Basic (2003) Movie Information:

Basic (2003) Directed by: John McTiernan Basic (2003) Written by: James Vanderbilt Basic (2003) Cast: John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Brian Van Holt, Giovanni Ribisi, Cristian De La Fuente, Taye Diggs, Roselyn Sanchez, Harry Connick, Dash Mihok

Basic (2003) U.S. Distributor: Columbia Pictures Basic (2003) U.K. Distributor: Sony Pictures

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Basic (2003) Synopsis:

Tom Hardy, an ex-Army Ranger turned DEA agent, is drawn into an ever-widening mystery surrounding the disappearance of the feared and often hated Sgt. Nathan West, as well as several of his elite Special Forces trainees on what appears, at first, to have been a routine training exercise during a hurricane in the jungles of Panama. Only two survivors are found, Dunbar, and a badly wounded Kendall, the son of a high-profile Joint Chiefs of Staff official. Neither is willing to cooperate with Capt. Julia Osborne's investigation. So base commander Col. Bill Styles calls in ex-Ranger Hardy, an old friend and a persuasive interrogator. Osborne disapproves of Hardy who is on leave from the D.E.A. after having come under suspicion of accepting bribes from local drug traffickers. She is also uneasy when she learns that Hardy once trained under West and hates him almost as passionately as his current recruits. With time running out, Hardy and Osborne call a temporary, if uneasy, truce. Hardy cajoles a confession out of Dunbar, who claims that Sgt. West and the missing Rangers have been murdered and their bodies blown away by the hurricane. When they later interview Kendall, he confirms that the other Rangers and West are dead. But, in almost every other way, his story contradicts Dunbar's. What happened to West and his Ranger team? And what were they really doing out there in the jungle? As each layer reveals more lies and greater deceptions, Hardy and Osborne inch towards the horrible truth about the fate of the missing Rangers.

Basic (2003) Movie Review:

Basic is a militaristic thriller that reveals its clues quickly like an unraveling ball of yarn. After all the twists and secrets are revealed, the outcome still manages to have a few knots in it.

The film opens in the rainy atmosphere of Panama with a jungle training exercise of Army rangers going unexpectedly wrong. The end result is four out of the six trainees are dead along with their ruthless trainer, Sgt. Nathan West (Jackson). Ex-ranger and interrogator Tom Hardy (Travolta) is brought in to assist Army investigator Lt. Osborne (Nielsen) with the questioning of the two survivors at a Panama Army base. Hardy is cocky and playful, but also knows how to get into a person’s mind. Osborne is a butt-kicking military woman that doesn’t like the idea of Hardy interfering with her investigation. The two survivors are the elusive Raymond Dunbar (Van Holt) and the bed-ridden
Levi Kendall (Ribisi). As Hardy and Osborne eventually begin working together, many different flashbacks, point of views, and narrations take over
the story in explaining what happened in the jungle with the trainee unit. The film pushes your mind to its limit and the final answers are what one would least expect.

Director John McTiernan does a fine job of keeping the audience guessing with the tensional elements in Basic. McTiernan’s past work has either been really good, like with Die Hard (1988), or really bad like with Rollerball (2002). He does a solid job of establishing the rainy tropical atmosphere of Panama his actors glow as the truth of the story keeps jumping back and forth. The problem with the film’s puzzle is that the clues and answers are never totally explained visually, a good deal is revealed through dialogue.

James Vanderbilt could be the blame for this; since his script turns so much that some of the story’s clarity and motive is underdeveloped. The jumping
back and forth through point of views gets out of hand and actually annoying at times. This is relevant in the beginning of the film, when Hardy first questions his old commander pal (Daly) if there are any outside occurrences involved with the incident. As the Tim Daly character reveals vital
information to Hardy, the focus goes back to Nielsen’s Osborne, with the information being put on the backburner until the last half hour of the film.
I sense that this is the first clue that the main protagonist is Osborne. It is hard to determine if the film is from her point of view, is she the main
character, is it Hardy, or is it both of them? So much of the attention and focus are put on the Tom Hardy character. The twists and turns of the film
are like a blend between a who-done-it mystery and Courage Under Fire (1996). A lot of Basic’s genre nature has been compared to The Usual Suspects (1995); there is no way that the two films can be put in the same category. The Usual Suspects is a stylish mind-boggler that explained all the secrets through its final act. Basic has an ending, but everything is by no means clear. Perhaps
I should watch Basic a few times, but I believe there will still be some holes in the script.

As Hardy, John Travolta gives one of his better performances since Pulp Fiction (1995) brought him back in the spotlight. It is a Travolta performance where he actually holds the screen instead of trying to be a force, like he attempted to do in Battlefield Earth (2000). Connie Nielsen has a better character to work than she did in the recently released The
Hunted (2003), but her southern accent is way off. Nevertheless, as Lt. Osborne, Nielsen still shows she has a presence as an upcoming lead actress.
It is also very amusing to see her smack a few of the male actors in the films. Samuel L. Jackson is right on with his egotistical training Sergeant
Nathan West. Jackson’s performance reflects the actor’s arrogant, but likeable charisma, which has made him a movie star. Other notable acting in
the film includes the work by Giovanni Ribisi, Taye Diggs and Brian Van Holt as some of the trainee soldiers. Each has their own moments, but are playing catch up with the two lead actors.

Basic is a keep-you-guessing thriller that has a workable blend of tension, action, and humor. Though the patterns of twisted mind games and narrations that nearly gives you a headache, the film is to an extent enjoyable even though some of the outcomes are loose and vague.

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Basic (2003) review written by: Joseph Tucker