Approximately thirty years after the release of legendary filmmaker John Woo’s Hollywood feature directorial debut, the 1993 Jean-Claude Van Damme-starring action thriller filmHard Target, and twenty years after the release of Woo’s last American film, the poorly-received science-fiction action filmPaycheck,Woo has directed another American film, titledSilent Night, which is especially notable since the film, as the title suggests, contains no spoken dialogue.
Silent Nightstars Joel Kinnaman as Godlock, a grieving father who is determined to kill everyone responsible for the death of Godlock’s son, who was killed in the crossfire of gang violence on Christmas Eve.
The wordless aspect ofSilent Nightemanates from the fact that Godlock, while in pursuit of his son’s murderers, is nearly killed in a shooting that also left Godlock without the ability to speak.
While Woo has always been an accomplished visual storyteller who specializes in generating drama and emotion through balletic action sequences, as Woo demonstrated in his big-budget Hollywood filmsBroken Arrow,Face/Off, andMission: Impossible 2, the wordlessSilent Nightnonetheless represented a serious creative test for Woo, who was intrigued by this challenge.
Action Speaks Volumes
AsSilent Nightmarks John Woo’s firstAmerican feature film in approximately twenty years, Woo, as a pioneer of action filmmaking, has nonetheless endured as one of the most respected filmmakers of the past thirty-five years, as indeed Woo’s classic Hong Kong action filmsA Better Tomorrow,HardBoiled, andThe Killerhave influenced many of today’s prominent Hollywood filmmakers, including James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino.
Moreover, the elaborately choreographed action sequences, melodramatic violence, and stylistic imagery that defined Woo’s filmmaking approach between 1986 and 1992 became so influential that by the time Woo arrived in Hollywood in the early 1990s, Woo found himself competing not only with other filmmakers but also himself.
Indeed, just as Woo’s creative disillusionment with Hollywood studio filmmaking compelled Woo to leave Hollywood in the mid-2000s, following the disappointing commercial and critical reaction to Woo’s previous two American films,PaycheckandWindtalkers, Woo was nonetheless inspired to direct the comparatively modestly budgetedSilent Nightprecisely because the wordless film forced Woo to rely on the fundamental skills with which Woo reinvented the action film genre in the 1980s. Of his motivation fordirectingSilent Night, Woo said:
“The whole movie is without dialogue. It allowed me to use visuals to tell the story, to tell how the character feels. We are using music instead of language, and the movie is all about sight and sound. The budget was a little tight, and the schedule was a little tight, but it made me change my working style. For a big movie, a studio movie, we shoot a lot of coverage then leave it to the cutting room. But in this movie, I tried to combine things without doing any coverage shots. I had to force myself to use a new kind of technique. Some scenes were about two or three pages, but I did it all in one shot.”
The Sound of Revenge
AsSilent Nightposed a great creative challengefor director John Woo in terms of establishing and sustaining compelling drama and narrative throughout the film without dialogue, the success of the film ultimately depends on the performance of the film’s star, Joel Kinnaman, who was faced with the difficult task of playing a voiceless action hero whose emotions and purpose are reflected entirely through Kinnaman’s gestures and reactions throughout the film.
In the film, Kinnaman’s character, Godlock, following the gang-related death of his son and a shooting that leaves Godlock wounded and voiceless, embarks on a grueling training program to prepare himself to be able to obtain vengeance against his son’s murderers.
For Kinnaman, who has specialized in playing cerebral characters and projecting wordless emotions, the role of Godlock and the overall film represented a fascinating cinematic experiment. Of the challenge of playing a voiceless action heroinSilent Night, Kinnaman said:
“It’s a very dynamic action movie with a lot of heavy drama, but the actual plot is pretty simple, and I think you really want that in a film where you don’t have any dialogue to explain to the viewers what’s happening. I think it’s going to be pretty easy to follow, and hopefully you’ll get all the emotion just through the eyes and through the action. I hope it’s going to be pretty damn epic. That’s what it felt like when we shot it.”
Less Is More
Prior toSilent Night, the last film that John Woo directed, the 2017 Chinese-Hong Kong action thrillerManhunt, had a reported budget of $50 million, as indeed each of the six Asian films that Woo has directed over the past fifteen years prior toSilent Night, has cost between $50 million and $80 million, which is a range that’s not far removed from Woo’s prior decade-long Hollywood directing career, fromHard TargettoPaycheck.
It’s not as if Woo, who is currently in production on an English language remake of Woo’s classic 1989 Hong Kong action thriller filmThe Killing, has spent the past twenty years directing low-budget films, as indeed Woo’s decision to directSilent Nightwas inspired not just by Woo’s obvious attraction to the film’s script but also by the chance for Woo to try to recapture the simplicity and style of Woo’s older films.
Moreover, whileSilent Nightmay or may not, depending on the commercial and critical reaction to the film, reignite Woo’s interest in directing more American films afterSilent Night, it’s unlikely thatSilent Night, or any other movie that the now seventy-seven-year-old Woo might direct in the future, will alter Woo’s legacy as one of the most exciting, influential, and innovative filmmakers in history.
