with boilers, tunnels, abandoned tramcars and underground passages. And plenty of opportunities for shoot-outs, chases, and more general mayhem.

Connery seems to have little problem in bashing up the odd baddie, spouting philosophy and pithy punch lines. Frankly, one enjoys watching him immensely -- so much so that it's easy to allow him to be fit and virile and powerful, despite 30 years of imprisonment.

There is an array of familiar and interesting faces on the side of both the goodies and the baddies. The extensive supporting cast includes names such as Michael Biehn, David Morse and William Forsythe. The film could perhaps have been in the running, if like the Emmys, the Oscars offered esoteric categories like 'best cast in a major motion film that is primarily and overwhelmingly male'.

Despite the lack of female interest The Rock should set testosterone glands a-pumping due to its sheer machismo. It will probably be remembered beyond the Cage-Connery appeal though, as the last of the S and B (Simpson and Bruckheimer) offerings.

Don Simpson was quite the life-in-the-fastest-lane, high- living Hollywood prototype. After teaming up with Bruckheimer in 1983, the first hit they produced was Flashdance. It is however as the producers of high powered thrillers that the duo will be remembered -- from the seminal Top Gun all the way to The Rock, with blockbusters like Beverly Hills Cop, Dangerous Minds and Crimson Tide along the way.

With Simpson's death early this year, it's left to Bruckheimer to continue with their action flicks. A practically patented formula of which The Rock is a good example -- if it's somewhat low on plausibility and innovation it certainly scores high on action, actors with charisma, slick escapism and good old fashioned entertainment value.