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recon * a film by breck eisner peter gabriel |
In 1994, the Real World magazine The Box reported Peter Gabriel had starred in a short film titled Recon. Since then the film has only been shown at a handful of festivals. The short film festival is usually reserved for "art" films and the thought of a film such as Recon sharing the bill with the regular art film collection-of-irrelevant-images-with-alarming-music seems slightly absurd. The reason for this is that, from its opening sequence, Recon gives you every impression that you are watching the latest thriller/action flick from your average run of the mill blockbuster studio. A darkly ominous cityscape smacks of Tim Burton-esque light horror or perhaps The Crow.
It features the Hollywood-comfortable Charles Durning as the hard-bitten and wonderfully stereotypical police chief (Durning is one of those actors who seem to show up in everything. This odd band of actors appear in supporting role after supporting role often in both film and television and are characterised by audience facial recognition without any knowledge of their name. For example no one ever says, "Look, that's Charles Durning!" It's always, "Hey it's that guy!" Often followed by, "Wow, he's in everything!"). Elizabeth PeÒa plays Santiago: the stereotypical rookie-cop-with-a-degree-in-psychology. so far so good? Well, no not really...
Enter the hero of the film: Peter Gabriel as John Grant!
Grant is a cop who electronically connects with the memories of recent murder victims to obtain a positive identification of the killer. As we enter the film, Santiago is concerned that Grant is suffering the ill effects of being acquainted with too many dead brains. The chief doesn't think so, actually it's quite possible the chief doesn't think at all. We follow Grant's journey chasing the stereotypical man-in-the-hat-murderer (not to be confused with the cat-in-the-hat-murderer), waiting to identify him through the victim's memory. When finally (after much chasing around an underground railway) a positive identification is made, the murderer is Grant himself! When Grant then offers to give himself up, he's written off by the chief as tired, and the old, "Go home" line is wheeled out from its familiar cupboard.
Technologically, Recon is almost a grab-bag of then state of the art computer generated images and special effects. Particularly standout is the visual collage scene when Grant enters the mind of the dying woman. But special effects do not a film make (despite what the makers of Twister or Independence Day might tell you), and despite the inventive concept behind it, Recon never quite manages to transcend the lazy, overly stereotypical framing.
It could be argued that Recon's reliance on way too many old standards is merely a genre foundation on which to build the film's more imaginitive ambitions. We all know cop dramas and we are comfortable with the world these characters move in, in a general sense. Therefore in keeping with the film's economy, it is enough to merely present pre-defined labelled characters. after all exactly how deeply can you delve into a character's psyche in just eleven minutes? In its execution, however that argument doesn't quite cut it and the film's poor characterisation is the primary criticism.
Mind you, poor script and lots of technology is hardly a losing formula at the box office as long as you have enough hype. Eisner and Cantor have moved on to several other projects since 1994 and it is hardly surprising that they are steadily making a name for themselves in Hollywood. Of course it can't hurt that Breck Eisner happens to be the son of multimillionaire CEO of the Disney corporation, Michael Eisner. But scratching beneath the obvious accusation of nepotism, it seems that the boy Eisner actually does have talent: an attribute that's always handy if not essential to longevity in Tinseltown.
There is enough going for Recon to leave an audience wanting more. Like all good short films (short stories, short songs), the movie is left slightly suspended at the end with a possible redemption of Grant's sanity going unresolved. Gabriel is extremely well suited to the role giving a slightly new dimension to "the hardened and exhausted cop". Perhaps he's the thinking man's hardened and exhausted cop. After such a long wait it is a tremendous relief to know that the role of John Grant doesn't stretch Peter's acting capabilies. If he was to show any deep emotion in front of the camera, it could quite possibly have been a cringe-fest, so perhaps its just as well the characterisation is bad, otherwise Peter may never have decided to take part and this review would not exist.
email: mercutio_bne@yahoo.com
all writing mercutio @ plausible publications