"Where Movie Critics Get A Taste Of Their Own Medicine"
Subscribe To Weekly Newsletter!

AN INTERVIEW WITH:
JOHN WOO
by Peter Sobczynski

December 31, 2003

Thanks to the fanatical cult that he developed through such films as "The Killer", "Hard-Boiled" and "Bullet in the Head", Hong Kong-born filmmaker John Woo has proven to be one of the biggest influences on contemporary action cinema. Hardly a week goes by without a new film that utilizes some of the trademarks visuals (such as the poetic use of slow-motion, the over-the-top bullet-and-body count and the iconic image of two people pointing guns against each others head) that made Woo’s films seems like such a breath of fresh air when they first came out.

About the only action filmmakers working today who isn’t trying to do the John Woo thing is, paradoxically, Woo himself. Perhaps wary of trying to fuse his operatic style into the framework of a typical studio product, he has been moving away from the gangster epics that made him famous with such works as "M:I-2" and the W.W.II saga "Windtalkers". In "Paycheck", based on a short story by sci-fi icon Philip K. Dick, he moves out of the world of Sam Peckinpah and more into the world of Alfred Hitchcock. Here, the focus is on an everyday guy (Ben Affleck), an engineer who performs certain deeds for big corporations and erases the memories of his work in exchange for a big payoff. After his latest job, he discovers that he is on the run from both his employers (who want him dead) and the government (who are convinced that the project he worked on will have grave consequences). While the film may not be top-flight Woo (mostly due to the increasingly ludicrous plotting), it does give him a chance to demonstrate that he can do more than stage gory ballets of blood and there is one shot (the intro to the character played by Uma Thurman) that is among the most ravishing he has ever put on film.

Recently, Woo sat down to talk about "Paycheck", his feelings towards the sci-fi genre and some very intriguing-sounding future projects.

Although you work is usually compared to filmmakers like Sam Peckinpah because of the action content, I have noticed that some of your recent films have paid more allegiance to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. "M:I-2", for example, used the basic plot of "Notorious" as a departure point and the similarities in "Paycheck" are even more pronounced. Not only does the basic plot conform to the typical Hitchcockian notion of a man trying to solve a crime that he has been mistakenly accused of but certain shots seemed to be designed as homages to specific films. There is some business with a pair of lovebirds out of "The Birds" and the moment in which Ben Affleck is chased by a subway train echoes the crop-duster bit in "North by Northwest". Can you talk about the influence that Hitchcock has had on your filmmaking style-both in general and specifically in the case of "Paycheck"?

That is what I intended to do. When I read the script, I found that it had a lot of good suspense and big surprises. When I saw that, I felt that it seemed a lot like a Alfred Hitchcock movie. I am a great admirer of his movies and I have loved all of his work. Originally, it was a futuristic sci-fi story and my suggestion was to cut out 80% of the sci-fi things and then put the focus on the drama and suspense so that it would be more interesting.

There are a few scenes that are homages to Hitchcock. Ben being chased by the train came from "North by Northwest". There was another moment when Ben and Paul Giamatti are talking in Union Station while they are being surrounded by killers and a little kid pulls a toy gun on one of the killers and goes "Bang Bang" and the guy pulls out a bigger gun and shoots the balloon, which came from "Strangers on a Train". There are other moments that came from "Psycho" and "Rear Window" and "The 39 Steps".

The other sci-fi film you did, "Face/Off", also took place in a not-too-distant future that basically looks like the real world with only a few minor alterations. Is it harder to create a recognizable future like that than to just go all out and create a completely new world a la "Blade Runner"?

It wasn’t that hard at all. I realize that I am not a good sci-fi director yet-I don’t have that kind of vision. I love to watch them-I love films like "Blade Runner", "2001" and "Total Recall". I like human drama and even with something like "Paycheck", it was more of a human drama to me. I am not that interested in the sci-fi things. I just put a few things like that in and then put my focus on the drama. I think that is what I am good at.

The other thing is that I was so interested in the gimmick in the film-the fact that the character was using these little items to save his life. It was a new idea and I focused on that. I wanted to make a good thriller but I also wanted to get some meaning in the story. This is all about survival and courage and when the guy finds out the truth about what he had done and tries to destroy it, it was a good concept-it dealt with man’s control of destiny and changing his own fate. It was a very encouraging idea for me because there are so many frustrations in the world right now-so many bad things happening, especially in Asia. I have heard that a lot of young people in Asia are so frustrated and hopeless that some of them even give up their own lives. I feel bad about that and I hope this film sends a good message to them. I want those people to know that there is always hope for the future and if you see something bad happen, you can change it.

