Editorial Staff
Ricochet
Came Out : 1991
Directed by : Russell Mulcahy
Starred : Denzel Washington, John Lithgow, Ice T
”Ricochet” is not a great film, but it is well-bred. It has the courtesy to tell you quite early on, “Don’t take me too seriously.”
Nick Styles (Denzel Washington) is an L.A. cop. He’s confident, charming, the kind of man who knows just what to say, then says it. He’s also a law student at U.C.L.A. As fate would have it, he crosses paths with a criminal at a similar stage in his career, the cold-blooded Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow). They both have the tools to succeed, just not at the same time. Nick gets the first crack. During a routine patrol (they always are) at a carnival, he and partner Larry Doyle (Kevin Pollack) interrupt Blake’s getaway from an important score. As important is that Styles is able to spoil Blake’s plans in dramatic fashion and in view of a shoulder-mounted video camera. The media does its thing and Styles is branded a hero, and promoted to detective. While his sign continues to rise, from star cop to assistant district attorney, to family man and community leader, Blake and his grudge fester in prison.
There seems little doubt when watching what the original germ could have been: a dramatic event sends its participants down two very different roads. We’ve read it before and know it well from the screen: ”The Count of Monte Cristo”, ”Gladiator”, the Marlon Brando directed ”One Eyed Jacks”, and to more ironic effect in Tim Burton’s ”Batman” (villain making the hero, then hero remaking the villain). In Ricochet we’re meant to believe that Styles’ success is a product of his run-in with Blake and helped along by the media. The implication is that a good man has been shaped by foul means and so he can’t truly appreciate, or even deserve, his success. But all signs showed that Styles was capable of getting there anyway. A different twist would have been to taint Styles from the very beginning, with a dirtier past, to give him no chance of rising above the level of beat cop, then watch him truly remade as a new man.
Director Russell Mulcahy gives ”Ricochet” his usual burst of visual energy and color. There are parallels between it and his Highlander that are more interesting than meaningful: the height, wit and sadistic breeding of villains Blake and Kurgan (Clancy Brown), the meeting of “warriors” after years apart. Highlander’s imagery too trickles in at times. The bafflingly guardless sword duel between Blake and his cellmate is thrilling enough as the camera sweeps across the floor, but like other scenes (the prison escape, Styles stripping down to prove he’s unarmed), it’s more about thrills for the moment than thrills that make sense. In perhaps the most ridiculous, Blake poses as a Mr. Rogers-esque utility worker to gain admittance to Styles’ home, all part of an elaborate plan to dismantle his life. Moments later he’s sharing a creepy candle-lit birthday-in-the-dark with Styles’ two daughters and the world’s most gullible babysitter. Would Hannibal Lecter do his “hustling rube” speech for an audience of 5-year-olds? Maybe. Would the parents giggle? Probably not. Granted, these scenes do define the characters and just how far they’ll go to to win, but they also dumb the film down to an inhuman experience. ”Ricochet” is hyperbole wrapped in a comic book. But again, the film is well-bred.
If there’s a merit to be found, it’s Lithgow, an actor otherwise known for his gentle giant roles in ”Harry and the Hendersons” and ”Terms of Endearment”. There is some guilty pleasure in watching him play Blake, the non-negotiable villain with the film’s best and biting lines; lines that can’t be repeated here. As a colorful monster, he’s perfect, albeit in one dimension.
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