Directed by:
Michael BayCinematography:
John SchwartzmanCast:
Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, John Spencer, David Morse, William Forsythe, Michael Biehn, Vanessa Marcil, John C. McGinley, Gregory Sporleder (more)Plots(1)
A highly decorated, retired U.S. Marine general (Ed Harris) seizes a stockpile of chemical weapons and takes over Alcatraz, with 81 tourists as hostages on the San Francisco Bay isle. His demand: Restitution to families of soldiers who died in covert operations. The response: An elite Navy SEAL team, with support from an FBI chemical-warfare expert (Nicolas Cage) and a former Alcatraz escapee (Sean Connery), is assembled to penetrate the terrorists' defenses on the island and neutralize the threat before time runs out. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (9)
A nostalgic hit that, even after all these years, is a textbook example of a confidently and effectively directed action story. It has insight, great actors and an amazing pace, which in some moments is taken by the brilliantly combined and outrageous Zimmer soundtrack to the experiential gates of the most luxurious genre pieces. BUT at the same time, everything is so very half-assed, absurd and somehow machine-like – from the characters themselves, each of whom defines exactly a certain popular archetype, to the very stupid dialogue to some of Bay's traditional formal gimmicks (fire after almost every impact) – that The Rock is really nothing more than a cleverly manipulative and audiovisually handsome B-movie for any audience on any intellectual level. What's more, some of the action scenes, however impressive and cool, are awkwardly edited and slowed down, which takes away from their realism and gives them a cold character. But hand on heart, you simply won't find a more thoroughbred and entertaining 90s action flick anywhere else... 80%
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One of my all-time favorite films. An absolute action hit for the time and quite possibly one of the best action films ever made. I was 10 the first time I saw it, and I told everyone at school about it until they had to see it too. :) Even with the distance of time, I'd gladly watch The Rock again anytime. The filmmaking is absolutely excellent, plus Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage have long been my favorites...
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Today, Bay is considered one of the most twisted megalomaniacs of the dream factory, and I must admit that his exaggerated grandiosity still genuinely entertains me. Among his best films, this high-octane, adrenaline-fueled ride will forever remain the one that perfectly defines the action films of the 1990s. The technical aspects may have their flaws, but it has a clever screenplay that makes fun of the 'Bond myth' and cleverly puts together all those clichés with incredible elegance and simplicity. That means that there's no point in getting upset about it. However, the main strength lies in the cast and Bay's directorial engine, which runs at impressive speeds. The opening ambush scene is rhythmically (the cinematography, editing, music) probably the best I've ever seen in the genre. And Hans Zimmer has never made more heroic music. I've never seen any other movie more times in my life. It’s been around 60 times.
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The Rock is a widely revered action movie. In visual terms, it is an example of great genre craftsmanship. It’s dynamically edited, filmed through cool filters, contains one of the best car chases ever (Hummer vs. yellow Ferrari on the streets of San Francisco), and it has likable and well-cast good-guy characters. But... it doesn't have a proper bad guy (!!!) and everything in it is so artificially timed and polished that I was never in suspense, I didn’t fear for the protagonists and I thus didn’t care what would happen next. Formalistically overwrought and formulaic banality.
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“Personally, I think you're a fucking idiot.” When I was ten, I thought The Rock was the best action movie ever made. With the passage of many years, I still wouldn’t change my opinion. There are different reasons for why I admire Bay’s (and Bruckheimer’s and Simpson’s) masterpiece. He created a world in which everything is subordinated to the maximum action experience. The characters’ decisions don’t have to make much sense (and they don’t) – the main thing is that their actions look good (of course there is the characteristic circling around the actor from above) and generate more action situations. Despite its ambitious runtime and relatively long but later fully utilised exposition (we don’t get to Alcatraz until after an hour), The Rock is gripping from start to finish thanks to the actions happening in parallel, the deadline set immediately at the beginning and the continuous reminders of it, and the relentlessly driving soundtrack that transforms the film into a ready-made Zimmerfest. We don’t have a chance to catch our breath, thanks especially to the film’s brilliant rhythmisation. At first every ten minutes and then at even shorter intervals toward the end, a new obstacle/character brings about a key decision or the situation becomes more serious every. The diverse range of action scenes (car chases, shootouts, hand-to-hand combat) reveal new information and push the narrative forward. In addition to the horizontal forward movement, there is a vertical deepening of the bond between Goodspeed and Mason (the dynamics of their relationship become one of the drivers of the narrative in the second half) and of our knowledge of the characters and their motivations (Ed Harris definitely does not play a one-dimensional supervillain; on the contrary, the film’s first shots suggest that he could be the hero). The film, which thematises paternal responsibility in the second plan and offers a distinctive way of coming to terms with the trauma of Vietnam, continuously changes and develops, never ceasing to keep us in suspense and to surprise us, and never letting up for even a moment. Connery throw out one-liners like crazy, expensive cars are gleefully demolished and the bad guys are dispatched in inventive ways. The humour and ingenuity of the polished screenplay (in which Aaron Sorkin, among many others, had a hand) don’t turn The Rock into either light entertainment or an overly clever, self-reflexive deconstruction of the genre. Both of these aspects mainly help to humanise and better flesh out the main duo (in contrast to the deadly seriousness of the soldiers and the people running the FBI). Behind all of the spectacular explosions, daring heroic deeds and insane plans to exterminate humanity, we perceive throughout the film a believable human element, thanks to which we never lose interest in what’s happening and what comes next. In short, The Rock is a perfectly balanced mix of Bond, western and buddy movie. 95%
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