Shooter

() () ()

Antoine Fuqua

March 23, 2007

When a Black-Ops mission in Ethiopia is derailed and abandoned mid-combat, marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger’s (Mark Wahlberg) best friend and spotter is killed. Swagger returns home furious at the government for double crossing him and retires to a house in the mountaintop in Arkansas. When Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) shows up to his house with an invitation to work with the secret service in attempt to prevent a long range shot from the President, he initially turns it down. However, Swagger can’t help but give in when the Colonel plays the patriot card and asks, “Do we allow America to be run by thugs?” Unfortunately Swagger is double-crossed once more and implicated in an assassination plot involving a senator as dishonest as they come (Ned Beatty), the Colonel, and several FBI upper-level officials. In order to find the evildoers and bring them to vigilante justice, he is forced to flee.

The film’s strange, thin politics become harder to accept as it lurches from setup to setup: anti-establishment social righteousness marches in step with man-alone isolationism; self-serving militarism is lambasted while automatic weaponry is slobbered over; meanwhile limbs crack and heads pop. It is not surprising that the characters and dialogue are clichéd. 

“Shooter” has a brilliant supporting cast. Michale Pena plays a rookie FBI agent that is easily disarmed by Swagger minutes after the assassination, but later goes on to be his sidekick. Sarah Fenn (Kate Mara) plays the ex-wife of Swagger’s old friend and deceased spotter, she comes through splendidly and of course becomes Swagger’s exploitable Achilles heel. Best of all is Senator Meacham (Ned Beatty) who acts the diabolical senator. “There ain’t no Sunnis and Shia, no Democrats or Republicans; there’s just haves and have-nots.” It gets funnier the more you think about it, a play at the people in power who seek for their own personal gain without getting too serious.

Index

Home