Action Cinema at its Best
Summary
Silent Night proves once again John Woo is the maestro of action cinema with a somber tale that has no dialogue whatsoever and yet it’s still engaging, moving and exciting with a jaw dropping final hour of brutal action making this one of the year’s best action movies.
Plot: On Christmas Eve, a man witnesses the death of his young son when the boy gets caught in crossfire between warring gangs. Recovering from a wound that cost him his voice, he soon embarks on a bloody and grueling quest to punish those responsible.
Review: Silent Night marks the long-awaited return of John Woo to Hollywood which has been one of my most anticipated movies of the year and I’m pleased to say it surpassed my expectations.
As you will likely already know this is a silent movie with no dialogue aside from the occasional radio broadcast; this could have been frustrating or gimmicky in the hands of another filmmaker but John Woo once again proves he is one of the greatest action directors of all time.
Silent Night is the perfect example of see don’t tell and despite having no spoken dialogue I was fully engaged emotionally with the film and even teared up at a few points. If you’ve lost anyone close to you then I think this movie will be more meaningful to you. I lost one of my best friends a few months ago and it just brought up some feelings I had buried since then.
Joel Kinnaman is extraordinary as our protagonist Brian; a man whose young boy is accidentally killed in a drive-by gangland shooting. Brian is also shot in the throat thus he loses his voice and can’t speak for the entire runtime. He is overwhelmed by grief becoming distant from his wife and is obsessed with seeking revenge on the perpetrators who destroyed his life.
The film wastes no time getting going with an explosive opening 10 minutes then (like most Woo films) the pacing slows which may put some viewers off, but when you don’t have dialogue we need to visually see the torment Brian is going through (and his poor wife). He spends most of the first half of the movie training himself for war and then the final hour is just action movie nirvana.
Silent Night has ferocious fight scenes with one highlight being Brian facing off against a captive in his garage; you feel every desperate punch and kick so it’s like you’re in the thick of it. As this is John Woo there are no quick cuts or CG here. It seems to be mostly done in camera which makes it all the better. This is one of Woo’s most violent films to date with some vicious kills and as you’d expect awesome shoot-outs.
There are no doves or pigeons here and no unintentional humour (which let’s face it some of his films have) making this one of his more mature movies as a filmmaker. We do still get some double gunplay and slow motion so fear not, you are never in any doubt you are watching a John Woo film and I am so glad I got to see it on the big screen. There is some stunning camera play and every moment you feel like you are watching an artist at work.
Despite not uttering a single word we still root for Brian and hate the villains which for me at least is action cinema at its finest. We care about the characters, are emotionally involved and it still has a huge bodycount too. I know some will get annoyed that there is no dialogue as you really do want to hear someone say SOMETHING but once you make peace with that and have patience with the slower first half it’s well worth the wait.
Marco Beltrami’s score is gorgeous incorporating Silent Night subtly while also adding achingly sad strings to the sheer tragedy of the story.
Overall, Silent Night is John Woo back at his best with a jaw dropping final hour packed with fights, bullets and bloodshed galore. The fact it has no dialogue at all and is a little slowburn in the first half may frustrate some viewers but personally this is action cinema at its best. It’s not my favourite John Woo film as Hard Target and Hard Boiled are just classics but in terms of his more recent output this is streets ahead.