In wave after wave of increasingly homogeneous action, revenge, and superhero films, "Holidays of Doom" (aka Beckett), a simple but not simple film, takes a different approach, playing with hitchcock's "wrong man" theme seventy or eighty years ago.
Ordinary people who appear at the wrong time and scene, do not have superb martial arts skills, nor full gun experience, just mortal flesh, scarred, but still grit their teeth to fight for their fate, this is definitely not the usual meaning of the "cool film", but it is this layer of almost tragic story core, giving this film a unique charm.
Hitchcock's golden age films particularly liked the concept of "the wrong man", from the first use of the concept in "The Catch" in 1934, to the escape of the male and female protagonists under police pursuit in "Thirty-Nine Steps" in 1935 (1958's "Escape from Prison" is difficult to say that there is no reference), until "North by Northwest" was hunted down by heaven and earth in 1959.
The wrong person, appearing at the wrong time and in the wrong place, so the scene of being chased by the villain or the police is actually very interesting, because unlike the "killer", "assassin", "agent" and other people with extraordinary skills, the wrong person usually tends to the ordinary and wronged attributes of the character itself, but in the face of the killing machine, it can only be enough to escape.
"Bad Luck Holiday" basically extends the setting of "the wrong person", so Washington's Beckett is by no means superb, his escape is often awkward and helpless, and even some of them are ridiculed by other action movies, such as the unsuccessful motorcycle of the road snatcher, or think that he can slide off the car handsomely, in fact, he can only rub it down, after all, without wearing a smooth dress, it is difficult to become the protagonist of action movies.
On top of the framework of "the wrong person", the film adds some kind of political thriller element, which is actually not very clever, after all, most directors have a relatively shallow control and understanding of this aspect, and sometimes they want to ridicule but only show their naivety, fortunately, this film is not too focused on this, and the audience probably only needs to know that all people do not want to make Beckett better.
Usually "the wrong people" such stories, the protagonist can eventually wash away the grievances, but also can often make a mistake to mess with the bad guys, although this film only looks at the plot, roughly the same, Beckett beat the STAFF of the US Embassy, shot the Greek villain, and jumped down to prevent the villain from escaping to save the child.
What is different is that the whole film is shrouded in a strong tragic atmosphere.
The death of Beckett's girlfriend April is naturally a haze that runs through the whole film, after a short period of sweetness, it is a sudden separation, reporting sad news to the old man, and before he can see his dead girlfriend, he has to start an inexplicable escape, it is difficult to be protected in the US Embassy and see his girlfriend for the last time, he did not expect to face the pursuit and killing of government personnel.
However, outside of this context, I actually think what really makes this film show great fear is the protagonist's scarred body.
The escape of the first act, the arm was shot + car accident sequelae + sleeping pills effect, I thought that the three-layer debuff was already the most desperate state of the protagonist, I did not expect that the back was like a roller coaster, the fingers were twisted by the police, the body was scratched by the knife in many places, the fatigue of the long-distance running, the waist was shot again, and finally jumped several floors...
It is such a scarred body, and it is necessary to face the seemingly ubiquitous pursuit of soldiers, who come from different factions of political views, from the vicious mafia, and from the US government that wants to stir up the pool of waters.
Beckett's confrontation with the whole world is undoubtedly absurd, but it is this sense of weakness and powerlessness that makes Becket's escape seem so bloody and heavy and sad, there is a passage in the film where he walks among the citizens marching, the mob confronts the police, and Beckett is at a loss, not knowing where to go, and then he chooses to use the almost suicidal way to prevent the villain's absconding.
Maybe it is weak, maybe a person will not do much under the tide of the times, but if ordinary people choose to be a good person and choose to do righteous things, it is equally great.
However, when Beckett looks at the caution in his hands, don't forget that this lump of things is because you are tired driving.