Genre:
Action
Director:
John Woo
Script:
Chuck Pfarrer
Producers:
Sam Raimi, Sean Daniels, Moshe Diamant, Robert G. Tapert, James Jacks
Score:
Graeme Revell
Cinematographer:
Russell Carpenter
Editor:
Bob Murawaski
Special
Effects: Dale Jones, Dale L. Martin
Cast:
Yancy Butler as Natasha 'Nat" Binder
Jean-Claude
Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux
Lance
Henriksen as Fouchon
Arnold
Vosloo as Van Cleaf
Wilford
Brimley as Douvee
Chuck
Pfarrer as Doug Binder
Eliott
Keener as Randal Poe
Location:
New Orleans, Orleans parish, Louisiana
Universal
Pictures together with Renaissance Pictures
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Synopsis:
Don't
hunt what you can't kill...
In New
Orleans, Emil Fouchon (Henrikson) offers the idle rich something to do
with their time and money -- hunting the homeless for sport.
After
Fouchon's crew kills a Vietnam vet named Doug Binder, his daughter Natasha
(Yancy) drives to Louisiana to come looking for him. Unable to get any
help from the striking police, she enlists the aid of Chance Boudreaux
(Van Damme).
As
the two begin asking questions, they stumble upon this horrifying trade
in humanity. Eventually, the hunters become the hunted as Chance draws
closer to Fouchon.
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Interesting
trivia:
-
Hard Target
took in $32.5 million at the US box office.
-
Originally,
Kurt Russell (who appeared in John Carpenter's homage to Hong Kong films,
Big Trouble in Little China) was considered for the lead.
-
During
the final action sequence, Lance Henriksen was actually set on fire when
a stunt failed.
-
The "ear-cutting"
scene was done as a friendly nod to Quentin Tarantino, who had a similar
scene in Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino himself had given a nod to Woo in the
same film by dressing the gangsters in suits similar to those worn in A
Better Tomorrow 2.
-
Executive
producer Sam Raimi's (Army of Darkness, Hercules) brother, Ted has a cameo
in the film ("Hey, I don't have any change, man!"). Xena fans will probably
recognize Ted, since he has a recurring role on that show.
-
The studio
didn't trust Woo, so Raimi was set to become director if Woo didn't produce
"adequate" work. Raimi was skeptical to step into Woo's shoes and said:
"Woo at seventy percent is still going to blow away most American action
directors working at one hundred percent!" [from Hong Kong Action Cinema,
© 1995 Overlook Press].
-
John Woo
had about half as much time to shoot Hard Target (about 65 days) as he
did with his previous film, Hard Boiled.
-
After
numerous cuts of the movie failed to get a "R" rating, even Van Damme was
given a shot in editing the film. Even during filming, Woo encountered
heat from the studio. Chow Yun-Fat visited the set and recalls "[The studio
heads] tell him that, if he shoots five people in this scene, then he can
only shoot two people in the next scene. He cannot kill seven people in
one scene and then another seven people right afterwards!" [Hong Kong Action
Cinema]. Woo says this about the editing process in City on Fire [©
1999 Verso Books]: "I wasn't used to the Hollywood system when I started
shooting Hard Target. Never before in my career had an actor [Van Damme]
had final approval over the editing, the script, the casting. [Van Damme]
hired his own editor and did his own cut which the producers completely
rejected."
-
In an
interview with Arnold Vosloo, he noted that while everybody on the set
treated Woo with respect, Van Damme felt he should be the center of attention
and thus clashed with Woo often during the course of filming. However,
Van Damme still maintains he had a good relationship with Woo, as demonstrated
with this quote from Hong Kong Action Cinema: "My English was not so good
and [Woo's] English was not so good, but we had a few drinks and after
a while we seemed to be communicating on a level above language, almost
like telepathy!" -- but in the same book, he shows what may have led to
the bad blood on the set with this quote: "It's great to be able to have
all this gunplay in the film, but it's also great for John Woo because
he can use everything I can do, all the kicks, the jumps, the flips…".
-
The European
version of HT runs about three minutes more, and the "director's cut" (actually
a bad quality work print) has about 20 minutes more of footage (including
a love scene).
-
The basic
plot of the film (rich people hunting men for sport) comes from a 1932
film The Most Dangerous Game.
-
Hard Target
was the first movie to stage action sequences inside the French Quarter
area of New Orleans.
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Screenwriter
Chuck Pfarrer (a former Navy Seal) help train some of the actors on the
proper methods for stalking people. Many of the inventive reloading techniques
Van Damme uses during the finale are actually used by Seals. Woo worked
closely with Pfarrer because the studio's limitations on violence meant
Woo had to emphasize martial arts instead of gun fighting for most of the
movie. Pfarrer, who had worked on several movies before, was so satisfied
after working with Woo that he said "I wouldn't like to be an American
director with a buddy cop action movie coming out…there's a new sheriff
in town and his name is John Woo!" [Hong Kong Action Cinema]
-
Since
Woo wanted to use so much real explosive powder during the finale, the
crew had to build special shields around the cameras. They dubbed the new
cameras the "Woo Woo choo-choo."
-
The finale
uses some 357 shots -- none of which were story boarded beforehand. The
bit with Chance and Van Cleaf shooting at each other through windows was
repeated from Hard Boiled because Woo felt that he didn't get it "right"
in that movie.
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After
The Killer and Hard Boiled, Woo received many offers to work in America.
He refused them all (including an offer from Tristar to do an English version
of The Killer) until Hard Target because "…some of them were good, but
the rest [were] only martial arts movies…I have no more interest in kung
fu films" [Hong Kong Action Cinema]. Woo's longtime business partner and
agent Terence Chang offers more insight in City on Fire: "My idea of coming
to Hollywood started in mid-1990 when I received phone calls from people
expressing their desire to work with John Woo. At that time, we were very
successful in Hong Kong. But John needed to grow as an artist. He needed
to expand his scope…he needed more technical support. It was also his dream
to make American films. I was just trying to help him fulfill his dream.
The stumbling block was his ability to speak English. I hired an American
tutor for John. For two hours per day and six days per week, John worked
with him for six months. I am happy we did it. We left Hong Kong when its
movie industry was at its height…and we ventured into something that is
totally unknown. John moved his whole family to Los Angeles. For him, there
was no turning back."
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An relatively
interesting article on the Director's Cut version of Hard Target can be
found here: Chopping Block
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