The Way of the Gun (2000)

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Ryan Phillippe, Juliette Lewis, Taye Diggs, James Caan

More Info: IMDB

Plot Outline: Two criminal drifters without sympathy get more than they bargained for after kidnapping and holding for ransom the surrogate mother of a powerful and shady man.

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My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? I suppose

So now I’ve seen it twice and I STILL can’t remember much about it except I liked it. McQuarrie is best known for writing THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995). Great flick. Here’s his directorial debut and it’s a good one. Not as great as SUSPECTS but good. It’s full of fun characters with sharp post-PULP FICTION dialogue that provides a lot of laughs.

There’s a great scene between Joe (Caan) and Abner (Lewis) where they’re sitting in a car after Abner’s been shot and is dying. It’s very poignant. We know Abner’s breathing his last few breaths when we’re treated to this exchange:


Abner Mercer: She's... she's up there with them... with the doctor and the colored fella. Oh, Jesus. I'm sorry, Joe.

Joe Sarno: There's no, uh... need to be sorry, Abner.

Abner Mercer: I'm dyin'.

Joe Sarno: We'll get somebody right away.

Abner Mercer: No. It's not... not like I'm scared or anything.

Joe Sarno: Listen, Abner...

Abner Mercer: I'm dyin', Joe.
[Nods off for 20 seconds, appears to be dead]

Abner Mercer: Remember that time, the time... that we... aw, jeez.

Joe Sarno: What time?

Abner Mercer: I'm dyin', Joe.

Joe Sarno: I'm sorry, Abner.
[sighs]

Abner Mercer: Joe?

Joe Sarno: Yeah, Abner. I'm right here.

Abner Mercer: If it's not too much trouble, I'd kind of like to be alone.
[Extends hand]

Joe Sarno: [shakes hand] . To 'let live.'
[exits car]

Abner Mercer: [chuckles softly]

HYSTERICAL!!! What a great moment between two great actors.

Now I dig Del Toro and some of the other actors but James Caan and Geoffrey Lewis are the two to watch here. Caan can kick any of these Bozos’ asses any day. Maybe not next Thursday but any other day. Del Toro is great with his line delivery and facial expressions telling you much more than is spoken. Which brings me to something else. This movie is LOADED with great one-liners and repeatable dialogue like…

A woman needs security like a man needs approval.

There’s always free cheese in a mousetrap.

Fifteen million dollars is not money. It’s a motive with a universal adaptor on it.

I promise you a day of reckoning that you won’t live long enough to never forget.

You know what I’m gonna tell god when I see him? I’m gonna tell him I was framed.

We’re not talking about how long you’re gonna live, we’re talking about how slow you’re gonna die.

Great stuff.



Another scene that stands out is at the beginning of the film when our two anti-heroes are sitting on a car in front of a bar when the car’s owner and his girlfriend (wonderfully played by the HUBBA HUBBA Sarah Silverman) confront the two. Silverman mouths off with eighty variations on the word FUCK about how her boyfriend’s gonna kick their asses and so forth. They’ve got guns. The boyfriend doesn’t and backs down quickly while she’s spewing at the mouth. Unbelievably funny. It’s worth watching the movie just for that scene alone.

The film is very stylish and witty but it suffers from it’s two-hour run time at about the 2/3 mark. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it just seemed to drag a bit leading up to the final shootout. Maybe it’s the over abundance of plot twists. And it’s not that it’s complicated because if you pay attention you’ll stay with it. However, if you leave to take a whiz you’re likely to miss something crucial.


Boy is this movie violent! Lots and lots of blood from all sorts of people. It’s over-the-top violence for the most part. It’s Sam Peckinpah violence. And there’s no way these people would have survived these gun battle encounters in real life and walked away from them. James Caan, maybe, because he’s such a badass but that’s it.

It’s not often you come across a good violent action film that REQUIRES you to think. Say, that reminds me, I need to write up my thoughts on RAMBO.