Was it hard trying to fuse your sensibilities together with those of Philip K. Dick? One of the underlying themes in your films is that basic human emotions-specifically friendship and loyalty-remain important even under the most trying circumstances while Dick’s world view tends to be a somewhat darker view where human emotions and experiences can be replicated so efficiently that there is no need for people to actually have them themselves anymore.

When I first read the script, I wasn’t thinking of it as something by Philip K. Dick. Of course, I am a great admirer of his work but when I read the script, I was looking for some good meaning for the story. After reading the script and finding that meaning, I went back and read the book. Before the film, I hadn’t read it. I had seen several of the movies made from his work-"Blade Runner" and "Total Recall"-and they are great movies. After I read it, I found that Dick’s books not only have very interesting ideas but there are a lot of human things. They are about survival but they also have a lot of philosophy and that was what I focused on. I knew his books had a lot of futuristic things but that didn’t interest me. What interested me was his human side.

I was curious about the casting of Uma Thurman in the film. I love her but in "Paycheck", she basically plays the girlfriend role and this is something that she has never really done before in a film-all of her other work generally has her front-and-center. What was the thought behind putting her in the role?

First of all, besides the suspense, the film is a very romantic love story. I always wanted to do a strong female character, which I have never done before. That is why I was thinking of Uma Thurman; I always liked her performances in "Pulp Fiction" and her other films-I haven’t seen "Kill Bill" yet but I hear she is wonderful in it. In the script, when Ben Affleck falls in love with the girl, she has these incredible blue eyes. When he loses his memory, all he can remember of her are her blue eyes and Uma has beautiful blue eyes.

Besides that, she is a very good actress-beautiful, quite strong and independent. I cast her not because she could do the action but because she is a real actor to me. Also, Uma has a lot of great energy and life. That was what I wanted from her and I am sure that she makes the love story more convincing. Also, she has a great heart. I truly believe that good actors have a good heart. She is extremely hard-working and would always concentrate. She didn’t care about the camera. Sometimes, I try to make my actors look good and beautiful and she didn’t care about any of that-she just wanted to have a good moment for her emotions. Sometimes I would try to fix her hair and she would push my hand away. She wanted to look natural while other actresses would want to look beautiful.

There is one dumb fanboy question that seems to have emerged with each of your American films and that revolves around the levels of violent content in their theatrical cuts. It is known that the original cut of "Hard Target" had more violence and "Windtalkers" was released on DVD in a longer cut. There was even talk that "M:I-2" was originally more violent than the release version. Since "Paycheck" contains only PG-13 levels of violence, does that mean that you designed the film that way or were you obliged to cut back in the editing room?

"Paycheck" was intended to be a PG-13 movie. From the original script, it wasn’t about violence. I did intentionally try to make the action sequences more realistic. I just wanted to make a happy movie and that audiences would feel happy about the film and happy about the future. I toned down the violence for myself. Also, I wanted the movie to have a happy ending-most of my movies have a tragic ending. The cut you see is the original cut.

Does it bother you that even though you have been branching away from the operatic violence of films like "The Killer" and "A Better Tomorrow" in the last few years, you are still best known to most people solely from your legendary action scenes?

No, it doesn’t bother me. I know that people have a lot of concern and support for me and I appreciate that. I am still the same-I do movies based on my instinct and feelings. When I am making a film, I want to know what I can get out of making it and what kind of message I can send through it. All of those action scenes are all based on a story. One of my future projects is going to be an action-musical that I have been trying to do for years. It isn’t really a musical-it is a gangster film about a guy who is a tough guy and a good dancer. It is sort of like a combination of "The Killer" and "Cabaret". That kind of movie will have a lot of action-at times, the action scenes will look like dancing and the dancing will look like action scenes.

I want to do the railroad story about the early Chinese and Irish immigrants building the railroad in America in the 19th century. This is a pure human drama epic with no action. I may also do a script called "The Rainbow Six", which is a "Dirty Dozen" kind of movie. I am going to make a TV pilot called "Lost in Space" about a dysfunctional family that are traveling in space and learn to come together and pull together and it will have a different kind of action. It all depends on the kind of story. I would love to do something for my fans and as long as there is a good story, I would be happy to do that.

-- PETER SOBCZYNSKI

Copyright © 2003 Peter Sobczynski
All rights reserved.
Used with permission
Peter's Film Review Archives