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

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.